Kirk Gillock
Rebel with a cause
Been working on a server rack for Isara's search engine servers and wanted to share the experience in case some of you wanted to give it a try.
How To: The frame itself is made from metal shelving framework you can buy at any home supply shop ($25). Just have them cut the metal to the standard measurements of a server rack (height = up to you, depth = up to you, width = 19" inside). The servers sit on particle board which was cut to fit ($5). I bolted some wheels to the bottom of the frame ($5) and used extra frame pieces to make the keyboard/mouse shelf. Black future board was used for the keyboard shelf bottom and electrical tape helped smooth the edges so nobody would get cut on the frames sharp edges ($1).
Total cost for the server rack was about $35 and it took 5-6 hours to make (should have taken less but I'm an idiot with DIY projects and the framework had to be cut twice because I measured wrong - d'oh!).
What's On The Rack (top to bottom):
- 8-port KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) Switch - $7 on ebay!!!
- 16-port D-Link network hub - $40
- $17 monitor - donated
- P4 Compaq server node (left) - donated
- Linux Debian Server (dual core 1.8Ghz, 3gb DDRII RAM, 750Gb SATA) - $350
- P4 Compaq server node (right) - donated
- Battery back-up (x2) - $60
If you'd like to connect to this server rack just visit the link below.
http://search.isara.org
Thanks for checking out my rack! Let me know if you have any questions.
-pk
How To: The frame itself is made from metal shelving framework you can buy at any home supply shop ($25). Just have them cut the metal to the standard measurements of a server rack (height = up to you, depth = up to you, width = 19" inside). The servers sit on particle board which was cut to fit ($5). I bolted some wheels to the bottom of the frame ($5) and used extra frame pieces to make the keyboard/mouse shelf. Black future board was used for the keyboard shelf bottom and electrical tape helped smooth the edges so nobody would get cut on the frames sharp edges ($1).
Total cost for the server rack was about $35 and it took 5-6 hours to make (should have taken less but I'm an idiot with DIY projects and the framework had to be cut twice because I measured wrong - d'oh!).
What's On The Rack (top to bottom):
- 8-port KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) Switch - $7 on ebay!!!
- 16-port D-Link network hub - $40
- $17 monitor - donated
- P4 Compaq server node (left) - donated
- Linux Debian Server (dual core 1.8Ghz, 3gb DDRII RAM, 750Gb SATA) - $350
- P4 Compaq server node (right) - donated
- Battery back-up (x2) - $60
If you'd like to connect to this server rack just visit the link below.
http://search.isara.org
Thanks for checking out my rack! Let me know if you have any questions.
-pk
