Rack Layout for Future Growth – Best Practices

datacenterhardwarerack

We're getting ready to move to a new colo facility and I'm designing
the rack layout. While we have a full rack, we only have 12U worth of
hardware right now:

  • 1x 1U switch
  • 7x 1U servers
  • 1x 2U server
  • 1x 2U disk shelf

The colo facility requires us to front-mount the switch and use a 1U
brush strip, so we'll be using a total of 13U of space.

Regarding growth, I'm reasonably sure we'll be adding another
4U in servers, 1-2U of network gear, and 2-4U of storage in the
mid-term. Specific questions I'm hoping to get help with:

  • where should I mount the switch? the LEDs are on top…
  • should I group the servers by function with space for adding new
    machines?
  • as an alternative, should I group servers based on whether they are
    production or staging?
  • where in the rack should I start? in the middle? at the top? at the
    bottom? equally spaced?

Here's a silly little ASCII diagram of what I'm thinking right
now. Please feel free to tear my design apart, I've really no idea what
I'm doing 🙂 Any advice is very welcome.

edit: to be clear, the colo is providing redundant power with UPS and generator, so that's why there's no power gear in the plan, except for the 0U PDU that I didn't diagram.

    42 | -- switch ----------------------
    41 | -- brush strip -----------------
    40 | ~~ reserved for second switch ~~
    39 | ~~ reserved for firewall ~~~~~~~
    38 | 
    37 | -- admin01 ---------------------
    36 | 
    35 | -- vm01 ------------------------
    34 | -- vm02 ------------------------
    33 | ~~ reserved for vm03 ~~~~~~~~~~~
    32 | ~~ reserved for vm04 ~~~~~~~~~~~
    31 | ~~ reserved for vm05 ~~~~~~~~~~~
    30 | 
    29 | -- web01 -----------------------
    28 | -- web02 -----------------------
    27 | ~~ reserved for web03 ~~~~~~~~~~
    26 | ~~ reserved for web04 ~~~~~~~~~~
    25 | 
    24 | 
    23 | 
    22 | 
    21 | 
    20 | 
    19 | 
    18 | 
    17 | 
    16 | -- db01 ------------------------
    15 | +- disks ----------------------+
    14 | +------------------------------+
    13 | ~~ reserved for more ~~~~~~~~~~~
    12 | ~~ db01 disks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    11 | 
    10 | +- db02 -----------------------+
     9 | +------------------------------+
     8 | ~~ reserved for db02 ~~~~~~~~~~~
     7 | ~~ disks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     6 | ~~ reserved for more ~~~~~~~~~~~
     5 | ~~ db02 disks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     4 | 
     3 | 
     2 | 
     1 |

Best Answer

There are as many ways to do this as there are opnions on the subject. My opinion is to keep it simple: firewalls, routers, and switches go at the top of the rack. The heaviest equipment goes on the bottom and then work your way up from there. Leave a U or two in the middle for a pull-out KVM tray, about waist to chest high, if you plan to put one in the rack.

Trying to populate the rack by function is probably going to lead to frustration. You've got a new file server but no room where the file servers go, etc.

I must admit that I need to keep my OC tendencies in check when I'm figuring out where to put things.

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