| A rack server cabinet is a physical enclosure that can house several rack-mounted devices—servers, storage, firewalls and more—at any given time. Enclosures are generally floor-standing or wall-mounted, with multiple racks aligned in rows. Many enclosures have ventilated doors, channels or conduits for cabling and removable side panels for servicing equipment. Some cabinets have locking bars for improved security and shock-absorption capabilities to protect particularly sensitive hardware from casual damage. They also serve to conceal internal components of rack server backbones. |
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| Basic server racks consist of two or four vertical uprights onto which you mount equipment with threaded or unthreaded fasteners. Four-post designs incorporate slide rails for easier access, with each rack-optimized server having an indicator light to alert you to a problematic server on the rack. These equipment bays and other features make servicing rack-mounted hardware more efficient and economical than pulling a traditional stand-alone server offline and servicing its internal components, particularly considering variation in case and component designs. |
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| Tip: Typical rack features include the structural support rack with either tapped or threaded bolt holes, round-hole (unthreaded), cage nut or square-hole fasteners. When evaluating a rack server setup, inquire about the particular advantages and disadvantages with each fastener design as it applies to your particular network environment. Not every option is changeable or compatible. |
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| A rack unit is the basic unit of measure that describes the height property for a piece of rack-mounted network equipment. Each rack unit measures 1.75 inches high, which is designated in terms of 1U for one rack unit, 2U for two units and so forth. The height designations also indicate location within the rack. For example, 4U equipment is four "slots" up on the rack. |
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Servers and storage |
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| Rack systems support the latest servers on the market with multiple cores, high memory capacities and increased input/output bandwidth. This high level of computing power and enhanced design lower thermal output and reduce noise. |
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| Rack servers can accommodate Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and Parallel ATA (PATA) drives for standard and hot-pluggable magnetic, optical and flash drives. |
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| Tip: To help you select the appropriate server and other equipment for your environment, visit the HP ActiveAnswers web page and browse the sizing tools. |
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Power and cooling |
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| Rack-mounted power supplies and power distribution schemes are more capable, more complex and vastly different from standard power supply designs. Such units can provide row-level power distribution with dual high-amperage inputs and outputs, circuit monitoring and surge suppression. You can also use rack-mountable uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units and various other monitored power distribution units (PDUs) and accessories. |
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| Because racks are designed to support a lot of heat-generating equipment, depending on the density of your racks, you should consider acquiring air-conditioned server cabinets or budget for stand-alone modular cooling systems as your infrastructure grows. |
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Other components |
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| Other rack-specific components include slide-out trays for keyboards and pop-up liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors. You can then use keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switches to toggle between the various rack server computers and service the entire rack from a single console. Racks also include specialized enclosures and backplanes for different types of hardware, such as Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) drive bays and front-mount universal serial bus (USB) attachments, shelving units and filler panels. |
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Management software |
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| Consolidated management software is a key contributor to the long-term economical impact of a proper rack server layout. IT personnel can spend less time wandering to and from racks or cabinets and instead just switch between servers on the KVM. |
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| Good management software should enable you to: |
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Monitor and manage your entire IT infrastructure from a single console. |
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Provide an easy-to-use interface for rapid deployment of standard server configurations and software builds. |
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Support value-added plug-ins for seamless migrations (physical and virtual), vulnerability and patch management, and virtual machine management and control. |
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TCO and ROI factors |
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| A single entry-level rack server unit costs about the same as a new tower replacement; however, it saves floor space and can be administered more efficiently than a tower. Also consider that, in a cooperative computing environment where several different computers share responsibilities and resources, there are periods of inactivity in which idle servers contribute heat and waste energy. With a rack system, you can easily consolidate some servers and employ virtualization to reduce server idle time and reduce heat buildup. |
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| Tip: Factor any energy-conserving aspects, such as energy-efficient processors and power supplies, into your server rack solution TCO calculations. |
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| However, a densely populated rack system requires special cooling measures to eliminate pockets of heat in and around the rack. These measures range in price and complexity from simple filler panels that direct heat flow within a rack to external liquid cooling systems that cool entire data centers. |
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| Finally, as companies spread application and service coverage among many parallel computing platforms, management becomes an increasing cost factor. Rack server remote management technologies enable users to load software and perform maintenance tasks even when offsite, which can dramatically reduce support time and on-site management expenses. |
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