Portable rack and shirt depth server chassis

[Evan]

I was just thinking maybe I would be better to change my strategy from mini tower type cases to rack..

I know a few people have mentioned the portable racks, usually small size 4u or 6-8u.
Anybody using them with short depth servers ?

Seems like a not so crazy solution compared to stand alone servers and switches etc for people who live in an apartment like me.

Any advice on either the rack or server chassis (SM mini-itx Xeon-d boards) ?

 

[miraculix]

How short of a rack? 60cm? And it depends on whether you look at total rack depth, or usable depth ("post to post" distance plus space for cabling and air inlet/exhaust). You also say rack but I'll assume you mean a quieter cabinet/enclosure for an apartment.

I'm currently using very short X10SDV ITX systems, but UP Xeon ATX systems with one PCIe card and a couple of 3.5" drives should be fine, too. 5017R-MFs specifically were what I ran previously, not sure about equivalent ATX X10/X11 systems.

Seems to me you'll hit problems with the following scenarios, in increasing order of difficulty:

1) A chassis with a lot of drives packed in (but not hot swap)
2) A general chassis that has up to eight 3.5" hot swap bays
3) A high storage density oriented chassis with 12+ hot swap bays

For scenario #1 and #2, these might be interesting if you're OK with more RU consumed:

http://www.norcotek.com/product/rpc-431/
http://www.norcotek.com/product/rpc-4308/

For #3... I'm having a hard time sourcing a short depth ITX chassis capable of 12+ hot swap bays.

Side note... I'm working on a little pet project to build #3 myself, using a dirt cheap "as is" Norco DS-12D JBOD with a bad power supply (which I didn't need anyway) but otherwise in new condition. I should have time to finish it in 3 weeks and will post results including pics if anyone is interested. Assuming it works of course

 

[Evan]

Not real sure how short, I have already ordered some mini to type cases (1 Ncase m1) and the other an silver stone ML07 to try but k can easily sell both if they don't work.

I won't be using any 3.5" disks at all I don't think, if I do it will be just 1 or 2 fixed.
How swap is not required.

It's an all Ssd or 2.5" setup. My files today all fit on my synology that's got 4 X 2.5" 2tb WD drives so less than 6tb + 4tb on my Mac mini server.
Plan is to reduce my data to as small as possible put all on Ssd and maybe use spinning disks just as the local backup.

Off topics but I realized I am using Netflix, Hulu, etc exclusively almost and my downloaded media is either download and watch or a small amount I want to keep as reference. Seems I can delay most of it and that's in the 6tb.

 

[Netwerkz101]

OnStage Rackstand RS7030 $30

Low cost but good quality.

If you go the Mini-ITX route with SuperMicro... most will be compatible with their
SC504-203B case .... 9.8" deep. (they have an alternate with I/O on the front SC505-203B)

I use these for 24 x 2.5" @ 7mm:
ICY DOCK MB998SP-B ToughArmor 8 x 2.5” SATA 6Gbps 7mm HDD Mobile Rack

Other sizes based on your needs:
18 drives: 6 x 2.5 @ up to 9.5mm
12 drives: 4 x 2.5 @ up to 15mm

1U Shelf:
StarTech CABSHELF1U 1U 19" Universal Fixed Server Rack Cabinet Shelf

 

[Evan]

Was thinking it would be possible to fit some how (maybe in place of pci card since I won't need it) 6 x 2.5" in the SC504/505

I am still researching but don't know if I have much to gain by rack mount except a bigger footprint and more difficulty hiding it all away from my 2yr old