Hey all,

I’m looking to build a small half rack server set in my house and was wondering if there were any tools that let me build out a solution? I’m worried I’m going to forget something and just wanted it all listed out as I think of things.

Yeah I can probably build it out and keep track of it in Obsidian or Excel or something, I was just curious if there were server builder tools like there are PC builder tools?

I mainly want to make sure I get a rack big enough for the few pieces I want to put in it as well as I want to try to calculate the power draw and BTU output which I imagine will be pretty minimal. I just would like hard numbers to know for sure.

Thanks!

  • DigitalDilemma@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    Whatever you use, don’t build it to a definitive target.

    From personal experience, which may not be universal: No matter how carefully you plan this, your needs will change sooner than you think. Expect to re-organise things things, make changes constantly, and occasionally deal with messes you made. We do this to tinker and play and experiment, and that creates mess.

    So design something you can change. Luckily, that is what racks are about anyway, but do stuff like having space behind it for an extra coil of cable, space between servers, a shelf or two for those annoying random things, ability to extend. Space around it to work and move (don’t fix it to a wall in such a way that you can’t reach it all - wheels are good together with enough cable flex to be able to easily pull the rack out so it doesn’t go Whoo… as everything suddenly powers down)

    Obviously some rules are hard-baked, like “heavy stuff at the bottom”, but be fluid.

    • ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      21 hours ago

      Yeah for sure. I used to build much larger servers for my job so I’m trying to design for the future. I know I have some checkboxes that I need to hit now but I want to make sure there’s room for growth/change.