Rack Post Extender

[PTNL]

I have a couple Dell R710 2U servers that came with the Dell quick rails. The rack I am trying to place them in is a 4-post open cabinet, but the depth of the posts are about an inch too short to allow the Dell quick rails to snap-lock to the square holes. Are there any 2U extenders I can attach to the back two posts of the cabinet to give the minimum length needed for the Dell quick rails to snap-lock? The extenders would also need to have the square holes.

Let me know if I need to clarify anything. Thanks.

 

[schnell]

Looking for something like this? Round hole, could not find anything in square.
http://www.rackmountsolutions.net/Standoff_Rack_Extender.asp
I am not sure how I feel about it to support a server but the choice is yours.

Dell does sell 2 types of rails and you may have gotten the ones made for Dell racks specifically not the length adjustable ones.

Also most racks have the rear set of rail mounts movable, and you could try unbolting and sliding the rear mounts forward to fit the Dell rails. Obviously this would only work in your rack is empty.

 

[PTNL]

Looking for something like this? Round hole, could not find anything in square.
http://www.rackmountsolutions.net/Standoff_Rack_Extender.asp
I am not sure how I feel about it to support a server but the choice is yours.

Dell does sell 2 types of rails and you may have gotten the ones made for Dell racks specifically not the length adjustable ones.

Also most racks have the rear set of rail mounts movable, and you could try unbolting and sliding the rear mounts forward to fit the Dell rails. Obviously this would only work in your rack is empty.

Thanks for the quick reply, the product link, and the idea that the normal rails from Dell may collapse to a shorter depth than the quick rails. For the Panduit cabinet, the posts were already mounted as far away from each other as possible.

And you do raise a good point about the stability using extenders for such a heavy server. However, I'll be placing them at the bottom of the cabinet, so the farthest any machine would fall would be 1/16 of an inch. And these are dev machines, so they are not hosting customer-facing applications. Though I'll first check with Dell on the possibility of shorter rails. (Edit: The quick rails are adjustable in length; it's just that they don't shorten quite far enough to reach the posts.)


If anyone else finds some square-hole extenders, then please post a product link as that may be useful for mounting other lighter devices.

 

[schnell]

I have non Dell racks and I want to say the rails on my R710's collapse to less than the length of the server so I would contact your Dell rep and talk to them.