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How Have You Equipped a Tiny Server Closet?
BenEnglishAtHome asks: "One of our remote offices will soon be gutted/rebuilt and our local IT staff managed to fumble the political ball. Our server closet is being reduced to 45 square feet and there will be no more unused desk space that can be occupied by visiting techs. Result? That 45 square feet must house 3 desktop-size servers; 3 UPSs; a fully-adjustable user workstation that includes separate adjustments for work surface height, keyboard height, and keyboard angle as well as a big ergo chair; an area suitable for workstation diagnostics; a good KVM switch; 2 monitors, keyboards, mice, and laptop docking stations that must be simultaneously available; and some amount of small item storage, while still having enough room for a door to swing into the roughly square room. The only bright side is that I can have all the A/C, power, and LAN drops I want. Has anyone managed to find and deploy a freestanding server rack/workstation/furniture system (probably something L-shaped) that can perform this many tasks in such a small space?"
Start having lots of conversations in earshot of management about electrical fires.
I would store the servers outside the closet and convert the closet into a fully stocked bar.
By piping the A/C through, you can keep your beverages at a perfect temperature.
If you have any remaining space, you could install a dockable sweet trolley to take your refreshments mobile.
If your boss asks, just tell him your servers were claustrophobic.
liqbase
I've heard of "earth closet" and "water closet", but I'm aghast at the idea of a "server closet".
All the same, I'd equip it with toilet paper and hand soap, just like the others.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Well, since your first problem is that your servers aren't rack-mountable (or, if you can get conversion kits, rack-mount them and forget the rest of this), your next best bet is some good shelving. I've purchased some heavy-duty 4' x 18" stainless steel shelves from Costco for about $75 a set. Each shelf can hold 500 lbs if necessary. Find a way to attach the shelves to the wall (several half-inch-thick zip-ties screwed into the wall studs works well), and use cargo straps (the kind with built-in ratchets to tighten them) to attach the servers to the shelves. Very space-efficient and sturdy.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
... when I say: "my home is my server closet!"
hey, it works the other way around as well. Now, where'd I put that CAT-6 cable...
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
Reverse the door. You'll want pinned hinges so the room's still secure, but that'll buy you a LOT of extra space.
If your workload per server is light enough, then buy 1 decent server with RAID and lots of memory and CPU. Virtualize the machines on this new server. Put in a Ethernet remote management card. This will allow you to forego the monitor and access it remotely. Make sure this machine is fully redundant and hot-swappable. Now instead of 3 servers you have one. You don't have to actually enter the server closet. For even more space, mount the unit up above.
Are you /sure/ you need 3 UPSs and not 1 big one?
Just because you have a big ergo chair now, do you really need to keep it?
PS - you're insane if you put 3 desktop sized servers in that room. Replace 'em with 3 rackmounted servers and a 1U LCD/keyboard/trackball/KVM.
Roughly same dimensions. 8 systems. 3 24 port switches. And a security system with a monitor that can't be turned off independently.
I've mentioned several times that it'll all go to hell when the small single room household A/C dies. They won't even approve my offsite backup plans. There is a backup server, but it too is in the server closet. They even had a heating vent going into the server closet until I convinced them to seal it this last winter, after it reached the 90's during the coldest time of year.
The thing gives me nightmares. I imagine the A/C failing, the servers dying, and the room catching fire and taking the building with it.
Has anyone managed to find and deploy a freestanding server rack/workstation/furniture system (probably something L-shaped) that can perform this many tasks in such a small space?"
Yes, it's called a rack and a desk. You can find both of them available from retailers the world over. Seriously, this question is... trivial. It's all up to how you want to arrange things. As others have suggested, you could buy a seriously powerful multicore system with plenty of RAID storage that takes up under 4U for a few thousand dollars. Ok, so put it in the rack with the UPSs on the bottom (wait, do you need them all anymore?), a shelf with a monitor and KVM (because you only need it for emergencies, since you should connect in normally by remote) and we just used up under 12 square feet. That's a lot of room left for a desk and chair! Even if you don't want to buy a new server, then buy a few more shelves for your rack and stick them in it standing up.
I have five machines, one of which runs five other VMs, several UPSs an LTO-3 backup system, two ancient mini-fridge sized servers and a KVM all taking up less than 25 square feet. Half of that is the two ancient servers I'm about to get rid of. It's not that hard...
I have done it several times, although never to also include a diagnostic station, but i would strongly recommend that you think above the ground. In a 45' room, you would barely be able to fit one rack mount system. But if you are concerned primarily with desktop systems, then you can do 3 ties of shelving just large enough to hold a tower securely. Adjustable shelving might be a godsend.
Also, a small adjustable angle table (drafting table) might make it so that you can acomplish work when necessary, and also fold away when not in use. Use LCD monitors, flat mounted against the wall to conserve desktop space. Place the KVM on a shelf right next to the monitor, and run the cables (pre-wired) to the positions where you would be putting the servers. Run the cables through conduit to decrease clutter. Keep switches and networking gear closer to the ceiling, than to the floor. Ladders and step stools can be folded away when not needed to access those points. Keep all clutter put away, filing cabinets are a good double for extra space when needed.
As far as accessories, it really depends on what type of test equipment you need. I keep a gutted Athlon XP box on the floor around my server room, just for plugging in drives and accessories for testing. The KVM is probably the most important extra little bit though, get one that has atleast 5 attachments.
Keep everything neat and tidy, and you will be surprised at how much space a 45sqft room can provide.
They have these really great baker's racks that can handle hundreds of pounds per shelf, and will allow airflow around the computer cases. The wireframe racks are great to hook pull-ties around too, makes the cabling neater. Casters on the feet mean you can roll 'em around to access the back. You can probably put everything on it, excepting for your monitor and keyboard; and with the space savings you ought to be able to fit a small desk in there.
Several other people have recommended rack setups, and for ultimate reliability and neatness I'd have to agree; but if your budget is small a backer's rack will do the job.
Write down every even remotely possible hazard this could lead to (electrical fires and server failings due to heat, as well as long downtimes because you have to "un-build" a lot of the server farm to get to the failing computer, etc. Whatever comes to mind, write it down), but make sure you leave out anything that could remotely be tracked to your convenience (managers hate it if their subjects are working in a convenient environment, it will make your complaint look like you're just trying to get more comfort).
Then, assemble a list of managers that could even remotely be connected to the problem, or who could get fired when one of those hazards really happen.
Next, draw together what services of your company rely on computers. Managers don't understand the implications of a failed server, but they do understand what happens when people can't work because of it. Make sure you describe in very easy terms the connection between the server being down and Joe Cubicle sitting around and twiddling his thumbs because of it, for as long as the server is down (that the server will be down for LONG and chances that it is down was already covered in the first paragraph, I hope). Also make sure you include that they will not get a SINGLE EMail when (NOT if!) the servers fail, and for as long as the servers are down, no electronic communication AT ALL with the outside world and the other offices, or with clients! No mails, no files, no reports, NOTHING will come in and go out when the servers fail!
Pull it all together and write memos. Emphasis on the s. Not one. Make sure you write to them until you get a reply, don't let it rest, make sure that they understand the urgency and that it is a serious, serious, SERIOUS problem to the company. Make sure they understand that everything your company does stands and falls with the availability of the servers and their services. That nobody can be productive when your department is working at sub-par conditions.
Also, look around for possible solutions. Is there some space where you could put a server? Is there a way you could "grow" your space at the expense of some other department? Try to offer a solution, not only a problem. For two reasons: NObody likes a complaint (sounds like "waaah, I'm unhappy"), and when you already offer a solution, your chances are good that they will be picked up instead of a manager trying to come up with an idea. This is bad for two reasons: First and foremost, he has NO clue what you and your servers need, you might end up with a server in a toilet right under the water reservoir. And second, they will decide it behind your back, without you having a say in it, and they will try to meet your bare minimum requirements (if at all).
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Real servers are rackable, in 19 inch wide, 42U (~72 inches I think ) high racks.
One UPS, hot swapable batteries are nice, but we fry as many APC brand controllers as we kill batteries. I like to have an independent AC line conditioner, on a serperate AC mains circuit (i.e. different 15A circuit breaker) so that those real servers with dual power supplies (hot swappable of course) go one to UPS, one to the line conditioner (for UPS failures). Have enough circuits (not just more plugs) to accomidate future growth. A Watts Up? or Kill-A-Watt meter are nice to measuring your electrical consumption.
Honestly with how swappable hardware RAID-5 disks, hot swappable power supplies, sensible power distribution, and practicing regular backup hygenie, downtime can be minimized to mere hours per year range or less with care and planning of the administrator(s).
I also love KVM over IP (I use an ) or ILO (Intergrated Lights Out management) for headless servers, and have a backup AC available for server rooms/closets.
For servers ideas look at HP Proliant DL380 or Dell PowerEdge 2850 series.
This clearly isn't the advice you asked for. Personally, I'd make effective use of shelves (and or cabinets), and use the longest table that will fit on the longet dimention. Get the next longest table for the other dimension. There should just be room for the door to open, and the chair to be out of the way when someone is sitting in there. You can stack desktops and tower cases underneath. Have a working surface for repairs on top. Hook the laptop dock into the KVM, and put the dock up high (I once packed 10 computers into a room that was 6.5x9.5 or so at a small startup, oh and that was also my office). Now, that I've given you the token advice you've asked for. Let me try giving you my real advice:
I've been reasonable effective with the passive aggressive stance, of not supporting something so stupid. I'm not sure I can visualize just how dumb this is (I'm not good with descriptions of space). If this is truly a political issue, put in everything you can fit in with a reasonable about of space. The rest of it became "do without". I've seen 60 person offices run of development offices run off 3 machines in a server room that run all of the IT infrastructure for the company. It's stupid, but it can be done. A decent desk and an LCD monitor are all that's needed. It'll easily fit within a 7x7 room (a square room roughly of the right size).
You'll be shocked and amazed at the types of results you get from, "I've done everything I can with the resources I have. This project will continue to be a nightmare and always behind the eightball until we decide to do it right. I'll continue to do my best to support it as it is, but it'll take more time, and cost a lot more money then just having done this properly the first time. It will continue to cost us money, and I can give you estimates of the amount of time it will take for resolving this properly will become profitable".
Generally speaking, no sane boss will argue against that. I've come dreadfully close to being fired on several occasions because for this. However, I was kept around as "the guy who got stuff done". Generally letting people suffer the consequences of their stupidity is the single most effective and convincing way to get them to see the error.
I used to work with a woman who everytime you asked her to test things you developed for her to automated a business process she was in charge of that "it was so broken, that I'll just do it by hand". No matter how far or near you were to the mark, if it didn't work perfectly the first time she would refuse to work towards fixing it. Wouldn't explain what she needed or what was wrong. She used to do that to everyone. And everyone worked really hard to coax her into discussing it like a rational person. I found the most effective way to deal with her was to walk out. Wait 3 months until she was completely overwhelmed by the problem you were in the middle of automated. Dust off the old code, work with her for a day and finish up the automation. No one every understood that, all she wanted was the attention of how much crap she had to do, and all the crap she did by hand for you. Most importantly, she liked working harder, not smarter. So automating it before it was absolutely necessary ruined her mind set. Generally speaking, letting someone suffer the consequences of their decision is the ultimate way of convincing them that they were wrong.
Ironically, I did get laid off about 2 months after explaining to my boss that he needed to find a way to make backups. He could make me repsonsible for them, and I'd do them. He could motivate the lazy piece of crap who hadn't gotten them made in the 9 months he'd worked there (even more irritating, he dismantled the old backups that worked). Since I was the one who'd get to spend 96 straight hours in the office rebuilding our network due to no backups, I had a bit more vested interest in seeing them work. I worked really hard to be ahead of the game in everything I did, and I'd be responsible for cle
Back when I had a lab, there was a time that the A/C system in the ceiling croaked and they had a free-standing A/C unit as a stopgap until they got it fixed. It had a bunch of tubes in the back and an opening in the front where the cold air came out. And my department had a sales guy who was a wine expert, had a small Napa Valley winery with a couple of friends, and did occasional evening winetastings after work. So there was obviously one thing we had to do with the A/C unit, which was to chill a couple of bottles of interesting white wine, as a change from our usual reds. Worked real fine.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Since you don't have enough space, you'll need to deal with front&back access issues - if you're not in earthquake country, you probably should get a rack with wheels on the bottom (out here you'd need to bolt your racks to the floor or walls, so that means getting racks with no doors on them.) Metro shelves are also nice, but if you've got any significant amount of rack equipment (routers, etc.) real racks are a better choice.
Depending on how badly you lost the political infighting, I'll second the recommendation that you don't want to have to work in the server closet - they're usually noisy, hot, and often badly lit. Get a basic desk for the closet, so you've got some junk-storage drawers, and run VNC or equivalent on your servers so you can spend 98% of your administrative time at a regular desk where you can interact with your coworkers, and only hang out in the server room when you want to be uninterrupted or are playing your own political games.
I built a 200-square-foot lab about 10 years ago - Plan A was to spend $300 at the local furniture store for some Metro shelves and a couple hundred dollars more for a couple of good sturdy tables. Unfortunately, the Corporate Real Estate Gods decided that we had to go through a Corporate Furniture Consultant, and also get racks that bolted to the floor. I found it annoying that the Furniture Consultants called their product "Workstations", but since we ended up having to pay $900 per seat for the desks and got the PCs that went on them for $500/seat, the desks won the title of "workstation". And since we had to do lots of bureaucracy to get our racks purchased and installed, we got two of them, which was quite useful after a couple of years. Later we recycled a table from some former conference room, because we really did need a basic table.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
That leaves you 45sq ft, which is a nice space for a cot when you need quiet time. It sounds like you're going to need a lot of quiet time.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
what's all this 'ergonomic seating and laptop docks'... all I need to admin my servers is a ssh connection, a cup of coffee, and a toilet.
--
Society has traditionally always tried to find scapegoats for its problems. Well, here I am.
And the first thing you have to realize is that there isn't a single reason in the world that the admin actually needs to be in the room with the servers.
I've worked on small datacenters about the size you're specifying, and I work on huge datacenters that have up to 10,000 square feet of space filled with racks. In both instances, I've always recommended that it be a "lights out" datacenter; that is that there's noone in there.
Why? Well, first of all there's the noise issues. Real servers make noise, and in most instances it would actually be harmful to you to sit in the room with them for long periods of time. There's also the issue of "kicked cables" that could take down the servers, or a kicked power button. You might think it could never happen, but it can. Thirdly, there's heat. You sitting in that room is actually reducing the efficacy of the air conditioning because the heat you put off is also adding to the heat the AC needs to remove. Finally, there's the fact that we aren't clean animals; where do you think the dust comes from that you have to clean out of desktop systems? Much of it is human skin shed by you. Would you rather have to take down the servers every six months to blow out the dust, or have servers that can run for quite some time without buildup?
As for console access, there are plenty of good KVM solutions that use IP. I use Avocent's solutions myself, but YMMV... but they are pretty damned good for small to enterprise businesses. I've used it in environments with 4 or 5 servers, and I've used it in environments with several hundred servers across multiple sites... still works pretty damned well.
Another solution that works incredibly well is to use out of band management. In one large installation I work with often, we have HP servers with Integrated Lights Out cards. Allow us to power the servers on and off, launch a remote console and even mount CDs remotely to install software. Since it's Java based it also works well under Linux... if you've got a little money to spare then that might be a good solution.
Finally, others have mentioned this; how about one big and meaty server and virtualize? I built an entire R&D lab environment around an 8-processor HP DL760 with 20Gb of hot-swap RAM attached to a Compaq SAN that was going to be disposed of... it now runs daily about 15 VM's with a peak of 25 and has become a really reliable and flexible system. It still runs VMWare ESX 2.0, and I plan to upgrade it to 2.5 soon because it scales a lot better in our tests and I might be able to squeeze a couple more machines out of that machine. Sure, with the SAN only being an older one the boot times are rather pitiful, but I have swap partitions moved off to local storage on the 760 (it has space for 4 72Gb drives, soon to upgrade to 146's) to keep performance up. Even my Windows boxes I create a "local" partition for temp and swap... boot times suck but running performance you can rarely tell the difference between the VM's and physicals.
The key here though is lose the workstation. If you lose a server, take it out of the server room for troubleshooting. It maintains the "clean room ideal" of the datacenter, reduces risk of downtime and even protects you. Plus it looks good on a resume when you say you've dealt with some of these lights out technologies (IP KVM's, iLo's etc.)... believe me it can help a lot if/when you decide to move to a bigger enterprise that may have rules and regs that require lights-out datacenter experience.