Small Yet Important Details in Server Rack

A server rack is specialized furniture designed for housing high precious telecommunication and computing apparatus. There are several types of furniture in the industry: open-frame racks and enclosed cabinets. According to the type of mounting, they distinguish wall-mounted, floor-standing, and movable/portable server racks.

Small Details to Keep in Mind

When dealing with server equipment installation, it is important to take into account each tiny detail to ensure its safe and durable functioning. The following points should be considered:

Rack Rail Hole Spacing

Standard rack dimensions were established in 1922. Since that time, 19-inch furniture with rack panels has a height of 1.75 inches (44.45 mm). This figure was taken as a standard to reduce the space required for equipment accommodation in a telephone company central office. Thus, modern hardware has greatly expanded.

Rail shelves are used to house apparatus. Answering the question “why do server racks have mounting holes facing”, shelves must be reliably installed.

Gauge Wire

Grounding the server room is a mandatory requirement in accordance with the PES. All structures and metal parts of the server room are grounded. Grounding is carried out using a separate conductor. As for non-welded metal structures, each of them must have special grounding washers in bolted joints. These washers help improve electrical contact between different parts of the structure.

If you know the answer to the question “how are server racks powered?”, then it is clear to you why gauge wire is used. Gauge wire is designed to protect rack-mounted equipment from electrical surges. A grounding system plays a critical value in data center’s success. To meet the demands of modern businesses, data centers must attain seemingly egregious levels of uptime. To cope with this task, data center managers must focus on the facility’s infrastructure, paying particular attention to the network grounding system.

As for the requirements, grounding for server rooms should provide a resistance of no more than 1 Ohm.

When picking what gauge wire for grounding server racks is to choose, remember that to carry out grounding, it is necessary to use a flexible copper wire with a conductor cross-section of at least 16 mm2. For installation in a server room, a single-core installation wire with high flexibility, with PVC insulation is perfect. This wire is designed for mounting earthing systems, and the flexibility class provides 180° bend resistance.

Rack Screw Holes

The server, clipped to the rails, can be unplugged and removed from the rack in seconds. This is great for maintenance purposes, but it also puts expensive IT equipment and the data it contains at risk.

What type of bolt is used by server racks will depend on the type of holes. Because threaded holes can break off and require a thicker sheet of metal to thread, many post manufacturers use unthreaded holes. This is suitable for hardware located primarily on rails or other mechanical support – the body slides on the supporting rails. The server can be easily removed for inspection or maintenance. If desired, special clip nuts can be used that fit into the “threading” holes on unthreaded holes.

The need to screw the server to the rack is cumbersome and increases the time required for maintenance. Many modern racks use a square hole ruler with locking clips to allow the technician to quickly remove or install the server. If the server owner wants it to be screwed on, then a data center administrator can install nuts with a square outer contour in the square holes. Thus, how far away a screw in server racks is used depends on the model and hardware.

Use caution when selecting or installing server rail kits. Some have different types of holes in the same set and require rails with a rotating segment. Unfortunately, the rails and posts are not fully assembled with each other, and these multifunctional rail kits sometimes cannot be used. Check the length of the rails: the kit may be too long for your rack, especially with older, shallow racks. This feature will affect how far away are screws in server racks are used.

Never assume that racks and IT devices will automatically match each other. Check the dimensions, review your data center plan, and run a compatibility test for new hardware before you buy.