Building a home server/network rack

[kevindd992002]

I'm buying the Boracade ICX6450 for my sister's new house and will be building on a small server rack from scratch. Since I'm not an expert on rack builds, I might as well ask here. My plan for this rack is (from top to bottom)

1U 24p patch panel
2U cable manager (horizontal finger duct)
1U 48p switch
2U cable manager (horizontal finger duct)
1U 24p patch panel

I'll then use 1-ft. patch cables for everything.

A couple of questions:

1. Is that a good placement of network gears?
2. Unloaded or preloaded patch panels? Modular jack type or non-modular/built-in?
3. For devices in the same rack that need to connect to the switch, do they still need to go through the patch panel?

 

[Tech Junky]

Everything to the patch makes it easier to deal with vs random cables hanging all over.

Do whatever is easiest to figure out for your sister not your inner geek.

 

[kevindd992002]

* I edited my first post to reflect the potential placement of the network gears (from top to bottom). I didn't realized it was in the wrong format.

Well, yeah, at this point I'm more concerned about the placement. Would 2 x patch panels and 2 x 2U horizontal finger ducts make sense? With the cable managers there, it wouldn't really be messy if I directly connect devices in the same rack to the switch because they can go through the passthrough holes of the cable managers and into the switch. This makes everything look uniform from the front.

Well, I'm figuring out the best looks I can get for my sister's server rack. It's in a separate room anyway so I can be flexible.

 

[dosborne]

figuring out the best looks I can get for my sister's rack.

[Holding back my comments - don't know if we should be discussing your sister's rack in this forum]

 

[Tech9]

I'm buying the Boracade ICX6450 for my sister's new house

Brocade... Is your sister going to run a VoIP call center from home? Get ready to become a volunteer sysadmin.

I would never install at relative/friend place hardware more complex than networking knowledge. I don't need another job.

 

[kevindd992002]

[Holding back my comments - don't know if we should be discussing your sister's rack in this forum]

Lol, I can see how that came out dirty. Edited the post.

 

[kevindd992002]

Brocade... Is your sister going to run a VoIP call center from home? Get ready to become a volunteer sysadmin.

I would never install at relative/friend place hardware more complex than networking knowledge. I don't need another job.

Yes, Brocade. A used ICX6450-48P is just around $120 from eBay. Read about them here: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...s-cheap-powerful-10gbe-40gbe-switching.21107/

It's not complex. It's a simple switch and I have enough networking knowledge to handle it. And yes, I'll be their sysadmin if something breaks. No big deal. I love troubleshooting.

 

[Tech9]

don't know if we should be discussing your sister's rack

It's okay. I've seen worse.

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