RE-Building The House of RagE - AGAIN

PS-RagE said:
I'm throwing the whole thing together right now for a test run before I start snipping at cabling. I was thinking to install the OS on a drive seperate from the array (I seem to have a few 200G PATAs on hand). Any compelling opinions for or against this idea?
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Yea it was a good idea to seperate the system drive. I'd still go with a raid 1 for it though. You still running xp on this? If you are running any of the windows servers on it use software raid 1 on the system drive or buy a cheap card for it. That way if the system drive was to fail you wouldn't need to worry about setting up premissions and everything again.
 
Well that's interesting. The array is up and running again. When I set the partitions I get one that is 1.99T and the second one is 1.63T.

Last time I got 1.98T and 1.99T.

Almost sounds like I'm missing a drive? They all show in the disk manager but it says a 3.64T array?

Guesses? It must have been using the hot spare for something?
 
That might explain why your array dropped out one drive sooner than you thought it should - maybe you didn't have as much cushion as you should have?

 
uzor said:
That might explain why your array dropped out one drive sooner than you thought it should - maybe you didn't have as much cushion as you should have?

Click to expand...

Didn't have as much as I thought I did anyhow.
 
Here is what an afternoon of cable-foo produces:

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Man, that was a lot of wiring to clean up! I almost gave up a couple times - I have a bad back and is painful working hunched over like that.

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How much is this thing going to way fully loaded?

You now need to make a mount to a dolly. The thing you use to move... just in case you didn't know.

I am a person who would love to have one of these. But in order for me to fill it up legally it would cost to much. But illegally.. cough torrent..cough. I could have it filled in a year. Now Ockie's shit more like 10yrs.

Looks great by the way.
 
PS-RagE said:
newservr86.jpg


Man, that was a lot of wiring to clean up! I almost gave up a couple times - I have a bad back and is painful working hunched over like that.

.
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could you imagine the nightmare if they had been pata or scsi cables.. lol damn nice job on that , sata sure cleans up nice..

on that note, i was thinking you should atleast raid1 the os drive, even if you do it in sofware... you have that much invested already, and you _need_ the os...
 
Assembled again:

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You can see the rack mount sliders on the side.

So now for that rack. Many moons ago, I scavanged this and have had it kicking about since. It is a rack for a Motorola CentraCom I - A Police Dispatch Console:

newservr89.jpg


Cleaned it up, filled some of the deeper scratches with glazing putty and gave it a few coats of Rustoelum "Deep Canyon Black" paint:

newservr90.jpg


So now that is (almost) ready to assemble, I've got to figure out how to support this. Most rack mount stuff is just bolted to the front but this thing has got to weigh 180 pounds. Somehow theses things must support the back of the sliders:

newservr93.jpg


Guesses?

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I'm pretty sure that is designed for a deeper rack. What parts do you have for the slides? Are those it? I think there may be another part to it...
 
Yea you need a rack for it computer equipment. They are much deeper.
 
You need a rack with double rails (they call it a four post rack or cabinet)


The rail brackets are for the front and rear, servers are rarely mounted on the front ears, especially deeper ones.

Unfortunatley, the rack you have wont fit that server, or at least insn't designed to. I am sure you can jerry rig it in there, but the end result will be unsatisfactory. You really need a proper rack cabinet that can not only accomodate the depth of the server + cables, but can also allow enough front load so that the server can be slid out and serviced... check ebay.
 
Well, I'm going to have to adapt it. I don't want a giant computer rack in my office.

Here is about all they have for the installation of the slides:

newservrrail.jpg
 
PS-RagE said:
Well, I'm going to have to adapt it. I don't want a giant computer rack in my office.

Here is about all they have for the installation of the slides:

newservrrail.jpg
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Yes, thats a front and a rear bracket for a deep rack configuration (read: normal rack). Those brackets holds the rail guide while the rail guide holds the rail strip that holds the server.

I would be pleasantly surprised if you can make it functional in that rack, aside from bolting it down, I have money down that it wont be functional. Your best bet is to turn the thing on it's side and use it as a tower for the meantime until you can find a bigger rack. Also, the rack you have is more in line of a telco or a service rack, such as your 911 call center... I also have doubts that it's going to safely support 126lbs case, let alone a full system.... A regular computer rack cabinet holds in excess of 1000lbs.

If you do want some sort of a rack configuration, let me know. I may be too far of a drive for you, but I can locate you two two post racks that you can put back to back for a four post configuration, this would be dirt cheap (and take up much less space than a cabinet). Just let me know, I have over 100 of them :)
 
I just want to mount it, I never expected it to support the extended sliders on its own. I suppose it could if I lagged it to the floor but I'm not doing that either.

At any rate,I still don't see how those pieces fit together?
 
Posting pictures of the rail parts you have might help.

If you put it in the rack like that, it'll stick out the back a lot and probably tip the rack over backwards. That's only a telco rack, meant for punch panels and maybe a switch or two - certainly not that 200lb beast. Computer racks have four posts, two sets 28 inches or so (I forget exactly how far) apart in depth. The front pair of angle brackets screw into the front rails, and likewise on the back. The many sets of holes in the back ones are so you can compensate for different racks.

Were I in your situation, I'd be considering either investing in a rack (not necessarily full-height) or building a base (with casters, please!) for the machine.
 
PS-RagE said:
Well, I'm going to have to adapt it. I don't want a giant computer rack in my office.

Here is about all they have for the installation of the slides:

newservrrail.jpg
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The longer silver piece attaches to the back side of the rack, and the longer back piece screws to the front side. Ideally, the silver piece screws to the black piece somewhere around the ends; if you're lucky, it'll have screw holes for the middle as well.

Can you get a better picture of the longer black pieces?
 
You're going to kick yourself when that rack collapses under the weight of that beast, even more-so when it tips over and your hard drives magically fail :rolleyes:.

The money/space you pay for now will save you the money you'll be spending to replace the computer. Taking chances only takes you so far, but more power to you if you can find a solution that works well.
 
Here are a couple views of the rails. Shoulda taken these last night - sorry

newservr94.jpg


newservr95.jpg


As you can see, the sliders fit extremely close together. I can't figure how they intend you to bolt the silver ears to it

newservr96.jpg


The far end already has its own ears
 
From what it looks like, the rack you have doesn't have mounting holes on the back side of it. Is this the case? If it is, I wouldn't recommend using that rack. If you really want to, put it in the bottom of the rack and just screw the front side in, and it should probably stay put, as all the hard drives are in the front of the chassis. You may have to put some additional weight there to keep it balanced, though.

I think they should have included mounting hardware with the rackslides, there are probably screws for bolting the slide pieces together in there.
 
PS-RagE said:
Here are a couple views of the rails. Shoulda taken these last night - sorry

newservr94.jpg
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Is the piece with the sticker on it the part that moves here, or the piece behind it? If it is the part with the sticker, I think I see how it moves, and can write out my guess later today when I have a minute to do so.

 
I got it. Spent the morning with one of my techs and we got it figured out and installed. I'll put some pics up this evening
 
Although it appears they actually intend you to attach these as further extension to the rails, I inverted them to reach in towards the rack. We slightly modified a pair of rack extenders (intended for a Motorola MTR2000) for them to mount to. It worked out well and is very sturdy. With the computer mounted flat to the rails it is stable. However, if it is extended beyond 14 inches or so it starts to get tippy - definitely a two man job at that point.

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I kept the squaring plate from my stereo rack installation and decided to use it now to mount the CrystalFontz 634:

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There is only a mm or two between the metal bracket and the plastic bezel so the hole had to be carefully filed.

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A little touch of 5 minute epoxy to keep it in place and its done:

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I still have some more parts to be installed in the case and then I can take it back home. Not too sure where I'm going to put it yet. It is rather large and extremely heavy.
 
PS-RagE said:
With the computer mounted flat to the rails it is stable. However, if it is extended beyond 14 inches or so it starts to get tippy - definitely a two man job at that point.
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Indeed. I would put this somewhere out of reach of small children. Seriously - it's pretty easy to slide those things, and (no offense intended) it looks like a deathtrap. I hope you'll reconsider bolting it to the floor or getting a deeper rack.
 
Get a bigger UPS, and mount it in the bottom of the rack. :p

That'll help stabilize it.
 
Right.. but with all those drives in the front and the ups on the bottom shelf it might be ok... still and all, bolting a rack to the floor is always a good idea..
 
unhappy_mage said:
Indeed. I would put this somewhere out of reach of small children. Seriously - it's pretty easy to slide those things, and (no offense intended) it looks like a deathtrap. I hope you'll reconsider bolting it to the floor or getting a deeper rack.
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Nah, there is no sliding it. As you can see it is bolted in place. You've got to undo 4 machine screws before it can slide. You're right though, if it was not screwed shut it would indeed be an accident waiting to happen. First time someone said: "hey, what's with the handles?" <squash>

However, even without the UPS it is completely stable when shut.
 
Some of the missing parts are arriving.

A slim Pioneer DVD burner:

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And the locking bezel:

newservr109.jpg


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