The server room at our flying school currently resembles one of those old stereo systems with loads of wires snaking all over the place and servers piled on top of eachoter. We need to start a new round of upgrades and are thinking about moving to rackmounted servers. Anyone got any thoughts on the pros and cons? Also, what about buying these servers. I’ve not bought this type of server before and looking on places like Google and shopping.com, it looks like a choice between the vendor sales (HP, IBM, etc.) or a reseller like Pyramid or it247.com. Any recommendations?
Rack-mounted servers are a great solution if you've got many servers that you need to have in a small(ish) space. The only downside is the expense, rackmount cabinets and cases are pretty expensive. IBM, Dell and HP are the big brands I'd recommend - IBM make some awesomely fast servers in rackmount format, Dell make some good, cheaper ones and HP are somewhere inbetween imho. Although, in truth, you'll find that any one of those manufacturers can easily meet your needs.
well or the wire problem i would say this: i understand that longer wire is bad for resistance, but if your having snaking problems then i say get longer wires and zip-tie them together in a uniform manner. run the cables around stuff like the rack itself, against the wall and stuff like that, youll be amazed how ziptieing cables together and working them around racks, and walls will make a difference... to get them to be attacthed to the wall, go to your local hardware store and check and see if they have plastic staples. or something to that sort.
I'm no expert on this, but i have heard that dell in general isn't as well designed as HP and IBM systems. IBM is known to be good, i think. As for cable tidying: zip ties are good, but use those you can open. If you use the "single use" ties you'll go crazy whenever you try to replace or add cables. and removing a cable becomes such a big deal, so you just end up leaving it there unused. That's where the mess starts. Get some cable ladders. They are excellent. also: think about cooling and noise isolation when upgrading servers. And by cooling i mean cooling of the server room.
Cosidering there are different makers of these racks, I went for Dynamode Lx Range - 42U - 19. (one of the cheapest I could find) see specs: http://www.it247.com/Product/2520-CA...e_rack_42U.htm and seriously considering the server: IBM System x3850 8864 (see specifications on: http://www.it247.com/Product/29-8864...N_25_GHz. htm ) We are also considering HP StorageWorks DAT 72 USB External Tape Drive as back up - see specs: http://www.it247.com/Product/28-AE35..._Speed_USB.htm There are alternative cheaper versions of the above by Sony, so am I paying more just for the brand names of other makes such as HP and IBM, or are better known brands more relaible. Any experiences would be most welcome before I advise the accountant to part with the money! The reason we chose an online reseller such as it247 rather than the original vendor is because the prices are just as competitive, and we would be able to get a package deal on assistance and service for all the differnet makes, from just one source...
