Instead of blanking plates...

[TeeJayHoward]

I'm upgrading to a 14U rack this month, and I'll be moving my networking gear from front to rear. That leaves three units of empty/ugly up front (with the rear half of the same units full), and I'd like to close it up. Initially I was just going to pick up some cheap blanking plates, but now I'm wondering if maybe there isn't something cooler I can use.

Ideas I've come up with so far:

• LCD clock sync'd via NTP w/ RasPi or similar
• PDU w/ LCD monitoring of amps used
• Super short-depth drawer
• Feed-through patch panel
• Short-depth firewall

Anyone got any other ideas for something a little more fun than a sheet of black metal?

 

[Evan]

I take it you are not using switches with port side exhaust then ? If so I would be leaving it open for cooling.

 

[TeeJayHoward]

I take it you are not using switches with port side exhaust then ? If so I would be leaving it open for cooling.

Two of the switches are passively cooled. The remaining switch is rear-to-front.