DIY Home Rack Build

Tom here from Warren Systems and we're going to talk about how to

build

your

home

lab

rack

server. Now I know that some people are just thinking that the cloud is not the future, but other people know that the reality is that the cloud is still somewhere and you have your own cloud at

home

, have a server at home to learn , having a

rack

to put all these servers that you have to learn on, I think is a very important part of your IT career, not only if you are starting out, but even if you are like me and have been doing this for over 25 years in the industry.

I still have, even though it's in my office here, different racks and

build

s that are essentially lab builds. Now many of you have this at home and that's great and some people work. from home now and technically it's a home lab or it's your rab server. I don't know, it's either way, let's talk about some of the pieces and build it, it will be suggestions and ideas, not necessarily. the only way to do it I say this because what-abouts come out all the time because I may not cover your favorite way you've created it, but I'm always interested in hearing different suggestions and ideas so you know I'm not trying to tell you no. comment, feel free to comment and tell me some of the other things you like besides the bits and pieces we're going to talk about before we get into all of these details, let's go first if you want.

Learn more about me or my company, visit lawrencesystems.com. If you want to hire a short project, there is a hire button right at the top if you want to help keep this channel sponsor free and thank you to everyone already. There's a join button here for YouTube and a Patreon page. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you are looking for deals or discounts on products and services we offer on this channel, please check out the affiliate links below. They are in the description of All our videos include a link to our t-shirt store. We have a wide variety of t-shirts that we sell and new designs come out randomly so visit us often and finally our forums forums.laurensystems.com is where you can find out more. deep discussion about this video and other tech topics you've seen on this channel now let's get back to our content quick disclosure to get out of the way these are the rack mounts they sent me these I like them they're pretty clean that's the only thing I didn't pay for in this particular video, it's not sponsored by them or anything like that.

I'm going to talk about their product here, but they coincidentally sent me a random bag. I guess they found my address on YouTube anyway. Start with cable management and specifically reusable cable ties. It may not seem like something you think about when setting up a home lab for the first time, but I can't stress enough how important, especially if you're working with a team of people, to have everything nice and tidy, even if you're working alone, to have it nice and tidy is easy and, by their very nature, home labs are diverse and change a lot because your learning can change and what you want to learn can change, so tying everything up with zip ties means, well, cutting a lot of zip ties and doing it all again and I don't know, I like the cable management.

I know I've seen some messy labs, but if you're on the side of liking nice and tidy, these are great. I have links below to everything we talked about in the video including these that come in a variety of colors or you can just go with the regular plain black which is actually my preference when I make them but hey my staff orders the ones from colors and It's very important when we pull out a bunch of patch cables for a project, even here in the office, I want them all to be back together, wrapped tightly, and that makes it a lot easier than just hanging a bunch of cables so it doesn't seem like a home lab thing, but these are definitely a suggestion now somewhat related, is this from here?

I said there are no zip ties, but these types of zip ties are actually quite useful. These are cable ties with a label now if you're asking why I would want a cable tie with a label it's actually very useful when you have cables that you don't really want to tie something to or try to wrap them with a print you pull this out and just write a number on them and this was actually reused, that's why the numbers faded out, but it's a simple way when you have cables that you need to label and you want to know where they go, maybe you want to put the port number here or the panel connections.

The number listed there is quite useful and I will leave a link to these. They've come in handy a couple of times when we've had to label things and make things very clear when talking about patch panels. This is a really important part I wanted to talk about patch panels which are modular, these work much better than the traditional and old ones, now the drillable ones are still in use and save you the hassle of having to buy a bunch of keystones. but what we have here is a modular patch panel with a couple of different types of keystone keys.

This is a hdmi trapezoidal stone. This is your standard pierced keystone. It actually allows you to connect a standard rj45 cable on the back. You're probably wondering why I would do it. I need it, it's actually a useful thing if you want to connect your servers and you're like me and hate crimping cables, you can just put another cable behind it and plug it back into the server and you don't have to. Deal with the problem of drilling it. Someone is going to hate me for that. You're just lazy. Hit them every time. I don't know.

I find it quite convenient because I hate drilling into wires. I do it very infrequently. because I have a whole dedicated staff, I have a team dedicated to drilling thousands and thousands of cables every year, they are very talented at that. I know how to do it before you think I don't know what it's like. I don't like it, but these are those little conveniences and hdmi may seem strange to you. The hdmi is actually very convenient because maybe you want it and part of building your lab is using some raspberry pies. Turns out there's one back here and with the raspberry pie.

They have a delicate little cable there so you can run it from here to the Raspberry Pi that way when I want to plug things in or move things around, change them, I'm not messing around trying to put it on a tiny little raspberry pi and run it here or maybe I just have some different devices and want to set up your AV equipment there and want it all nice and neat in one patch panel, now I know that home lab patch panels are completely optional, but they make things look so much better when you have everything in the front, you don't reach the back.

Now I have this strange HDMI extension. I don't know where it came from, but I know you can buy them. Online I'm not sure how to purchase it here, but they have a similar one that I don't have in stock, a USB cable that's a little longer than this one and I've linked them. It's actually a good idea because You can plug the USB in front here and run it back to the server now if you want to walk over to the shelf in your home lab and plug in a USB. I wish I had one.

I didn't think about ordering one for this particular one. video, but I thought they were pretty interesting, I left a link to them and this is the point, although when you have a patch panel that is modular like this, it's being able to mix and match and build a nice, you know, put some. labels on the top and you have all the things you need in one place or buy a couple of these and if you're an AV nerd, it turns out I actually didn't even realize there are banana clips and jack connections of speaker that will fit into cornerstones a lot of things fit into cornerstones so that's one of the reasons why I really recommend these modulars and of course you will have them and in fact this one is destined for my house very soon , that's why I wanted to get it.

This video is done. I have some things that are going to be mounted on the rack and some other things that are wired around my house. I don't have more than half a dozen cables coming from my house that are actually coated in just a couple of things and those will go on one end of the keystones with your standard drilling style and then the other ones will be fine, the different things there just to keep things nice and neat and I'll be doing a separate video on that after I build it, but I wanted to cover some of the parts that I'll be using now.

Next up is mounting all of this on a rack and I'll cover the rack in a second in a little more detail, but I want to talk about these rack bolts versus cage nuts and now they're cool on this side, here are the traditional cage nuts and any The thumbs pushing these little guys can be a little tedious, let's put this here real quick and I've already messed up a little, let's see if I can squeeze it out, oh come on, yes, they make a tool to make it easier. right, I've tightened it down, but obviously I'm holding this little piece in a way that's very simple, so I can put this on, but when it's on a rack and maybe something on top or underneath it can be a little bit tricky to put them on, but they are Solid, they are resistant if you have something heavy.

I like the standard cage nuts and they go in like that, so now let's talk about the rack nut method and a lot of the lighter stuff. I mean they're plastic so I don't think they'll hold up as long as these, but these come from the front so that's the first thing that's going to make them easy so they go in like this and then. a little tilt, that's what was in it, it's really easy, you don't have to get behind it, you don't want to snag anything, it will come back out, you can put your finger back here and push down, move it to the right. step back if you want, but we're going to keep this in, then we have this little keeper piece and this keeper piece goes like this and if you can see how that end is going, this end is going to push right over there so you can put them on backwards, but They're not going to look right and they're not going to fit properly so be careful to get them right and what you do is you hold it so it can't come off and then you just twist it around.

These go in with whatever you're going to ride so we're going to go ahead and spin this little thing and when it spins you'll see the gap close and this now becomes nice and tight against there and that's it, it's really solid. It's a nice piece, I like the way they hold up and because they're thumbscrews, especially if you're a home lab and you move things around, you don't have to look for a screwdriver because they're not thumbscrews, they're standard extras. screws so I still use them where things are heavy and if it's heavy and it's going to be there and it's going to have a lot of weight maybe you have an old server or just a big heavy storage array or a UPS especially if you have one of those on your shelf, you'll know they are, I don't know if I trust the shelf uprights, but I could do a separate video on how strong they are now this star tech shelf that I'll cover, there are two styles. of rack stud and I mentioned a star tech rack because they have a wider one depending on the thickness of the rail and a narrower one, the red ones here, burgundy red, I don't know, I'm not a color expert, these are definitely the correct size for the star tech but note the purple ones are a little wider in the way they fit into the thickness of the grille, they will work on the star check it seems to work but also looks like they are a little too big. they are the ideal size, I guess there are a couple of millimeters different listed on the bag of the rack pins and even when you put the plastic thing on you get a little wig, pull it out a little, then you can push this and easily pull them back out .

Well, almost easily, there we go, pretty easy, not too difficult to do, now we know how we mount some of these things with these rack studs and I'm going to start with something heavy, because heavy is where I recommend using the standard metal ones because they work very well and servers are heavy, and I know home labs are not ideal when it comes to having rails that work perfectly and slide in and out, this is a challenge, this is where they solve that challenge and I got a couple of them are already mounted back here, these are made by knavepoint and i have a link to them, they are adjustable trays essentially for setting up servers, now you can get them in different sizes, you calculate the depth of your rack, the startech rack itself is also expandable and work great for servers that work fine without the proper rails and if you're like me I get different servers that I go through and we slide them in and out and by the way despite sliding them in and out , this has been here for a couple of years, they barely have any scratches, the metal coating atom holds up very well, not that it matters, but aesthetically you know thatit's not as worn out and being able to slide on a server and you know not having to worry about trying to mount it every time, it's a simple process and like I said they are adjustable to whatever depth you have your rack set to, the specs are below , you put all the screws here and I really recommend one.

However, you'll notice that I've made it so that with these there are four screws, not just two, I mean it can probably hold quite a bit of weight when you put it on with just two, but the reason you really want to put four on is if you only put it on with one and you set the server up like this and it will tilt down because there's nothing to hold the top so make sure when you put these in you put four on the inside and four on the back because if this starts to come in like this and because of the of this way, you may get the server to catch on the screws that come in because they will tilt and get stuck, it will be very irritating, save yourself the trouble so you won't be standing there holding a server and dealing with that now for the next piece, the rack startech 25u, now this is a 25u expandable depth, but an expandable depth, which is really convenient because, well, you can have different needs.

I actually have a switch mounted on the back if you're wondering what's in here. easier for the 10gig switch because of the sfp cables, I didn't want to run them towards the front so it's symmetrical so you can use it on any side you want to use it. It's actually the same either way, but this is what I consider the front and the other side, which is essentially the back. Now one thing I've done is added this piece of OSB board to the top. Well, I didn't add it. My staff went to the hardware store and bought a piece painted black. it just has a little chip here it's very convenient to have it on top it's screwed to this I really like this as an accessory to have it right on top so we can put things in here the only drawback is that occasionally it ends up being a place where they stack things that aren't secure of where to put and a lot of things end up there now, you can notice it and I'll show it from the front because so you can see it in action, yes it will. change a little nothing, there is a stop for this, but yes, it will be a little tight, it is well built, I don't feel bad about having it doing this, I put some very heavy equipment in there, but it's basically the small space between where these bolts put it They are, but uh, this is not difficult to put together, I'll actually show a very quick video, me and my phone, my son put this together, it happened relatively quickly and it's still very solid, no problem putting heavy equipment inside here now . let's talk about some of the other details uh and the power seems good to start with.

The power is supplied with this adjpc100a. Now it's not bad. I like the fact that it has numbers and is illuminated so you can turn things around. It turns on and off as needed, so if I want to turn number seven on or off, no problem. It's also completely related to the way I have things labeled. I'm going to pull one of these out from behind. Here we put small labels on the power cord. I should probably use those cable ties I mentioned, but I know that power five goes into this particular plug. Now there are just standard plugs in the back, but this makes it really convenient when you're doing things I don't know what server it will be. connected when because well there are some empty spaces for what I'm going to test next and by having each one labeled that way I can turn them on and off as needed individually, that's what makes sense to me now.

I will mention that it may not make sense to you, so I do because this is what is going on in my house, this cyber power cps one two one five and I like this device, it has plugs in the front, plugs in the back and this works. well when you don't need to turn everything off individually you just need a switch they also put a little click in there so you can't accidentally hit it once it's closed it's in the on or off position very long cord and like me. I said I have linked both below, whichever works or maybe some combination.

Obviously this only has plugs on the back and it looks nice on the top of the rack and I don't want everything to be on all the time especially when I have noisy servers here I turn them off when I go to record and maybe turn them on later . We have some things that are more static here, so they have a label on top, but at home for what I'm doing at home. I have the same rack and I just want power all the time and I have cables in both the front and the back, lots of places to plug things into whatever I need to connect and I'll probably mount it on the back of the rack at home to feed everything now let's go to something that drives me absolutely crazy and if you work in the technical field it has probably driven you crazy too and that is the shelves, it is important to buy them so that you can save yourself so much hassle.

The thing is, not everything is going to be rack mountable, you have your cable modem and a lot of other things that you can end up with, like this synology or this truenast which is obviously not rack mountable, and I know some people just they'll do this and I'll just put things on top of whatever is mounted on a rack with a flat surface and please don't do that. I have walked into so many unprofessional looking offices where they just stacked everything on top of a switch or in this case an nvr and then if you ever have to remove the switcher mbr you have to figure out where to put all the stuff they had there, these are not that expensive, you put a couple of these up and now you have a nice shelf to be able to do this. and they come in larger varieties, this one is pretty deep here, I actually prefer the larger ones because that way you can set up whatever power cord is in there.

I also like the slotted ones because, well, sometimes I'll tie a add a couple things to it to make it nice and clean and tight so that nothing can fall out of the back, no one can accidentally unplug a cable and throw it away because, well, modems Cables are easier if you put everything in and make it take the time. Putting everything nice and tidy in one of these will save you a lot of trouble and they will hold a pretty good amount of weight. In fact, if you put on a considerable amount of weight, I'm curious and maybe I'll do this as a side video.

I'm curious at what point the frame bolts will break. I thought about putting them there. I'm actually doing this and testing frame bolts versus a standard style cage nut and putting some weight in there. seeing at what point these will separate because I'm a little curious as to how much weight it will hold now, how much weight it's specified to hold, but how much weight it will actually hold, leave some comments if you want it to actually do it. that video and I will be more inspired and bold to do it now the last thing I want to cover will be the patch cables and there are these thin ones here these are actually very normal here for patch cables these thin ones The ones that are great these thin ones are also great and There are different ways to handle it.

Now I have a separate video that I'll link to the one I already made with all the different varieties of patch cables once again that's something that comes down to it. To weigh in on budget and what you have available, but if you have the opportunity to buy them new, I'll actually tell you if you don't feel like watching that video. I love these skinny ones we've been doing a lot. more with the thin runs because they work very well, yes, and there is a whole debate on those videos about whether or not you can pass Poe through a thin cable.

Yes, you can and as long as I mean there are limitations, but we discussed all of that and I have a follow up video where we break down the wiring standards, I'll leave a link to them, so if you want to go deeper into the wiring standards, of course In fact, I have the person who made the standards, it's a great video to watch, he's someone on the board to certify things, so you could say he's the expert on this, but there are many different varieties of patch cables , but I will tell you to do your home lab once you go to these thin cables, you just won't want to go back.

They are much easier to handle. In fact, I had more here. My staff took them into the other room and took them as they needed them, so I need to buy more, which is why there are still these, but yeah. definitely helpful uh another side note I make and I'm missing two because once again someone took them and these are blanks that I have here, they look good and they're not that expensive when you are, if you really are It's going to be tedious to fill out the blank spaces in your home lab to fill in the unused ones and of course the different color varieties that I have here are very useful when you want to identify where things come in and for those of you who just go.

Hi Tom, what is this? This is how I access the 10 gig link. We have dual links that go from here to the back of the office where our 10gig is, but that's how I test other 10gig switches when it does this. it goes to the 10 gig switch there but when I have another 10 gig switch on the table that's why it usually connects to this white one which is the 10 gig so just because I know someone is going to ask why there's a little loop in this and why connect it that way because it may seem silly to you, but you know it's not to me.

It's also useful for things like this upcoming video on how to touch and sniff ports. It doesn't really matter which switch you do it with. but it's handy to have them on the front so you can plug in the port tap and you know, set things up real quick, but like I said, I'll leave links below for all of these things, there's always interests that I have. to learn what other things you can suggest and maybe if there's a follow-up video questions, I didn't cover why you love or hate some of these things, but you know, happy building, this is very exciting and, um, very.

It's fun to do, I want to play around with some things more so I'm going to start gluing them here and also the way these rack uprights work, they're long enough that things will lean over and hang there if you do that. . You're putting them up yourself, but let me know if there are some things you want me to review or talk about and I'll leave comments below. I always like to read and respond to them and of course this will be posted on forums where we can have a deeper discussion. Thank you and thank you for reaching the end of the video.

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Right there on our forums, which are also free, if you want to help the channel in other ways, head over to our affiliate page. We have a lot of great tech deals for you and once again, thanks for looking and we'll see you next time. what the shelf is really for we're just going to roll around the basement on it. Can you skate it? There you do it in 360. Do tricks with it. Oh, ollie, can you, ollie? That's what we really need to know here.