I've noticed that many Dell servers seem to have shifted from a depth of 27 inches to 31 inches. I was trying to rack a new 470 model today, and it wouldn't fit properly until I closed the rack door. The models we typically purchase are all this same depth, and we might have to consider reconfiguring our racks because of this change. Also, I'm curious about how many PDUs people usually install in a rack. We typically run four, as we overloaded a PDU when we were trying to manage with only two, which made for a really interesting night!
5 Answers
Yep, had a blast racking our new servers while making sure cables didn’t get yanked out from the back of the ones already in there. It's a real juggling act!
In our colo racks, dealing with 0U PDUs can make server access a nightmare, so we set up two 2U Eaton PDUs in the middle instead. That seems to work better for us!
It's not just the servers causing trouble; the racks themselves are often poorly designed. I've worked with some great APC cabinets that made rail adjustments easy, but then had to deal with cheap racks where everything's a hassle. If you're not careful, aligning those rails can be a real pain!
The older 700 series servers were about that depth, so it feels pretty typical. Most of the server racks I’ve seen tend to be rectangular, while network racks are often more square. It's just the design!
As for PDUs, it really depends on what you're working with. Is it single or three-phase? For single-phase setups, I've seen up to six PDUs, but with three-phase, usually no more than two. In AI setups, sometimes six three-phase PDUs are running full load. Just remember, your power capacity should be based on your cooling capacity, not how many PDUs you fit!
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