Dell Rack 2016

My server rack cabinet at home. Built my own router and zip tied a keystone panel so pulling out my rack doesn’t involve disconnecting my speaker wire. Listen to https://youtu.be/WPDZoOKX8ag to hear how much noise this puts out (not really that much). For pix of the underside look at last year’s gallery.

Pictures

All of my power/ethernet/audio cables are routed and zip tied to the rack’s frame. Let me just say that zip ties are awesome.	I got sick and tired of having to undo my speaker wire, ethernet, and other cables every time I wanted to move my rack. Fixed the problem using keystone modules and a keystone patch panel I zip tied to a side-post on my rack. I’m so glad there’s keystone modules for almost everything, even SC/APC fiber optic patch cables. No display port though :(
When I moved from Austin to SF 3 years ago I gave up potentially having Google Fiber. Thankfully Sonic gigabit is now available in my area! Gigabit fiber right into my rack! This is the optical network terminal, and green-tipped fiber cabling is a requirement (SC Angled Physical Contact). I left the previous coax cable in case I move in the future.	Here you can see that I’ve routed my SC/APC 2 meter cable through my rack posts. Luckily the top and side posts all have openings. The green plastic connector was just barely short enough to make it through the corners (took me over an hour just to get the stupid cable routed from the ONT to the keystone panel).
The underside of my rack shelf. Zip tied the excess slack in the power cable (connecting the mini PDU to one of the large power strips) to it.	This is where the rack will go once it’s ready. That thing on the window is my TV antenna which luckily has a direct line of sight to Sutro Tower. I attached the antenna to the window using magnets. The magnets on the outside are coated with dried hot glue so it doesn’t get scratched and doesn’t slide off.
CAT6 patch panel with CAT6 patch cables and my 10GbE XS716T switch. I’ve also printed out labels and stuck them on the patch panel using magnets.	Patch panel, CAT6 (blue) and CAT5E (gray) cables, switch, pfSense router, and my Onkyo amp.
Temporarily mounted all hardware in the rack to make sure all of the cables reach. I don’t plan on adding or removing anything for over a year (like last time). From the bottom: APC SUA2200RM2U UPS, Dell PV-124T Tape Autoloader, custom linux server with IPMI, stupid rack mount case for Mac Pro and an 8 TB RAID1 external drive, Onkyo TX-SR608 receiver, custom pfSense Xeon D-1541 router, managed Netgear ProSAFE XS716T 16-port 10 gigabit switch, and a patch panel.	A closeup shot of this part of the rack. Keystone modules from the bottom: TOSLINK from TV, subwoofer out, center/left/right front speakers, Chromecast ethernet, rear left/right speakers, Sonic 1000/100 Mbps FTTH, 2-zone left/right speakers in my bedroom for my Mac Pro, ethernet port for my desk, USB and Displayport for my displays in my room (for my Mac Pro).
Side view of the rack with all of the speaker wire and ethernet cables routed and zip tied. There’s my UPS’ battery on the floor under my coffee table. It’s very heavy.	Power and ethernet cables for the ONT and WiFi access point (which sits on top of the rack).
Repurposed my old Asus RT-N66U router running Tomato as just my WiFi access point. I’ve got it serving my main network as well as a guest network using VLAN tagging/trunking to my pfSense router.	Close up of the tightly packed wire nest on my Mac Pro since the dumb rackmount case doesn’t have audio or displayport cables in its wire harness.
Shot of my Mac Pro fully inserted into the case with attempted cable management.	Insides of my Linux server. Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O (with IPMI), Intel i3-2100, 8 GB of RAM, repurposed overkill 850 watt PSU (Seasonic SS-850KM3), WD3000HLFS hard drive from 2010 that still works, Seagate 8 TB ST8000AS0002 hard drive. That bluray drive isn’t hooked up, I just didn’t have any drive bay covers to use.
I kept reading that in order to push 1 Gbps you need a beefy CPU so I went out and built my own router. Turns out it was overkill, oh well. At least it’s future proofed. Supermicro X10SDV-TLN4F-O, Intel Xeon D-1541, 32 GB of RAM, 240 GB M.2 SSD, onboard 2x10GbE and 2x1GbE NICs. At max throughput load average is ~1.50 on this 16-thread CPU.	Everything connected and powered on.
Further away shot of my powered on rack with the panels off.	Finally done.

Desk Photos 2016   Raspberry Pi on Project Fi

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