Rackmount Servers

B

bloodeagle

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
272
Hi,

I'm interested in learning more about rackmount based server systems. How they are connected, the connections they need, the hardware and software that they use. I'm just looking for a site, or place that i can learn from the beginning what these systems are all about.

Thanks a lot!
 
Unless you're getting into crazy systems like blade servers and other distributed computing operations, servers for the most part operate like desktops and workstations. Rackmounting them just means that you stick 'em in heavy fucking steel cases and stack them up rather than put 'em under a desk. They still use the same PS 2 and USB, serial, parallel, VGA, and power connections. Though I have never met a quiet server. Most use big 120x40mm fans. Of course, I've never worked with the little 1U and 2U (Unit; server racks have slots that count as a unit) servers.

Most entry-level servers are moving towards the same kinds of hardware standards regular computers use, too, like SATA drives and PCI-Express. Though nice ones also have hot-swappable drive cages and power supplies. Many server motherboards also use a high-bandwidth PCI card system, called PCI-X (100, 133, 166, and 266 (also called PCI-X 2.0) are common) and run at a higher frequency (as listed) instead of PCI's 33mhz standard. These are commonly used for RAID cards. Of course, many servers use SCSI hard drives; that's an interface which allows for many hard drives to run off of the same port, and it's got a considerably higher bandwidth than IDE. There are two standard SCSI interfaces: 68 and 80 pin. The latter has more pins because the cable or drive bay is powered; the hard drive doesn't use a separate power connector.

But like I said, that's the entry-level, and there are plenty of systems that are beyond me. What exactly do you have designs for?
 
Wow, thanks for the info...

My designs, I'm just making it up as I go along. My dad has a co-worker who runs the IT department for Imperial Oil, so I may have access to some of the old servers and racks that they are planning to replace.

I have a spare closet that is big enough to "hide" a large rack, but I'm just looking for more information on what I could do with them. I want to run all my computers in my house to the rack, with a central server - basically a large storage hut. I was also planning on running a few game servers, or websites and such. But what else can I do? I'm just looking for ideas at the moment. Expanding my knowledge :p

Thanks for the info :)
 
I'm very jealous of you for that... I think running a rackmount server's just about enough to give any geek a [H] on. :p
 
Rackmounts are just like regular PC's, main difference being of course the case, and being able to stack up all the stuff vertically for more space efficiency. I have a rack and use it for a few servers, a couple hard drive storage arrays, a patch panel, switches and have shelves to put other equipment on thats not rackmountable. This way all the core networking stuff and servers are all consolidated.
 
Are most rackmount cases compatible with atx boards?

You'd think that the cooling scheme would be different as well, since the motherboard is laid flat. More of a front to back cooling scheme i'd guess.
 
All of our rackmounts are WTX (the cases are backwards compatible with ATX, but ATX cases are not forwards-compatible with WTX boards; they're bigger). Also, all of the entry-level server mainboards that I've worked on were ATX or WTX (slightly larger) but it might not be true for what bloodeagle has; not that it makes too much of a difference, because he will get all the hardware, presumably servers and cases together.
 
bloodeagle said:
... but I'm just looking for more information on what I could do with them......
Click to expand...

Heat your apartment/house.
Keep you awake


bloodeagle said:
I want to run all my computers in my house to the rack, with a central server - basically a large storage hut. I was also planning on running a few game servers, or websites and such. But what else can I do? I'm just looking for ideas at the moment. Expanding my knowledge :p
Click to expand...

You've got the right idea. web servers, IDS devices, game servers, email servers are all good uses.
 
I design a lot of rackmount stuff at work. Mostly test and simulation systems. I am currently using this 4U chassis with a passive backplane that has 4 PCI-X and eight PCI slots. Cooling is by four 120mm fans. The MOBO is actually a MOBO on a module. It has dual Xeons, 4GB RAM, dual GBit ethernet, and dual PCI-X buses. I needed a pair of high end video capture and display cards that are PCI-X. There are links between the cards so captured video doesn't have to use the PCI-X bus. It would make an awesome gaming rig.
 
I have a 42U rack [over 6ft] in my computer room here next to me. There are actually many differences in rackmount machines. Design, construction, stability, and especially configuration. Most REAL rackmount machines you'll find [1U-2U] have a ton of integrated stuff and lots of BIOS options which is great. I'm a Linux/BSD system admin for a small web hosting company and I have a few developement servers here plus a ton of boxes in my rack just doing nothing but F@H.

They definately put off a lot of heat, and believe it or not, don't take too much power as most of them are 200W max, and headless. I have a case I got from newegg to throw a normal ATX in and it works great. kinda huge though @ 4U. :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811219007

It's great and has lots of cooling and nice air filters.

I would recommend any PC enthusiast getting one, and if you're a developer or admin like myself you'll be more than glad after you free up all of that room. [I had PC's strode across everything and stacked up all crazy]. If don't like the buzz you can always pop some foam on the inside of the doors to keep things nice and quiet...

I have lots of pics on one of my sites of me and my neighbor packing this heavy b*t*h in.

http://shadowhands.org/modules.php?...lery&file=index&include=view_album.php&page=2

http://shadowhands.org/modules.php?...lery&file=index&include=view_album.php&page=1

I hope everyone stops by there; you'll get to see me cramped up in there installing my patch panel :D...
 
wow...thats a nice setup hitman...damn. I'm hoping just to have about 5-6servers on the rack in my closet neck to my bed, so it being quiet is definiatly something I'm looking into.

How did you learn about all this stuff anyways? I'm just looking to start with a book...website, anything to help me learn about the software and the hardware that comes with the Rackmounts.

I hope to have a dedicated internet line to those servers, and to run them all from my computer or laptop. Basically able to connect to either one of the servers, and running software/install stuff from that. My goal at least.

Any sites around with more information?

Thanks alot for all the help!
 
Another good use of rackmounted servers is a Domain Controller. It's especially useful if you want to administrate all your computers/servers from one central device (your laptop or desktop, for example). For that you'll need to get a copy of windows 2k3 server. it's weird at first, but if you pick up a book on it and Active Directory, it's not that big a deal. This is a more business oriented approach, however. If you ever get into IT it's an important and invaluable tool to know how to use.

Anyway, like everyone else said, just read up on server specific hardware, like Dell's bladeservers, anything by Cisco (great networking equipment), for motherboards look into Tyan. They produce some nice (often very expensive) server specific hardware. Mostly though, servers use regular mobo's with regular PCI cards. The only real exception are the really small chassis' that won't fit upright PCI cards. then you get those weird 90 bend adapters. I hate those things.
 
The question is why do you want to learn about rack mount servers?

If it is based on knowledge to get a sysadmin job, you need to learn about HP and IBM servers, they are almost NOTHING like normal PC's.

You might want to study their rilo/rsa cards, maybe some gig fiber card models, maybe some hba cards, differences in fiber types, scsi configurations, how san's work, etc...


If your purpose is so you can brag about loading linux on a rack mount in your bedroom...then yea, they are just regular computers mounted sideways. :D
 
Narrowing it down, I want to use this to control my computers on my network, as well as run webservers and game servers on them.

Thanks for all the help :D
 
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