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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.
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... 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.
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...
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.
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