I am finally in a home I can call my own, and after stareing with pride at our "automation closet" I started loading it up wth servers, etc. Right now I have two Dell severs (2600 and 1500), a no-name PC, router, IPCop rackmount, LTO tape backup and a couple of misc. pieces of networking equipment. I also just got a new 24-port 10/100/1000 PoE switch that will handle all the ethernet that runs to the panel in the closet (which is very loud). I have all this junk since I run a smll business out of my home, and the big dell handles file, print and corp email. The other boxes host a website and run Asterisk.
All this hardware is well and good except for the fact that it is too hot to run with the door closed. When I first fired everything up and left it alone for the night, I woke up to one of the server overheat alarms going off. Even with the door closed, the fan noise is noticable and the closet opens into the kitchen/family room of an open floorplan house so it is a bit annoying not to mention tough on the WAF.
Anyone have some good ideas on how to cool everything down, and quiet it down a bit? For cooling I was thinking of putting a jump duct towards the top of the closet to let hot air out, and an additional one down low if there still was not enough cool air coming in under the door.
For quiet, the only good solution I've come up with is cutting down on hardware or moving some of it to another location in the house. The only candidates are guest closets which would have issues with network and power (there is none, so think extension cords), and the odd looks from guests when they see some rackmount server sitting on the floor. We also plan on filling these rooms with wee ones at some point, so it's not a great long term solution. The closet is standard interior drywall on the 1st floor, and the walls are not insulated. The Dell servers have been super reliable and are cheap on eBay, but boy are they LOUD.
All this hardware is well and good except for the fact that it is too hot to run with the door closed. When I first fired everything up and left it alone for the night, I woke up to one of the server overheat alarms going off. Even with the door closed, the fan noise is noticable and the closet opens into the kitchen/family room of an open floorplan house so it is a bit annoying not to mention tough on the WAF.
Anyone have some good ideas on how to cool everything down, and quiet it down a bit? For cooling I was thinking of putting a jump duct towards the top of the closet to let hot air out, and an additional one down low if there still was not enough cool air coming in under the door.
For quiet, the only good solution I've come up with is cutting down on hardware or moving some of it to another location in the house. The only candidates are guest closets which would have issues with network and power (there is none, so think extension cords), and the odd looks from guests when they see some rackmount server sitting on the floor. We also plan on filling these rooms with wee ones at some point, so it's not a great long term solution. The closet is standard interior drywall on the 1st floor, and the walls are not insulated. The Dell servers have been super reliable and are cheap on eBay, but boy are they LOUD.