DIY Home Rack Build

tom here from warren systems and we're going to talk about building your home lab rack server now i know some people are just going isn't the cloud the future but other people know the reality is the cloud still is racked somewhere and having your own cloud at home having a server at home to learn on having a rack to put all these servers that you have to learn on is i think a pretty important part of your it career not just if you're getting started but even if you're like me and been doing this for over 25 years in the industry i still have even though it's at my office here different racks and build outs that are essentially lab builds now a lot of you have this at home and that's great and some people work from home now and so technically is it a home lab or is it your server rab i don't know it's either way we're going to talk about some of the pieces parts and building it this is going to be suggestions and ideas not necessarily the only way to do it i say that because the what-abouts come out all the time because i may not cover the favorite way you've built it but i'm always interested in hearing different suggestions and ideas so you know i'm not trying to tell you not to comment feel free to comment and tell me some of the other things you like besides the parts and pieces that we're going to talk about before we dive into all these details let's first if you'd like to learn more about me or my company head over to lawrencesystems.com if you'd like to hire a short project there's a hires button right at the top if you'd like to help keep this channel sponsor free and thank you to everyone who already has there is a join button here for youtube and a patreon page your support is greatly appreciated if you're looking for deals or discounts on products and services we offer on this channel check out the affiliate links down below they're in the description of all of our videos including a link to our shirt store we have a wide variety of shirts that we sell and new designs come out well randomly so check back frequently and finally our forums forums.laurensystems.com is where you can have a more in-depth discussion about this video and other tech topics you've seen on this channel now back to our content quick disclosure to get out of the way is rack studs they sent me these i like them they're pretty neat that's the only thing that i didn't pay for in this particular video it's not sponsored by them or anything i'm going to be talking about their product here but they just happen to send me a bag randomly i guess they found my address on youtube anyways we're gonna start with cable management and specifically reusable ties these may not seem like something that you think about when you're first putting a home lab together but i can't express the importance especially if you work with a team of people of having everything nice and neat even if you're working by yourself having it nice and neat it's easy and by its very nature home labs are diverse and change a lot because your learning may change and what you want to learn may change so tying it all together with zip ties means well cutting a lot of zip ties and doing it all over again and i don't know i like cable management i know i've seen some messy labs but if you're on the side of i like nice and neat these are great i have links below to everything that we talked about in the video including these which come in a variety of colors or you can just go with the plain and normal black that's actually my preference when i do them but hey my staff orders the colored ones and it's really important when we get a bunch of patch cables out for a project even here at the office that i want them all put back together all nice and wrapped and it makes it so much easier than just dangling a bunch of wires so it may not seem like a home lab thing but these are definitely a suggestion now kind of related is this right here i said no zip ties but these type of zip ties are actually kind of handy these are zip ties with a label on them now if you're asking why would i want a zip tie with a label on it it's actually really handy when you have cables that you don't really want to tie something to them or try to wrap a print around them you pull this around you can just write a number on them and this was actually reused that's why the numbers kind of faded but it's a simple way when you have wires that you need labeled and you want to know where they go maybe you want to put the port number on here or the patch panel number on there they're kind of handy and i'll leave a link to these these have come in useful a couple times when we've had to label things and make things very clear speaking of patch panels this is a really important part that i wanted to talk about and it's having patch panels that are modular these work out much better than your older traditional type of punch down ones now the punch down ones are still in use and they save you the trouble of having to buy a bunch of keystones but what we have here is a modular patch panel with a couple different types of keystones this is an hdmi keystone this is your standard punch it down keystone this actually allows you to connect a standard rj45 cable to the back you're probably asking why would i need that actually it's kind of handy if you're want to plug your servers in and you're like me and hate crimping cables you can just put another cable in behind and run this back to the server and you don't have to deal with the trouble punching it down someone's going to hate me for that going tom you're just being lazy punch them down every time i don't know i find it kind of convenient because i loathe punching down cables i do it very very infrequently because i have an entire staff that is dedicated i have a team dedicated to punching thousands and thousands of cable every year they're really talented at it i i know how to do it before you think i don't know how it's mostly i don't like to but this is those little conveniences and the hdmi one may seem odd to you hdmi is actually really convenient because maybe you want to and part of your lab build is using some raspberry pies happen to have one back here and with the raspberry pi they have a little delicate tiny little cable on there so you can run it from here down to the raspberry pi that way when i want to plug things in or move things around switch them i'm not dinking around trying to put it in a tiny little raspberry pi and run it over here or maybe you just have a few different devices and you want to set up your av equipment in there and you want it all nice and neat in a patch panel now i know for home labs patch panels are completely optional but boy they make things look a whole lot nicer when you have everything on the front you're not reaching around to the back now i have this weird hdmi extension i don't know where this came from but i know you can buy them online i'm not sure how to acquired here but they have a similar that i don't have in stock a usb one that's a little bit longer cable than this and i've linked to those it's actually kind of a neat idea because you can plug the usb in it up front here and run those back to the server now if you want to walk up to your home lab rack and plug in a usb i wish i would have had one didn't think to order one for this particular video but i thought they were kind of neat i left a link to those and this is kind of the point though when you have a patch panel that is modular like this is being able to mix and match and build out a nice you know put some labels on it at the top and have all the things you need all in one place or buy a couple of these and if you're an av nerd it turns out there's actually i didn't even realize banana clips and speaker jack type hookups that will fit in keystones a lot of things fit in keystone so that's one of the reasons i really recommend these modular and of course you're going to have and i'm actually this one's destined for my house very soon that's why i wanted to get this video done i have some things that are going to be mounted in the rack and a few other things that are wiring from around my house i do not have more than a half dozen wires coming from around my house that are actually hard lined in just a couple of things and so those will go on one end of the keystones with you know your standard punch down style and then the other ones will be well the different things in 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 i'll be using now the next thing is mounting all of this in a rack and i'll cover the rack in a second a little bit more detail but i want to talk about these rack studs versus cage nuts and they're pretty cool now on this side here's your traditional cage nuts and anyone who's looking at these is probably looking at their fingers and thinking about just how much they've tore up their thumbs pushing these little guys in they can be well somewhat tedious let's get this in here real quick and i've already messed up a little let's see if i can squeeze it in oh come on and yes they make a tool to make that easier all right i've squeezed it in but obviously i'm holding this little piece in a way that is i'm really simple so i can put this in but when it's in a rack and maybe something above it or below it can be a little tricky getting these in but these are solid they're heavy duty if you have something heavy i like your standard cage nuts and they go in just like that so now let's talk about the rack nut method and for a lot of the lighter weight things i mean they're plastic so i don't think they're going to hold up quite as much as these but boy these come in 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 it that was in it is really easy you don't have to get behind it you don't want to hook anything up it will pop right back out you can put your finger back on here and push down rock it right back out if you wanted it out but we'll just 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 goes in this end is going to push right into that so you you can put them on backwards but they won't look right and they won't fit in properly so be careful that you get them right and what this is doing is holding this so it can't pop back out and then you just spin these on with whatever you're going to mount so we'll go ahead and spin this little thing on and when it spins on you'll actually see the gap close and this now gets nice and tight against there and that's it it's real solid it's a good piece i like the way these hold up and because these are thumb screws especially if you're a home lab and moving things around you don't have to go find a screwdriver because these are not thumb screws they're standard additional screws so i still use these where things are heavy and if it's heavy and going to be in there and have a lot of weight on it maybe an old server you have or just a heavy large storage array or a ups especially if you have one of those in your rack you'll know those are i don't know that i trust rack studs to them but i might do a separate video on just how strong these are now this star tech rack that i'll be covering there is 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 ish colored ones here burgundy red i don't know i'm not a color expert these ones definitely are the right size for the star tech but please note the purple ones are a little bit wider in the way they fit in rack thickness they'll work in the star check it seem to work but it's seen also be a little bit too big these are the ideal size i guess there's a couple different millimeters that's listed on the bag of the rack studs and even when you put the plastic thing you get a wig a little get that back out you can then push on this and easily pop these right back out well almost easily there we go kind of easily not too hard to do all right now now we know how we mount some of these things with these rack studs and i'll start with something heavy though because heavy is where i do recommend using the standard metal ones because they work really well and heavy is the servers and i know home labs are less than ideal when it comes to having perfectly working rails that slide in and out this is a challenge this is where these solve that challenge and i got a couple mounted already back here these are made by knavepoint and i've got a link to them they are adjustable trays essentially to set the servers on now you can get them to different sizes you figure out the depth of your rack the startech rack itself is also expandable and they work wonderful for servers that are well without the proper rails and if you're like me i get different servers in that i review and we slide them in and out and by the way despite sliding them in and out and this has been in here for a couple years there's hardly even any scuffing on them the metal coating atom stays up really well not that it matters but aesthetically you know it's not really that scuffed up and for being able to slide in a server and you know not having to worry about trying to mount it each time it's just it's a simple process and like i said they're adjustable to whatever depth you've set your rack the specs are down below you put all the screws in here and i do really recommend one thing though and you'll notice i've done that with these there are all four screws in it not just two i mean it probably can hold quite a bit of weight sheer weight when you put it in with just two but the reason you really want to put four is if you only put it with one and you set the server in like this and it'll kind of tilt down because there's nothing to hold that top part in so you do make sure when you put these in you put four in and four on the back because if this starts coming in like this and because of the way these are it may the server may catch on the screws going in because these will tilt in and you'll get it stuck it'll be very aggravating save yourself the aggravation so you're not standing there mid holding a server and dealing with that now for the next piece the startech 25u rack now this is expandable depth 25u hype but expandable depth which is really convenient because well you may have different needs i've actually got one switch mounted on back if you're wondering what's over here that's easier for the 10 gig switch because of the sfp cables i didn't want to bring them around to the front so it's you know symmetrical so either side you want to use you can use it it's actually the same either way but this is what i consider the front and versus the other side which is essentially the back now one thing i have done is add this piece of osb board to the top well i didn't add it my staff did they went to the hardware store bought a piece painted black it's only got a minor chip here this is really convenient to have on top it's bolted down to this i really do like this as an accessory to having it right on top so we can just set the things on here the only downside is occasionally it ends up being a place where they stack things they're not sure where to put and a lot of stuff ends up there now you may notice and i'll show it from the front now because so you can see it in action yes it'll shift a little bit nothing there's like a stop to this but yes it will kind of it's tight it's well built i don't feel bad having it doing this i put some really heavy equipment in there but it's basically the little bit of gap between where these bolts are but uh this is not hard to assemble actually i've i'll show a video real quick me and my phone my son assembled this it happened relatively fast and it's still really solid it's no problem putting heavy equipment inside of here now let's talk about some of the other details uh and power seems like a good one to start with power's fed to this with this adjpc100a now it's not bad i like the fact that it's got the numbers on it and it's lit up so i can turn things on and off as needed so if i want number seven on or off no problem also completely related is the way i have things labeled i'm going to pull one of these around from the back here we put little labels on the power cord i probably should use those zip ties i mentioned but i know power five goes to this particular plug now there's just standard plugs on the back of this but this makes it really convenient when you're doing things i don't know which server is going to be plugged in when because well there's a few empty spots for whatever i'm going to be testing next and having each one labeled that way i can turn them on and off kind of on an as needed basis individually that's what makes sense for me now i will mention it may not make sense for you so i do have because this is what's going in my home is this cyber power cps one two one five and uh i like this device it has plugs on the front plugs on the back and this works out well when you don't need to turn off everything individually you just need one switch they also put the little click on there so you can't accidentally bump this once it's closed it's either in the on or off position really long cord and like i said i've linked both of these down below whichever one works or maybe some combination this obviously only has plugs on the back side and looks nice at the top of the rack and i don't want everything on all the time especially when i have noisy servers in here i turn them off when i go to record and maybe turn them on later we have some things that are kind of more statically in here that's why they have a label above but at home for what i'm doing at home i have the same rack and i'm just want power all the time and this having cords both front and back lots of places to plug things in whatever i need to hook up and i'll probably mount it on the back side of the rack at home to feed everything now let's get to something that drives me absolutely crazy and if you work at all in the technical field it has probably driven you crazy too and that is shelving it is important to buy these so you can save yourself so much aggravation what happens is not everything will be rack mountable that you have your cable modem and many other things that you may end up with such as this synology or this truenast that is not a rack mount obviously and i know some people will just do this and they'll just set things on top of whatever is rack mounted with a flat surface and please don't do that i have walked into so many unprofessional looking offices where they've just stacked everything on top of a switch or in this case an nvr and then if you ever have to remove switcher mbr you have to figure out where to put all the things that they had on there these are not that expensive you pop a couple of these in and now you have a nice shelf to be able to do this and they do come in larger varieties this is a pretty deep one here i actually prefer the bigger ones because that way you can just set whatever power cords go on there i like the slotted ones as well because well sometimes i'll actually zip tie a couple things to it to make it nice and neat and tight so nothing can just fall off the back no one can accidentally pop a cord and pull it off because well cable modems it's just easier if you put it all and you make it take the time to put it all nice and neat on one of these it'll save you so much trouble and they'll hold a pretty good sizeable amount of weight matter of fact if you do put a sizeable amount of weight i'm curious and maybe i'll do this as a secondary video i'm curious at what point the rack studs will break i thought about putting these on there actually i'm doing this and testing rack studs versus a standard style cage nut and putting some weight on there and seeing at what point these will pull apart because i am a little bit curious about that of how much weight it will hold now how much weight it's specified to hold but how much weight it will really hold leave some comments if you want me to actually do that video and i'll be more inspired and bold to do it now the last thing i want to cover is going to be the patch cables and there is these thin ones right here these are actually very normal ones right here for patch cables these thin ones are kind of cool these slim ones are really cool as well and there's different ways to handle it now i have a separate video i'll link to that i already did on all the different varieties of patch cable once again that's something that comes down to opinion in budget and what you have what you have available but if you have the opportunity to buy them new i really will just tell you if you don't feel like watching that video i love these slim ones we've been doing a lot more with the slim runs because they work really well yes and there's an entire debate on those videos of whether or not you can run poe over a thin cable yes you can and uh as long i mean there's limitations but we discuss all that and i have a follow-up video where we break down cabling standards i'll leave a link to those so if you want to dive deep into overthinking cabling standards um i actually got the person who did the standards it's a great video to watch he's someone on the board for certifying things so you could say he's the expert on this but patch cables there's plenty of different varieties out there but i will tell you for doing your home lab once you go to these thin cables you just don't want to go back they're just way easier to manage i actually had more of them over here my staff have wandered them off into the other room and taken them kind of as they needed so i do need to buy more that's why there's still these ones in and but yeah definitely helpful uh other side note i do and i'm missing two of them because once again someone took them and these are blanks that i have in here it does look nice and these are not that expensive when you're if you're really going to get tedious with your home lab blanks to fill in any ones that aren't used and of course the different color varieties that i have up here really handy when you want to identify where things come in and for those of you that just go hey tom what is this this is actually how i tap into the 10 gig link we have dual links going back from here to the back of the office where our 10 gig is but this is the way i test other 10 gig switches when it does this it goes to the 10 gig switch there but when i have another 10 gig switch on table that's why it usually gets plugged into this white one being the 10 gig so just because i know someone will ask why there's a little loop on this and why i have it plugged in that way because it may seem silly to you but you know it doesn't to me it is also handy for things like this upcoming video on doing port tapping and sniffing it really doesn't matter what switch you do with do it with but it's handy to have these in the front so you can tie in your port tap and you know get things set up real quick but as i said i'll leave links down below to all of this stuff there is always interest i have in learning what other things you may suggest and maybe if there's a follow-up video of questions i didn't cover why you love or hate some of these things but you know happy building man this is it's a lot of excitement and um a lot of fun to do i want to play more with some stuff so i'm gonna start sticking it in here and uh bonus of the way these rack studs work uh they are long enough so things will kind of tilt and hang in there if you're putting them in by yourself but let me know if there's a few things you want me to review or talk about and i'll leave comments below i always go like reading and replying to them and of course this will be post over to forums where we can have a more in-depth discussion thanks and thank you for making it to the end of the video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you'd like to see more content from the channel hit the subscribe button and hit the bell icon if you like youtube to notify you when new videos come out if you'd like to hire us head over to laurensystems.com fill out our contact page and let us know what we can help you with and what projects you'd like us to work together on if you want to carry on the discussion head over to forums.laurensystems.com where we can carry on the discussion about this video other videos or other tech topics in general even suggestions for new videos they're accepted right there on our forums which are free also if you'd like to help the channel in other ways head over to our affiliate page we have a lot of great tech offers for you and once again thanks for watching and see you next time this is what the rack's really for we're just gonna roll around the basement in it can you skateboard it there you go do it 360. you do tricks on it ah ollie can you ollie that's what we really need to know here

Channel: Lawrence Systems

Views: 330,057

Rating: 4.9325132 out of 5

Keywords: lawrencesystems, Home Rack Server Build, home server, server rack, server, home server rack, home network, rack, network rack, networking, home networking, homelab, home network setup, patch panel, network, switch, server rack build, home network rack, diy home network

Id: IdQGpKcBgwo

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/RustyBrakes]

I know plenty of other homelab YouTube channels exist, but I've always found Lawrence Systems very nice for learning about hypervisors, router/firewalls, Linux and other common homelab topics. Maybe others could share their favourite homelab content creators in the comments?

[u/[deleted]]

I like this guy, https://youtube.com/c/SPXLabs. His channel is very laid back and it seems more like a series of vlogs than individual videos. I started following him when I found him on the Unraid forums. Seems pretty chill. Also, I really like that he isn’t trying to sell me anything.

And the last thing to give you an idea of his personality, I haven’t seen a video yet of him asking for likes and subscribes.

[u/lawrencesystems]

Thanks for the mention! I am also open to suggestions for topics because I love helping out the homelab community as it really helps to drive people deeper into technology.

[u/ShiftyAsylum]

Tom is a good dude. I've chatted with him from back in my days w/Podnutz. He's also fairly local to me (his shop is in southeastern Michigan). He makes some solid content, especially if you're interested in Linux, Ubiquiti, Pfsense, and FreeNAS / TrueNAS. His business is also entirely run on Open Source software if I remember correctly.

[u/ThatGuy_ZA]

Tom is awesome. I thoroughly enjoy his videos and he seems to have a great approach to business - a nice combination.

[u/araemo2]

I actually just recently bought a rack to move from my lackrack to something a bit more robust. Unfortunately, the square cage nut holes are a bit too small for those rackstuds to work right. they're a SUPER pain to get in, and the locking piece doesn't fit in at all once they are in. It seems sysracks makes their holes just a tiny bit too small.

[u/quilnux]

The cloud is great until you need realtime access to data. Then it sucks. At work we made the mistake of going all in with the cloud during it's conception. We constantly talked about what workloads we could add to it and more and more it grew. Until one day, things stopped working. We found that the cloud just doesn't have the speed and reliability we required for most of our realtime workloads. We found more value in hybrid clouds (private + public) instead of doing all-in public cloud. There are many workflows that will never be doable in the cloud, which is one of the reasons Microsoft has tried to pioneer the "Intelligent Edge".

For small businesses, you might be able to do all public cloud, but anything bigger than that, you'll still be using a rack full of servers.

EDIT: Changed some wording to sound better. Corrected a wording mismatch.

[u/B1gPerm]

Never understood why people build these tiny racks with all the servers, switches, etc all local but use patch panels? Why not cable directly to the devices from the switch ?

[u/bossman118242]

anyone use the pc-100a? do you like it? any issues?