[tech] Half Height Rack

[Bob Adamson]

To Summarise:

-The rack Mark has available doesn't have sides or doors.
trs80: If the rack has a door and sides visibility will be impaired.

Agreed, and this is no different to our current situation

-As others have pointed out, we could just move the posts on the LH rack, 
that presents a problem for the Fugro's.

Not just the Fugros, we would have to move the posts to their extremes, 
which would mean no longer supporting some of the heavier machines, such 
as Maraena, at the back. I don't think this is really an option.

-I'm not sure what you mean by "full-depth". Are the other racks in the
server room not full depth? I know we adjusted the rails on the one
closest to the door so that it would fit the ex-FSI servers properly, but
the other rack should still have the normal depth.
trs80: The working definition is "long enough to properly mount the Sun 
v20z servers in".

Have you noticed that not a single machine in the right hand rack is 
screwed in at the back? That's because you can't. The posts aren't 
adjustable to a depth that is useful for _any_ of our servers. Why we have 
kept this rack for so long is beyond me.

-The right-hand rack has to be the network rack thanks to the length (or
lack thereof) of the network cabling to the patch panels. They're
currently well-positioned at eye-level.

This is the clincher, and if height is _absolutely_ necessary it closes 
our options somewhat.

One other argument I have in favour of this new rack is that it will allow 
us to use rails, which would be nice.

So from what I can tell, we now have three options:
1. Replace the middle rack, and have no second aircon
2. Replace the right rack, have a second aircon, but patch panel at waist 
level
3. Try and find a full height rack to suit our needs (which could take a 
very long time)

Bob Adamson
UCC Treasurer

|"Bureaucracy is a challenge to the be conquered with a righteous        |
|attitude, an intolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary" |
| ---Peter's Laws                                                        |