Home Server Rooms?

Tuzanor writes "I've got a buddy moving into a brand new house. Being geeks, we've decided to wire the house with a large home network. While this story took care of wiring the house, we need to figure out how to create a well set up server room. We'll be having both towers and rack mounted computers as well as various switches, UPSes, etc. Also, we figure this room will get warm, even in winter. How may we cool it while still keeping the rest of the house toasty warm on a cold Canadian night (without opening a window)"

Localized Thermometers

[Mattcelt]

Has always been my solution of choice. Of course, that only takes care of half the problem. I had considered switching vents. (Hey, if it works for 10baseT...) These could reroute the air to wherever it needed to be.

kill two birds

[eric6]

if you DON'T cool it, you also solve the problem of your staying warm on those cold winter nights...

Re:Natural cooling

[xueexueg]

Uh, it says in the abstract "(without opening a window).Who looks stupid now? :)

Yeah, but it's a decent solution. An old office of mine had the machine room in the same room as this insane radiator that never stopped working pumping heat, year round. When we installed a cooling/ventilaton system it stressed the wiring in the room so much that it caused a fire. So we just kept the window open all winter. It had bars on it to keep out the criminal elements, and glass in front of it to keep out the meteorological elements.

I'm not necessarily/unqualifiedly recommending that, but if you're already using tons of electricity to run all this useless equipment, you'll just have to use that much again to cool it all. Just keep a window open. I know the abstract said otherwise, but I think he should think again.

First, make sure that's where you drop the line.

[bhsx]

You'll definately want your connection dropped to that room, that's my first suggestion, or you'll go nuts later and kick yourself forever. Depending on the number of 1/2U systems you'll be using, a short stack can be easily hidden in a custom made (well-ventilated) box in the corner, complete with slide out racks(think drawers). I assume you'd also have at least one more workstation in this room, prolly more than that by the sounds of it, for lan gaming when friends come over and such (as you probably don't want to leave them alone in your daughters room while you frag them from your cushy den:). What I would do is find a nice counter-top that you like and build a wrap-around counter on two of the walls, meeting at a corner; this leaves plenty of center room space for big-leather-rolly-chairs-wars. You can easily hide all the towers, UPSs and cables under the counter, leaving tons of leg room, with everything else up top(obviously). I cool mine(let's just say I hear what you're asking) with an hotel wall-mount AC, which I picked up cheap from a place that was about to be torn down, YMMV.
Plug everything in and invite the neighbors, cheers.

solution

[discogravy]

build a simple wooden shack adjecent to the house, with no insulation of any kind. put everything there. run wires from that shack to inside the house (maybe through a window that's been packed with some insulation).

ideally, you'd want everything outside for temperature reasons during the winter, but you'd probably have to cool them in the summer and you would still have to shield them from the elements during harsh winters -- hence, a shack.

Re:Natural cooling (geothermal)

[swordboy]

Check out geothermal cooling [doe.gov]. Dig about 5 - 7 feet down into the ground and you've got a consistent temperature *year 'round*. The temperature happens to be ideal for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter.

It'd be *ultra geek* if you could set up a processor cooler based on this technology.

It's all about design

[clark625]

A good home server room is just as good as the design behind it. That's probably why it's an AskSlashdot question. An apt one, too.
In my home, I set up my server room before we even officially moved in. I can get pics if people desire, but I'll give the gist here.

First, it needs to be in the basement. Some people think it's only a heat issue, but the reality is that server rooms are noisy. I've only got four machines whirring about, and that alone is enough to sound like a wind tunnel.

Second, build shelving such that you can walk around it and access equipment from the rear. How many tower cases have RJ-45 connectors on the front side? Didn't think so. I built shelving out of 2x4's, 3/4" plywood, lag bolts, and drywall screws. Some day I'll get around to putting formica all over everything (it's not that expensive and easy to do). Everything is strong enough to hold me jumping up and down without any wiggle.

Third, carefully design how your wires are going to run. Raceways are a great idea, though you can also go the cheap route and use ziptie loops that have screw holes. Also, network wires should not be in the same raceway (and not parallel) to power cables.

Finally, place your equipment. Servers should be placed where they most make sense, e.g. don't put the internal file server next to the router and the public webserver on the other end. People should get a "feeling" of what your machine's duties are visually. Also, keep networking gear all in the same area--hubs, switches, and even modems and your incoming ISP equipment. That's also the best place for your router.

In addition, consider a KVM. They really are helpful, and cut down a lot on heat (and space needs). Some even have remote extenders--with mine I can work on any machine in my server room from my desktop in my office area. Definitely beats working in the wind tunnel.

Insulation, or lack thereof

[ADRA]

I have three computers living in a very tiny closet, which would normally kill all three. The trick I used was that the closet has a removable insulated panel which leads to a non-insulated crawl space. By leaving the panel open by varying degrees I can control the temperature in the closet to reasonable while not freezing my ass off outside of it.

Another solution if you don't ned physical access, just leave them in an uninsolated room and close the door. Warning though, watch out for the bugs ;-)

Re:Serious answer

[Splat]

I am dead serious when I tell you know I know two people who run a very successful consulting firm around my ara who have their servers in a bathroom inside their house. When I asked them why they put them there, the answer was "We don't use this bathroom, it's in the middle of the house, and it's the most secure since it has no windows in it."

Ask serious questions, get slightly stupid answers :)

Re:Natural cooling (geothermal)

[DJerman]

Yah, but PC's arent designed to be earth-cooled :-). You'd have to dig a really long (or deep) shaft to get enough air-to-earth heat transfer area to keep up with the heat output of the PC's. Too short and eventually (perhaps quickly) the air from the room will elevate the temperature of the exposed surfaces, outstripping the thermal conductivity of the earth and baking the equipment.

The exhaust fan sounds better to me -- most equipment is designed to be air-cooled in a cool-room-temp environment, so dragging the house-air through the room makes sense.

If you want to get really wild -- insulate the interior walls and cut a window, then mount a window air conditioner across the interior wall to pump heat from the server room into the house proper, recycling instead of dumping.

Re:Come on...

[Senior Frac]

That's fine in the winter, but what happens in the summertime when you don't want warm air from the server room coming in?

But, you do.

This equalizes the heat throughout the house, so the normal house air conditioning can take it away. There's no getting around the fact that he's producing more heat than the normal house does and must pay to get it outside somehow.

Re:Natural cooling (geothermal)

[walt-sjc]

Ummm, you don't bury the computers, you bury about a mile of poly tubing, and circulate a water / glycol mix. Hook that up to an old AC core (or a new one, it's your money...) and you
have yourself a basic heat transfer system. Add a compressor and you have a heat pump. Big project, and expensive (cost of digging deep enough and tubing). If you heat / cool you whole house this way, it may pay for itself.

What I did for my room, was add a few electic dampers, duct blowers, thermostats, and a few relays and you have yourself a REALLY simple climate conrtol system.

You have 4 ducts: exhaust to outside, fresh outside air (filtered), furnace (a/c), and furnace return. Use thermostats to control which ducts are active based on temps inside, outside, etc.

When it's cold outside, you have free AC. When it's warm, you tap off the main house AC. Dual zone control on furnaces are common. I don't care how cold it gets in the room, so heating isn't required (it doesn't get below 30 outside here, and the server room. You can't actually recycle the waste heat as the room is ALWAYS cooler than I normally keep the rest of the house.

I actually have a new modern furnace and A/C that can run at 3 different levels which works awesome for this project. I also have an electronic air cleaner, and run the blower 24/7/365 filtering the house air (allergies...)

Re:Come on... [And as a geek]

[Publicus]

It shouldn't be too difficult for you to set up some thermostatic switches to control the system. Just make it blow cold air (even from outside) into the server room when it's needed and blow the hot air into the rest of the furnace system when you need that in the rest of the house.

If the server room is going to be in the basement, you probably could just put a blower vent going into the main flume from near the ceiling of the server room, and then spill the cold air from the rest of the house (or just some of it) into the server room, again from the ceiling. Then it'll be the coolest room in the house, and not just because it has a bunch of computers!

Here's another tip, put the hot-air sucker near the outside wall, and the cold air blower nearer to the center of the house. That'll keep the air moving and thermoclining (layers of different temp air).

Good luck!

Your Furnance - The biggest computer fan ever

[hillbilly1980]

Well you have a furnace don't you. I have a fairly spacieous and well sealed furnace room. In your instance take advantage of that.

Go to Home Depot get a register T and insert it into the cold air intake coming into the room. Add a booster fan ( be sure that is sucking air down and not blowing it up, its a cool idea to suck all that warm air out... its also a cool idea to keep that furnace with enough oxygen so it doesnt' go and kill you with carbon monoxide.)I left the remainder of the intake pipe going back down to the furnace so I was simply tapping into the air supply and not diverting the entire flow.

Next create a simple register system that blows down on the back of the systems, get some straight register pieces and some elbows, its just like connecting straws together. The furnace should easiely handle the excess heat ever time it kicks in. You can also throw in a standard thermostat in and set the furnace fan to summer mode, so it will kick in whenever the temp goes above a certian tempature.

Now you could also go a step further and encase the systems into a sealed box ( essentially we thought about getting some plywood and making like a small sealed shed in my furnace room, and then forcing the air out with a second fan that would runn the air directly to the air intake of the furnace.) The only warning is don't try and force the exhausted air out through the chimmney for the furnace... why you ask.. because you don't wanna mess it up and again...and say, flood your house with deadly generally unnoticable furnace exhaust.

and then attatching a standard register booster fan to my incoming air chimmey ( which anyone with a furnace will have its required by law, although i don't know if modifying it is legal.. :] ). An

Why so many machines, at home?

[Console]

I guess most of us reading and posting on this story have several machines at home. I have three machines on "active duty" (main workstation, DSL-gateway and webserver) and two more that are basically collecting dust except for when I want to test something unusual. A number of projects to get them into active use culminated with a beowulf, but that was a short w00t. (Whee, I have a beowulf! Now I can...I can...*crickets*).
Now I'm down to 5 machines, the all-time high was 8, and most of the recent leftovers are being donated to the family instead of ending up in the "next box" box.

Three units makes sense to me. It allows for all sorts of network testing and experimenting, so for a computer professional/hobbyist it's still rational.
What I'd like to know is what use you guys find for that 4th, 5th, 12th machine? I know from personal experience that "just for the heck of it" can be a good motivator to add another old machine the the net, but I'd enjoy it greatly if someone could elaborate on their far-out home setups, and perhaps spread some inspiration to the rest of us?

Re:No, no, no!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nearly there, 12d (pence) = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = £1, 240d = £1

The history bit :-

"The English standard of 12 pence/shilling arrived with the Normans, prior to this the Anglo-saxons had used 4, 5 or 12 pence. A silver shilling coin was first struck in the 16th century - prior to this the penny was the largest silver coin in circulation."

For a system dating back over 500 years it didn't do too badly, if you've traced your lineage back, just imagine your ancestors would have been using this system.

Problem with the UK is the fact we have a weird mix of old imperial and metric measurements, it can be really fucking confusing ;)

Euro's anyone? If I converted £1000 to Euro's, just think, I could buy Europe outright ;)

Re: Invitations

[mrpotato]

I actually know 2 of those... impressed? ;-)

Water? Water!

[Thor Ablestar]

My potential server room will be (If my mother agrees, of course) a box of about 0.5*0.5*2 meters located above the passway to the standard micro Soviet kitchen of Khrushchev epoch. Really, in winter (-31 deg. Celsius day temperature NOW) I can drop the heat into the kitchen, it's enough.

But in summer! Street temperatures are higher than +30C, and with my $100/month budget it's difficult to buy a split-system air conditioner.

The decision is very simple: There is always a lot of cold water in the tap. I only need a used car radiator and a fan. Add the thermostatic controller and electromagnetic valve according to taste. The water tariff is flat here, and the water from Lake Baikal is always cold. Of course, if the aquifer is being repaired, you are out of luck.

Smell?

[NWT]

Hum, i'm a poor boy and have only 1 room for me and all my computers, so i'm running 4 computers in my room, i don't care about the noise, but sometimes when i haven't openend a window for a day or so you can smell the computers (electrostatic smell i think :) it doesn't smell that nice, sou i wouldn't heat the other rooms with the hot air from your server room!

Lego-based heat control

[ColGraff]

I guess, if I did feel some perverse need for a server room, this is how I'd do it:

Buy a used Lego Mindstorms set.

Build a temerature sensor for the set. (Basically, just buy a thermistor from radioshack and hook it to a Lego sensor wire - it works like a light sensor.

Build a lego robot that can open the window a crack when the temp. sensor detects a temp above a certain limit. Voila. Plus, this way you get the geek-out factor.