rail arm extenders ?

TehCamel · 13th November 2009, 1:52 PM

we recently bought a new rack, that's 1000mm deep in total. The posts are 755mm deep.

In this rack, we have a number of items of dell equipment. THe rack is not dell. Amongst this equipment is a 2900, and 2 R610s. Sitting in our staging room are 3 R200s, with Rapid rails.

The rails for the 2900 and 610s extend out appropriately, so we have got them fully mounted. We've got a 3/4 loaded rack now.

the rails for the R200s, even when fully extended, fall about 2cm short.

alternate options are being looked at, particularly getting a set of Versa Rails instead. These would take up more space, meaning we need 6RU to install our 3x1ru servers. Not an ideal solution in my mind. A solution none the less.

Now, had these rails and servers been available when the rack was delivered, we would have tested and identified this problem. However - the servers and rails are new, and as such, we assumed that if the existing Dell rails worked fine, these would too.

My question to you fine folks, is does anyone know of any way we could extend them. We've toyed with the idea of getting something fabricated... but i just wonder if the wisdom of OCAU has encountered this issue before.

Obviously we aren't going to pull the rack down to move the posts...

ShaneHm2 · 13th November 2009, 2:20 PM

Trying ringing up your dell account manager and see what he can do for you.

joyufat · 13th November 2009, 3:09 PM

Whatever you do, do not try to resize the rack length while there are servers still mounted. It won't work and you will end up having to take all the servers out anyway. Oh fun times.

TehCamel · 13th November 2009, 7:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joyufat

Whatever you do, do not try to resize the rack length while there are servers still mounted. It won't work and you will end up having to take all the servers out anyway. Oh fun times.

that's obvious

our dell account manager has offered versa rails, which I pointed out in the OP.. I don't want to use 6RU for 3RU worth of servers

chunksoul · 14th November 2009, 10:58 AM

you can often get non dell rails to fit dell servers

it's not ideal but it often works

TehCamel · 14th November 2009, 12:33 PM

non-dell rails wouldn't be a massive problem... what i'm going to try tomorrow, is seeing if the r200 fits in the r610 rails... that might be a solution

i wish i had metal work skillz, cause i'd fabricate something myself.,..

Rampage101 · 14th November 2009, 10:30 PM

Got pictures of the rails? They might be modifiable.

Glide · 15th November 2009, 2:53 PM

we had the exact same issues, when we were 'provided' racks.

We also had round mounting holes instead of square ones, and the versa rails would not clip in. Ended up buying a bunch of shelves, and moving the posts inside the racks to make the rails fit (the square ones)

all our dell rep said was to look into 'rail mods', but he could not offer us any other solutions.

driver · 15th November 2009, 3:10 PM

I've had the same problem before.

You can get rack extender brackets, so you'll get extra depth.

Like these: http://www.rackmountsolutions.net/St...k_Extender.asp

driver · 21st January 2010, 1:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by driver

I've had the same problem before.

You can get rack extender brackets, so you'll get extra depth.

Like these: http://www.rackmountsolutions.net/St...k_Extender.asp

Now does anyone know who Sells these in Australia?

I've personally used these before in a previous job - but no clue where they were originally purchased from?

UPDATE:
Found them here...
http://www.racktechnologies.com.au/d...d=1,10,130,202
http://www.racktechnologies.com.au/d...d=1,45,120,192
...so should be able to get them from Electrical/Data suppler that do Rack Technologies gear.

TehCamel · 21st January 2010, 1:59 PM

I beleive the ultime decision has been to just pull down and rebuild the entire rack.

It seems going for the full day outage first up is a better idea than spending a few hundred bucks on something that can be returned if it's not right.

13th November 2009, 1:52 PM	#1
TehCamel Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Melbourne Posts: 1,921	rail arm extenders ? we recently bought a new rack, that's 1000mm deep in total. The posts are 755mm deep. In this rack, we have a number of items of dell equipment. THe rack is not dell. Amongst this equipment is a 2900, and 2 R610s. Sitting in our staging room are 3 R200s, with Rapid rails. The rails for the 2900 and 610s extend out appropriately, so we have got them fully mounted. We've got a 3/4 loaded rack now. the rails for the R200s, even when fully extended, fall about 2cm short. alternate options are being looked at, particularly getting a set of Versa Rails instead. These would take up more space, meaning we need 6RU to install our 3x1ru servers. Not an ideal solution in my mind. A solution none the less. Now, had these rails and servers been available when the rack was delivered, we would have tested and identified this problem. However - the servers and rails are new, and as such, we assumed that if the existing Dell rails worked fine, these would too. My question to you fine folks, is does anyone know of any way we could extend them. We've toyed with the idea of getting something fabricated... but i just wonder if the wisdom of OCAU has encountered this issue before. Obviously we aren't going to pull the rack down to move the posts... __________________ Small Business IT Support.

13th November 2009, 3:09 PM	#3
joyufat Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Moral High Ground Posts: 1,009	Whatever you do, do not try to resize the rack length while there are servers still mounted. It won't work and you will end up having to take all the servers out anyway. Oh fun times. __________________ They'll Kick You, Then They Beat You, Then They'll Tell You It's Fair

14th November 2009, 10:58 AM	#5
chunksoul Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: adelaide millswood Posts: 2,366	you can often get non dell rails to fit dell servers it's not ideal but it often works __________________ people i have had successful trades with kedztafe. mykal,nip007,rfsefton,autumn,a million other dudes

14th November 2009, 12:33 PM	#6
TehCamel Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Melbourne Posts: 1,921	non-dell rails wouldn't be a massive problem... what i'm going to try tomorrow, is seeing if the r200 fits in the r610 rails... that might be a solution i wish i had metal work skillz, cause i'd fabricate something myself.,.. __________________ Small Business IT Support.

14th November 2009, 10:30 PM	#7
Rampage101 Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Country NSW Posts: 1,979	Got pictures of the rails? They might be modifiable. __________________ AMD Phenom 920 \|\| Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 \|\| Seagate 320gb & A-RAM 64gb Pro SSD \|\| 2x2GB Corsair XMS PC6400 DDR2 \|\| 512MB Powercolor HD4850 \|\| AMD Athlon II 245 \|\| Gigabyte GA-MA770-S3 2.0 \|\| WD 250gb OS, MDADM 5x HD753LJ Raid 5 \|\| 2x2GB Corsair XMS + 2x1GB XMS \|\| Nvidia x16 PCI-E cut down to 1x \|\|

15th November 2009, 2:53 PM	#8
Glide Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Sydney Posts: 1,066	we had the exact same issues, when we were 'provided' racks. We also had round mounting holes instead of square ones, and the versa rails would not clip in. Ended up buying a bunch of shelves, and moving the posts inside the racks to make the rails fit (the square ones) all our dell rep said was to look into 'rail mods', but he could not offer us any other solutions.

15th November 2009, 3:10 PM	#9
driver Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane - Northside Posts: 3,518	I've had the same problem before. You can get rack extender brackets, so you'll get extra depth. Like these: http://www.rackmountsolutions.net/St...k_Extender.asp __________________ www.NetBootdisk.com : Universal TCP/IP Network Bootdisk Menu driven, Including 98 network card drivers, CDROM, Mouse, DNS & packet driver support all on a single 1.44MB floppy! v6.5 - 23/MAY/10

21st January 2010, 1:59 PM	#11
TehCamel Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Melbourne Posts: 1,921	I beleive the ultime decision has been to just pull down and rebuild the entire rack. It seems going for the full day outage first up is a better idea than spending a few hundred bucks on something that can be returned if it's not right. __________________ Small Business IT Support.