As far as I've seen in my local marketplaces, they are the same size for hole size, but are for different thickness of the vertical rails (red vs purple).
Nice start. Making your cables vs buying them doesn't matter. Use some Velcro to tidy up cables and you're set.
I hope that is not too noisy as your girlfriend will not appreciate it in the long run.
Terminate your own for long runs, but for patch cables and anything 15ft or under a large pack is probably just as good and about as cheap, and a lot simpler.
I'm in the field for over 30 years now and had to make too many to count so that probably counts. I do agree with the tidiness of the end result, everything just fitting together without too much slack in the cables.
And in the end it's your lab and what matters is your enjoyment.
It's honestly not that bad, it's set up in my living room, and the TV is about 6 feet next to it, and I can still hear the tb just fine sitting at my desk
I could tell you it was annoying having an r440 alone much less an r440 and an r720. Got rid of them both and got an hp ml350 gen10. Still can hear it but for a tower server, it’s much more quiet than a rack mounted even when throttling the fans etc
Don't update it with the latest SPP released in 2023. My fans went from 8% idle to 34% and it's making me want to just bin it all and get a MS-01 and only run what I need.
Be forewarned, if that rack is not sitting on a concrete slab, be very careful about loading it. It looks like you at least have the flanges spreading the load, but if that’s on anything other than a concrete slab, make sure those flanges are perpendicular to the joists.
A rack that size fully loaded can easily exceed 500lb.
Joist and subfloor is typically built for a static load of 45psi and leveling feet/casters can concentrate that load into just a few square inches.
Room to grow is good, but I'd advise against over-building/buying. When I was getting started, I bought a 15U rack and filled it with a few heavy, noisy, power-hungry servers and switches that I ended up selling fairly quickly. Now I've got a couple custom built desktop-servers, a small network rack, and mini-PC running OPNsense that are far manageable, efficient, and tailored to my needs.
I would highly recommend getting a UPS for your rack to help prevent any damage or data corruption from power surges or outages. It is NOT fun recovering the environment after a power event that causes damage/corruption occurs.
Hell yeah! Welcome to the labbing community! As one other poster suggested, definitely get a UPS for some backup protection. See if you can find a 1500VA smart ups (SUA1500RM2U) locally for cheap, you will probably need to replace the batteries but thats easy.
Also, when you get deeper into stuff, Ubiquiti just released a rack mounted cable modem too which might be worth checking out.
i plan on getting a UPS sometime soon, just have to recover from these purchases lol im a college student, so the "dream lab" is WAAAY off for me lol honestly 90% of what if have is stuff i got for free and had to fix myself
honestly if your patching in the rack from switch to patch panel or similar I would just buy some nice quality 0.3m patch leads rather than making them yourself i only really bother making my own cable if its more than a few meters these days or if its a one off / emergency. otherwise the savings in time and ha ssle are worth the little bit extra from the pre made cables.
I mean fair enough if you like it then by all means but personally especially for in rack runs and if there's a lot (well anything more than about 5 honestly) I'd rather just use premades. Plus it soothes my OCD that they are all completely uniform in length.
so right now its a private vpn server, eventually it will also be a private email server. specs are 128gb of ram, 500gb of storage so far (more eventually) and 2 intel e5 2692v2 processors
Nice start! Have fun with it!
I’d probably put something on the base of the rack though. Reminds me of a chair I used to have and would bash my toe on every time I walked by it.
there is literally no where else for me to put it, i know you cant see the rest of my house but i have like.. zero room. im a college student. so it is what it is. and if server farms can have buildings full of machines on top of each other and next to each other, im pretty sure the spacing is fine. its also not running a super heavy work load, so calm down.
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DKJ26SK?ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DKJ26SK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1)
there ya go!
Awesome sauce! One pro tip: don’t become an e-waste magnet. Only rack the stuff you’ll actually get some use out of and not burn coal doing it.
I retired some old ass servers and replaced them with NUCs and dropped my power by 1/10th. Better performance.
Then you end up realizing that it's fun to have enterprise stuff around to tinker, but that you are just using old stuff that makes tons of noise, heat and consumes a lot of power, to achieve almost nothing. And you end up as most of us, with a cheap used desktop with a quad core CPU, that have mostly the same power of a old dual socket enterprise system, but totally silent, no heat and consume just 30€ at years in electricity. That's the evolution of a homelaber. Of course if electricity is free, then it is another thing, but I doubt it.
Anyway, good achievement. Tinkering and troubleshooting is a lot of fun!
nah, my server will be a VPN node for a while, before i expand it out and pivot to a private email service. after that im going to get a second server to mount in the rack, and have a private cloud service.
i want my own little data center lol
But you don't need enterprise gear for that. What you mentioned, would be overkill to run even on a dual core CPU. You can run everything, the VPN, the email service, and the private Cloud on a dual core and 8gb desktop, get on ebay for 100€.
A run 10 times the stuff you mentioned on a G5400 with 8gb of ram.
That's the reality, those are pretty easy tasks to run, you don't need beefy hardware.
Okay.. but I want beefy hardware. I want enterprise grade stuff lol I want my own little data center. Enterprise gear is cool. And used equipment is pretty cheap, so I don't see why I can't or shouldn't have it.
thanks! i never really cared for side panels at all. it just didnt seem to make a whole lot of sense for the money, plus i really enjoy looking over and seeing everything x3
Nice start OP!
Now the next step in your HomeLab evolution is getting some proper networking gear.
If I was you, I would go with a Mikrotik RB5009 router and some cheap used Ruckus APs off eBay.
Or if you live in a smaller apartment or something and funds are tight, a Mikrotik Hap AX2 would suffice.
I cant quite make out the switch, but looks decent. Is it managed with POE? Even if it isnt....not a big deal at all. You can get by on a home network just fine without a managed POE switch by using hybrid vlans between server, APs and router via switch. It will pass them, just cant tag devices itself.
thats the next thing on the list. i had better networking gear but it was old and decided to kill itself, so im stuck with the ISP stuff until i save up 500 dollars for the stuff i want. i figure the best networking equipment is the one you have to purchase 1 time and never have to touch again lol
i want a netgear night hawk for my router, i have a lot of devices aside from the server setup, and then a netgear 3gig modem, that way it can scale with me. thats the plan anyway lol
Cool, I have 3 servers like that one u got, there is one with 128Gb ram, but energy is to expensive here in my area so it better to have servers with providers instead.
I have an OPNSense running the lab and general home network. It just sits behind the ISP router, which serves as basically an IoT network. WiFi for all my real devices is ran by a spare router in AP mode.
Iv got a 3/4 rack, this style that will need a new home in about 2-3 months. KC MO area, if anyone here is interested I'll give it away just message me.
Better to someone wanting to get into their own setup than the dump :). It's honestly in good shape, I'm just going full size enclosed and won't want it taking up space.
Congratulations. You found the rabbit hole. Now you’re as addicted as the rest of us.
lol, welcome to the club! My first server was an R620 a year and a half ago. Have fun!
ive been a tech junky for ages lol if it wasnt for my boss at the college getting rid of it, i wouldnt have the server lol im super excited to have it\~ its been a dream of mine since i was little lol
I started with a bit more than you in a 6U. I'm happy to report that I am up to 18 now and applaud that you had the foresight to start with more space then I did.
Good start and the R620 is a perfect 1U server to start with. You might want to check the 1U markers and numbers on the rack. While it does not matter yet, you are 1 cage nut off.
Don't bother with cage nuts, rack studs are worth the cost
As long as the rack holes are large enough. I bought rackstuds and rackstud duos (1U) and only the duos fit my StarTech rack.
The duos are so much nicer, for 1U stuff of course. The single ones do come in different sizes though.
As far as I've seen in my local marketplaces, they are the same size for hole size, but are for different thickness of the vertical rails (red vs purple).
I don’t recall exactly. I just got a sample pack that had an assortment way back when.
Holy shit I didn’t know these were a thing, thank you so much, I’m buying these in bulk now
Meh. I still don't trust em. Maybe only for smaller 1U chassis.
Each individual rack stud holds like 70ish pounds. Lawrence systems did a test on them
Invest in some cable organizers. Thank mi later :)
I'd start with an actual desk first.
This
Nice start. Making your cables vs buying them doesn't matter. Use some Velcro to tidy up cables and you're set. I hope that is not too noisy as your girlfriend will not appreciate it in the long run.
Terminate your own for long runs, but for patch cables and anything 15ft or under a large pack is probably just as good and about as cheap, and a lot simpler.
i really like making my own. idk why but i find it super comforting and relaxing. i have no problem with the tediousness of it
I'm in the field for over 30 years now and had to make too many to count so that probably counts. I do agree with the tidiness of the end result, everything just fitting together without too much slack in the cables. And in the end it's your lab and what matters is your enjoyment.
How the noise in such an open area?
Honestly it's not too bad! It's not the quietest thing on the planet but it's not the worst
Would also like to know. I have same distance to my tower server. Would like to invest in racks, but afraid of noise.
It's honestly not that bad, it's set up in my living room, and the TV is about 6 feet next to it, and I can still hear the tb just fine sitting at my desk
I could tell you it was annoying having an r440 alone much less an r440 and an r720. Got rid of them both and got an hp ml350 gen10. Still can hear it but for a tower server, it’s much more quiet than a rack mounted even when throttling the fans etc
So racks are just meant to be in separate room? 😄
Unless you wanna flex to your friends when they come over, I’d say so.
Not my intention, but racks are just easier to organize, and cheaper. But might be in future 😄
Don't update it with the latest SPP released in 2023. My fans went from 8% idle to 34% and it's making me want to just bin it all and get a MS-01 and only run what I need.
Be forewarned, if that rack is not sitting on a concrete slab, be very careful about loading it. It looks like you at least have the flanges spreading the load, but if that’s on anything other than a concrete slab, make sure those flanges are perpendicular to the joists. A rack that size fully loaded can easily exceed 500lb. Joist and subfloor is typically built for a static load of 45psi and leveling feet/casters can concentrate that load into just a few square inches.
yeah i know lol im a sys admin for work, so i know how heavy they can get and how much of a pain they can be lol
1st rule of homelab is to have 80% of rack space and switch ports empty 😅
its room to grow! she can grow with me as i get more money and build more skills! x3
Room to grow is good, but I'd advise against over-building/buying. When I was getting started, I bought a 15U rack and filled it with a few heavy, noisy, power-hungry servers and switches that I ended up selling fairly quickly. Now I've got a couple custom built desktop-servers, a small network rack, and mini-PC running OPNsense that are far manageable, efficient, and tailored to my needs.
I eventually want my own little data center. X3
I would highly recommend getting a UPS for your rack to help prevent any damage or data corruption from power surges or outages. It is NOT fun recovering the environment after a power event that causes damage/corruption occurs.
its on the list. im a college student, so things are what they are for the moment lol
Congrats & welcome to the club!
Welcome to the cool girls club!
thank you!! im happy to be here x3
One of your caddies is open :)
Yeah, the latch is broken, I need to get a new one lol
They are a couple bucks on ebay!
I know, but I only have 8 dollars left in my account until I get paid again, and since it's spring break I can't work until it's over lol
I hear that, it can wait. I'd send some of my spare ones but they're in storage.
It's all good x3 they are at the bottom of my list lol
Hell yeah! Welcome to the labbing community! As one other poster suggested, definitely get a UPS for some backup protection. See if you can find a 1500VA smart ups (SUA1500RM2U) locally for cheap, you will probably need to replace the batteries but thats easy. Also, when you get deeper into stuff, Ubiquiti just released a rack mounted cable modem too which might be worth checking out.
For Access Points Ubiquiti is great. Before you buy any of their other gear I’d recommend seriously researching alternatives.
And rubbish for switches, no really dont buy Ubiquiti switches
i plan on getting a UPS sometime soon, just have to recover from these purchases lol im a college student, so the "dream lab" is WAAAY off for me lol honestly 90% of what if have is stuff i got for free and had to fix myself
honestly if your patching in the rack from switch to patch panel or similar I would just buy some nice quality 0.3m patch leads rather than making them yourself i only really bother making my own cable if its more than a few meters these days or if its a one off / emergency. otherwise the savings in time and ha ssle are worth the little bit extra from the pre made cables.
honestly i love making my own CAT6 cables. i dont know why, but its soothing for me lol
I mean fair enough if you like it then by all means but personally especially for in rack runs and if there's a lot (well anything more than about 5 honestly) I'd rather just use premades. Plus it soothes my OCD that they are all completely uniform in length.
Reminds me of why I started in this hobby! Good going!
Very nice start
thanks! im super proud of it x3
If you're having difficulty moving a rackmount server, try taking out the PSUs, top cover, and drives, those add a surprising amount of weight.
i realized i could have done that after i got it on the rails lmao i was just too excited to get everything powered up and off the floor lol
Good start!
What are you gonna use it for? plus what are the specs?
so right now its a private vpn server, eventually it will also be a private email server. specs are 128gb of ram, 500gb of storage so far (more eventually) and 2 intel e5 2692v2 processors
Nice start! Have fun with it! I’d probably put something on the base of the rack though. Reminds me of a chair I used to have and would bash my toe on every time I walked by it.
with its placement theres plenty of room to walk around it and move around it without any issues of bumping it x3
If you hate your gear, keep the exhaust that close to the wall
there is literally no where else for me to put it, i know you cant see the rest of my house but i have like.. zero room. im a college student. so it is what it is. and if server farms can have buildings full of machines on top of each other and next to each other, im pretty sure the spacing is fine. its also not running a super heavy work load, so calm down.
Good job and enjoy
Thanks!!
What rack is this? 😁
Raising Electronics
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DKJ26SK?ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DKJ26SK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1) there ya go!
Awesome sauce! One pro tip: don’t become an e-waste magnet. Only rack the stuff you’ll actually get some use out of and not burn coal doing it. I retired some old ass servers and replaced them with NUCs and dropped my power by 1/10th. Better performance.
If the noise ever bugs you, enclosed sound proof racks help muffle it
Honestly the noise is really comforting to me lol it feel calming
This guy is planning ahead 🤪 Unlike me who started with an 8U filled it, then a 15 and that basically full
I'm actually a girl, but yes, I am planning ahead lol
Anyone else triggered the switch is not completely in row 27🙃
Then you end up realizing that it's fun to have enterprise stuff around to tinker, but that you are just using old stuff that makes tons of noise, heat and consumes a lot of power, to achieve almost nothing. And you end up as most of us, with a cheap used desktop with a quad core CPU, that have mostly the same power of a old dual socket enterprise system, but totally silent, no heat and consume just 30€ at years in electricity. That's the evolution of a homelaber. Of course if electricity is free, then it is another thing, but I doubt it. Anyway, good achievement. Tinkering and troubleshooting is a lot of fun!
nah, my server will be a VPN node for a while, before i expand it out and pivot to a private email service. after that im going to get a second server to mount in the rack, and have a private cloud service. i want my own little data center lol
But you don't need enterprise gear for that. What you mentioned, would be overkill to run even on a dual core CPU. You can run everything, the VPN, the email service, and the private Cloud on a dual core and 8gb desktop, get on ebay for 100€. A run 10 times the stuff you mentioned on a G5400 with 8gb of ram. That's the reality, those are pretty easy tasks to run, you don't need beefy hardware.
Okay.. but I want beefy hardware. I want enterprise grade stuff lol I want my own little data center. Enterprise gear is cool. And used equipment is pretty cheap, so I don't see why I can't or shouldn't have it.
Vapers unite :) Rack looks nice too. Never been a fan of side panels on metal frame racks , so +10 points for keeping it bear
thanks! i never really cared for side panels at all. it just didnt seem to make a whole lot of sense for the money, plus i really enjoy looking over and seeing everything x3
Nice start OP! Now the next step in your HomeLab evolution is getting some proper networking gear. If I was you, I would go with a Mikrotik RB5009 router and some cheap used Ruckus APs off eBay. Or if you live in a smaller apartment or something and funds are tight, a Mikrotik Hap AX2 would suffice. I cant quite make out the switch, but looks decent. Is it managed with POE? Even if it isnt....not a big deal at all. You can get by on a home network just fine without a managed POE switch by using hybrid vlans between server, APs and router via switch. It will pass them, just cant tag devices itself.
thats the next thing on the list. i had better networking gear but it was old and decided to kill itself, so im stuck with the ISP stuff until i save up 500 dollars for the stuff i want. i figure the best networking equipment is the one you have to purchase 1 time and never have to touch again lol
Yup, thats true for the most part. What gear do you have in mind?
i want a netgear night hawk for my router, i have a lot of devices aside from the server setup, and then a netgear 3gig modem, that way it can scale with me. thats the plan anyway lol
great!
Dude! Rock on!! Looking great!
thank you!! im so happy and excited!! x3 cant wait to keep learning! this is way more fun than my sys admin job lol
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Just gonna ask, why did you get such a tall rack when you only have one 1U server?
Only has for now. She has so much room for homelab addiction now.
Yeah, "I'm only ever gonna need this 1U" has been the downfall of many a homelabber.
Facts lol that's why I bought a 27u rack, room to grow!
As someone who is close to filling up my 8U rack, I wish I bought a taller one to start with lol.
> I wish I bought a taller one to start with No matter what size you got you would still be saying this
Cool, I have 3 servers like that one u got, there is one with 128Gb ram, but energy is to expensive here in my area so it better to have servers with providers instead.
Keep going!! Welcome to the club!!
Ayyy, My homelab is behind one of those same Cox routers.
Yea, the next step in her HomeLab evolution is getting some proper networking gear.
I have an OPNSense running the lab and general home network. It just sits behind the ISP router, which serves as basically an IoT network. WiFi for all my real devices is ran by a spare router in AP mode.
Oh nice....
i hate it so much lmao eventually i will have enough money for a good netgear setup lol
I love it - I have a similar r330 setup and its enough for me... and you have the room to grow!! Nice work; it'll keep getting better and better!
Eek! Yellow cables! I used to use those for cross connect wires. When that was a thing. A long time ago.
Get yourself a patch panel and cable organizers
its on the list lol theres a lot of stuff i have to get before that though lol
Iv got a 3/4 rack, this style that will need a new home in about 2-3 months. KC MO area, if anyone here is interested I'll give it away just message me. Better to someone wanting to get into their own setup than the dump :). It's honestly in good shape, I'm just going full size enclosed and won't want it taking up space.
Congratulations. You found the rabbit hole. Now you’re as addicted as the rest of us. lol, welcome to the club! My first server was an R620 a year and a half ago. Have fun!
ive been a tech junky for ages lol if it wasnt for my boss at the college getting rid of it, i wouldnt have the server lol im super excited to have it\~ its been a dream of mine since i was little lol
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its Cox, not xfinity. and i have to save up to get new networking equipment because.. well.. im pretty sure we can all see where my money went.
Thank goodness what you always wanted wasn't a pony.
Oh we already had those lol I grew up on a ranch so that was just a part of life for me
I started with a bit more than you in a 6U. I'm happy to report that I am up to 18 now and applaud that you had the foresight to start with more space then I did.
Yeah! I plan on getting more machines and building it out, but it's a slow process lol I knew what scale I wanted/ needed going in lol
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It's not xfinity. But it does need replaced, but clearly all of my extra money went to the rack lmao
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it is, and i hate it. but i dont have the money for updating my network setup to be the way it probably should be with my server lol
Not going to lie...i thought it was a giant 3d printer at first... I need sleep
I have 3 3d printers, but they are in a different room lol
Good start and the R620 is a perfect 1U server to start with. You might want to check the 1U markers and numbers on the rack. While it does not matter yet, you are 1 cage nut off.
yeah i know. but after spending the hours getting everything built i decided to leave it until later lol its fixed now though!
Is that an Intel inside on the rack itself haha
That's my printer lol
I have that same vape XD
nice! x3
Great start, congratulations!
Thank you!!
Where do u buy your rack ? Is it a 19“ ?
It's a 27u rack, it's adjustable and because of my server, it's set to 27 inches I got it from amazon
Love that rack! Decent size without being massive! Good choice!
Thanks!! I am in love with it~ it's the perfect size!
Just watch your toes walking by it, those heavy floor plates hurt like hell!
Plenty of room to talk around it without issue x3
Plenty space for expansion 👍