Full height rack - Bolt to wall or floor?

[Ganesh]

Folks,

I am a novice when it comes to setting up a data center. I have two 42U racks that I need to attach to the building frame. I am in SF Bay Area in the Peninsula in a rented place on the second floor.

The room where I intend to set up the racks are carpeted. Given a choice, I would like to not damage the carpet. So, am wondering if I can attach the racks to the wall. And if I do that, will I be limiting access? Else, is the right choice to bolt the racks to the floor as I have seen elsewhere? And pay to fix the carpet later?

Can someone please advise me? Thanks in advance,

- Ganesh

 

[katit]

Why? Not like it's going to roll away or something. My rack sits on carpeted floor on wheels. It takes some force to move it..

 

[Ganesh]

Why? Not like it's going to roll away or something. My rack sits on carpeted floor on wheels. It takes some force to move it..

I am going to run a bunch of production servers on the racks. Don't want to take any chances. Hence, thought would be better to get them fixed. (Watched San Andreas movie not long ago. May be the effect of that. )

 

[cesmith9999]

You should talk with your landlord first... see what they say for when you move out.

Chris

 

[Ganesh]

You should talk with your landlord first... see what they say for when you move out.

Chris

I did, Chris. I even got their permission to get an electrician to bring in a couple of 30A power points for the power supplies. It is managed by a property management firm. They are agnostic. Their response is that so long as we leave the office behind in good shape, it is upto us to leave it in good shape. Assuming 4 holes in the floor per rack, that would be 8 holes. All visible. :-( Hence, my concern.

 

[cesmith9999]

there are 2 trains of thought.
1) bolt to the floor
2) leave it on casters and let it roll around. let it slide around during an earthquake.

I do not know what the code is in SF area. but here where I am all of the racks are bolted to the floor. and personally I would not want to be in the room with the racks on casters when there is an earthquake.

Chris

 

[Ganesh]

I agree. But you don't think it makes sense to attach them to the wall - sideways or something?

 

[cesmith9999]

It could. it depends on how strong you wall is. here the walls are standard drywall with aluminum studs. not enough to hold me. much less two 2000lbs rack full of servers.

Chris

 

[Ganesh]

Good point, Chris. One of the walls in the room is a shared exterior wall. I will check to see if it can take the load. But, does it make sense to set up the two racks sideways (if the wall can take the load), may be about 6 - 8 away from each other so that there is space between the racks and also back and front access? Would that prevent us from being able to pull down any of the servers / switches, since one side will be against the wall? My concern with wall mount is access.

 

[mackle]

In a decent earthquake you could see peak ground acceleration in excess of 2G in the horizontal and vertical planes.
My question would be what are you trying to prevent - the rack tipping or just walking across the room?

A number anchors in the wall (say one in each corner) with strong enough cable would allow access behind it and a small amount of movement without tipping.

 

[Ganesh]

Mackle, that is a great idea. I assume that the safest would be to ensure that the racks move / sway / shake along with the axis of the building shake. So may be I can figure out if the local HomeDepot has some kind of 1-2 feet long, 3-4 inch diameter steel rods / shafts that bolt into the racks on one side and into the wall on the other. May be I can get 4 or even 6, with sufficient space to crawl behind. What do you think?

 

[Biren78]

Production servers on carpet in a second floor apartment?

Why not just get a cheap DC? Better power delivery and they can get better power rates.

You're also going to go deaf if you run 30A's and 2 racks of gear. At least lose some frequency hearing. DC.

 

[Ganesh]

Perfectly valid, Biren. Thought long and hard about setting up a couple of racks in a co located place. But lowest cost was still working out to not less than 2k per month for a couple of racks. It is a pre-revenue startup. Soon as we have a couple of paying customers who can start covering costs, will move it to a data center. Current rental place also has power cost loaded into rent. Hence, am saving a bit by going this route for now. May be in a few months, will move it out.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

I am a novice when it comes to setting up a data center. I have two 42U racks that I need to attach to the building frame. I am in SF Bay Area in the Peninsula in a rented place on the second floor.

The room where I intend to set up the racks are carpeted. Given a choice, I would like to not damage the carpet. So, am wondering if I can attach the racks to the wall. And if I do that, will I be limiting access? Else, is the right choice to bolt the racks to the floor as I have seen elsewhere? And pay to fix the carpet later?

Unless you have a concrete floor, you're not going to have a proper seismic configuration:

"Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) standards require that racks be bolted securely to a solid concrete floor. You can also install this system in a computer room with a raised floor that is reinforced to accommodate the extra weight of the servers and to allow bolting the cabinet to the seismic raised floor struts."

If you're not going to have NEBS compliance, it is important to understand what hazard(s) you are trying to guard against. Damage to your equipment? Damage to property / injury to people? Remember, earthquakes can move ground vertically as well as horizontally. Your rack will become heavier / lighter as the floor moves. This may exceed the dynamic load rating of your floor.

 

[BLinux]

As TerryK said, I would really consider if you have strong enough floors for 2000lbs of equipment in a 4'x3' space. Most wooden 2-story residential buildings won't hold up well, and over time you'll see the floor bend; I've seen this 1st hand... If it compromises the load bearing parts of the structure, I'm sure the property management company will be having a conversation with you when you're ready to move out.

 

[Ganesh]

Unless you have a concrete floor, you're not going to have a proper seismic configuration:….

TerryK, thanks for the direction. I saw some of the standards. Compliance complexity is huge. I doubt very much if I can get that even if I get to a low cost colo. Based on your advise, it is evident now that the racks are NOT going to be seismic proof.

BLinux, that would be scary if the floor sags. The floor seems to be wooden. The room size is about 10 ft square. I did some math. I have to set up about 12 physical machines / switches of about 18U total capacity. In addition, I have 2 UPS consuming 7U capacity. In total, I estimate 25U.

I can spread them over three racks instead of two. Or alternatively, I can place the UPS on the floor instead of on the rack, effectively limiting the 2 / 3 racks to hold only 18U of servers and switches.

Can one of you folks please help clarify...
- Wouldn't bolting the racks to the wall / floor help at least diminish the risk rather than leave them to roll around in the event of a building shake? (Based on Terry's input, I am now inclined to floor mount the racks and make payment for the carpet replacement when moving out.)
- Would leaving the 2 UPSes (batteries are heavy) on the floor and rack-mounting only the 18U of servers and switches over two racks (assume 9U of utilization per rack) spaced about 4 feet apart help distribute the weight across the room and ensure that the floor doesn't sag?

 

[BLinux]

Can one of you folks please help clarify...
- Wouldn't bolting the racks to the wall / floor help at least diminish the risk rather than leave them to roll around in the event of a building shake? (Based on Terry's input, I am now inclined to floor mount the racks and make payment for the carpet replacement when moving out.)
- Would leaving the 2 UPSes (batteries are heavy) on the floor and rack-mounting only the 18U of servers and switches over two racks (assume 9U of utilization per rack) spaced about 4 feet apart help distribute the weight across the room and ensure that the floor doesn't sag?

If your floors are wood, I'd think twice about it. But, if you plan to only use less than half your rack, that might be light enough to be okay.

That said, you'll need to think about how you want to secure the rack to the floor. I would NOT just put a lag screw through the floor board; that's usually plywood and can "pull" out with enough force. I would try to lag screw into the support beams under the floor boards (use a stud finder or listen carefully with a hammer). The issue is that you might not find support beams in convenient positions. Residential buildings often have them about 16" apart otc. You could remove the floor boards and attach some cross beams in the right positions so you can lag screw the rack to them.

 

[amalurk]

Colocation - Hurricane Electric Internet Services
42U rack power and GigE in Fremont near enough to you, $400/mo. I am sure there are catches at that price but all that in your second story apartment is ludicrous

 

[Ganesh]

Colocation - Hurricane Electric Internet Services
42U rack power and GigE in Fremont near enough to you, $400/mo. I am sure there are catches at that price but all that in your second story apartment is ludicrous

Hi Amarluk, I got more than 10 quotes before embarking on this. Hurricane Electric prices are for trial. Actual pricing is significantly more.

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[Ganesh]

If your floors are wood, I'd think twice about it. But, if you plan to only use less than half your rack, that might be light enough to be okay.

That said, you'll need to think about how you want to secure the rack to the floor. I would NOT just put a lag screw through the floor board; that's usually plywood and can "pull" out with enough force. I would try to lag screw into the support beams under the floor boards (use a stud finder or listen carefully with a hammer). The issue is that you might not find support beams in convenient positions. Residential buildings often have them about 16" apart otc. You could remove the floor boards and attach some cross beams in the right positions so you can lag screw the rack to them.

Hi BLinux, its an office building. Just not one geared to handle data centers. Hence my adventure into this territory. I will get a contractor to evaluate feasibility of mounting the racks to the floor. And assuming that I don't load more than 10U in a full height cabinet, I assume we are loaded only to quarter capacity. Would that be OK you think?

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