Our computer room is quite small – small and pretty much overloaded. The 600mm deep rack that was installed at the same time as the structured cabling was great at the time but five years later it is way too small for our latest servers which means its time to … gulp … review the computer room layout. After spending some considerable time reviewing the options the only solution for moving forward is to take the plunge and start again.

Stripping out the computer room in a 24×7 operation is never going to be easy but it’s rapidly becoming a necessity. Over the years cables have been added, moved and emergency re-routed due to power failures and other things that have left a straggle of cables in the computer room. A purpose built wooden shelving unit was installed some years ago when we had a number of tower servers but these have pretty much all been replaced by rack servers that are now just sitting on the wooden unit – not an ideal solution. Our MSA array is sitting on a two-draw filing cabinet and all the wide area communications equipment is sitting on the floor!

As the large majority of our servers are HP I am obviously looking at the HP Rack 10842 G2 series of racks, url here: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06b/12416094-12416126-12416158-12416158-12416478-13073346-78168073.html

My plan is to put two of these units side by side, one primarily for cabling infrastructure, UPS equipment and Wide Area Comms and the other for the increasing number of HP DL380 servers, MSA arrays and other machines that we utilise. A sliding keyboard and monitor tray would make an interesting addition and so would a newer KVM – our 4 port HP KVM was ok but as we now have around 12 servers it just doesn’t have the capacity we need.

To keep cables under control, a false floor would be ideal but I’m not sure how practical it might be especially as the computer room is simply a converted upstairs lift shaft with a very uneven floor base.

My plan would be to borrow a meeting room (for some time!) and temporarily relocate the servers into it, then strip out the existing cabinet leaving the cables intact and still panelled (hopefully!). Removal of all non-essential furniture (filing cabinet, wooden units, etc) to maximise the available space in the area should give the best option for deciding the best position for the cabinets. Following this -  assembly of the two racks side by side can occur leaving enough room in front to open the doors, and at the sides and rear for access.

Bring back the UPS equipment and get that working, follow up with the environmental monitoring equipment. After this the room should be ready for the HP servers and the rest of the equipment would follow on. It all sounds quite straightforward but I’m sure it won’t be – I am half tempted to just leave things as they are but as the technology evolves a more logical and structured computer room facility would give major benefits.

The shopping list so far:

• 2 x 42" Rack Cabinets (1000mm deep)
• 1 x possible Raised Modular Flooring
• 1 x 16 port IP based KVM (with cables)
• 1 x Keyboard/Monitor Draw (with Keyboard and Monitor)
• ‘n’ x Shelves for storing non-rackable equipment
• 1 x Additional UPS
• ‘n’ x Additional Sensors for the environmental monitoring unit
• 2 x Intelligent Power Distribution Units (to allow remote physical power control)

As always I am open to ideas and suggestions – especially any pointers on what we should avoid!