Rack layout for future growth
- by bleything
We're getting ready to move to a new colo facility and I'm designing
the rack layout. While we have a full rack, we only have 12U worth of
hardware right now:
1x 1U switch
7x 1U servers
1x 2U server
1x 2U disk shelf
The colo facility requires us to front-mount the switch and use a 1U
brush strip, so we'll be using a total of 13U of space.
Regarding growth, I'm reasonably sure we'll be adding another
4U in servers, 1-2U of network gear, and 2-4U of storage in the
mid-term. Specific questions I'm hoping to get help with:
where should I mount the switch? the LEDs are on top...
should I group the servers by function with space for adding new
machines?
as an alternative, should I group servers based on whether they are
production or staging?
where in the rack should I start? in the middle? at the top? at the
bottom? equally spaced?
Here's a silly little ASCII diagram of what I'm thinking right
now. Please feel free to tear my design apart, I've really no idea what
I'm doing :) Any advice is very welcome.
edit: to be clear, the colo is providing redundant power with UPS and generator, so that's why there's no power gear in the plan, except for the 0U PDU that I didn't diagram.
42 | -- switch ----------------------
41 | -- brush strip -----------------
40 | ~~ reserved for second switch ~~
39 | ~~ reserved for firewall ~~~~~~~
38 |
37 | -- admin01 ---------------------
36 |
35 | -- vm01 ------------------------
34 | -- vm02 ------------------------
33 | ~~ reserved for vm03 ~~~~~~~~~~~
32 | ~~ reserved for vm04 ~~~~~~~~~~~
31 | ~~ reserved for vm05 ~~~~~~~~~~~
30 |
29 | -- web01 -----------------------
28 | -- web02 -----------------------
27 | ~~ reserved for web03 ~~~~~~~~~~
26 | ~~ reserved for web04 ~~~~~~~~~~
25 |
24 |
23 |
22 |
21 |
20 |
19 |
18 |
17 |
16 | -- db01 ------------------------
15 | +- disks ----------------------+
14 | +------------------------------+
13 | ~~ reserved for more ~~~~~~~~~~~
12 | ~~ db01 disks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11 |
10 | +- db02 -----------------------+
9 | +------------------------------+
8 | ~~ reserved for db02 ~~~~~~~~~~~
7 | ~~ disks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6 | ~~ reserved for more ~~~~~~~~~~~
5 | ~~ db02 disks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |