3com rackmount UPS to rackmount server.

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Pherret

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 18, 2002
Messages
392
Yes!! Ive got a rack in my basement.. Unfortunatly the router/firewall/dhcp server is a mid tower lying sideways on a piece of plywood at the bottom of it. It was better than paying up for a rackmount case though.

rack.jpg


So eventually we come uppon a dead superstack II 3com UPS. Relic did basic stuff to make sure it was actually dead and handed it off to me. It just wouldn't turn on at all let alone try to charge.

It appears to be about 1.5u thick (6.5cm or 2, 9/16") which makes it just the right height to stick a 60mm fan in it standing up, it slides under overhangs in the cassis with a tiny bit of room to spare.

back.jpg


There is a battery "compartment" with a removable lid, which may make things interesting if I can do anything with it.

batteries.jpg


And finally here are all the innards spewed on the floor.

innardsout.jpg


It had a BEEFY transformer. The controller board itself doesn't actually seem to have anything visibly wrong with it. There a bunch of 12v, 10Aswitch relays behind the heatsinks which I may snag. The chassis and case cover are very stout! It is around 18-16 gauge steel with spot welds, no rivets! I definatly should not have any bowing or sagging problems. Even if I remove the crossbracing that is visible around the batteries.

So there it is. I don't plan on this mod to be too elaborate. There will only be as much hardware as a standard PC, maybe less. I got some of the parts together, and did some chassis prep work. Ill take some pics after I post this.
 
thats a cool mod. :)
I wish i had a broken hub or switch to play with.
 
Here is the chassis. I pretty much stripped it down flat. I drilled out the spot welds and standoffs, which is why there are so many holes.

chassis1.jpg


Took a pic of the outer casing and stuff. This shows the venting in the sides. The vent holes are squares that are pretty close together, I guess the camera fuzz makes them look round and small.

case1.jpg


Here are the parts I have sofar.
Mobo: Abit VA-10 v1.3 micro atx. A new relic purchase for this
Proc: AMD XP 2500+ (I think..whatever relic tossed my way)
RAM: Samsung 512MB PC2700 with 3rd party alu heat spreader.

Cd: Sony black faceplate (If I remember correctly)
Hdd: Ehh... Whatever we find. It only needs to hold the OS and firewall software.
Fdd: No face plate /w black lid. If we decide we need one.

hardware.jpg


I know, I know, Its a micro atx. :rolleyes: I wanted to have some configuration options. And by that point I didn't know what PSU I was going to put in it. Which I have recently decided on and ordered. I like the features on it, which are pretty standard I guess by now, but when you get a bit out of the loop, having audio fiber-out and 4 usb 2.0 onboard is pretty impressive.

mobo.jpg


Some pics I forgot to take are with the motherboard set in the chassis to show the difference in size, and my little predicament with the extra nic needed.(It was too tall) You need 2 NICs with a firewall ofcourse.

Anyway, I have fixed most of my problems without getting any metal dust on my hands for it. It just takes some measuring, mental planning, and an attention to detail before anything even goes in.

Stuff I just ordered:
300watt 1u psu
2x Aopen NICs. The things are freaking tiny!
Logitec trackball because using a standard mouse in the confines of a rack is futile.

One last thing. As a side note I just got an assortment of rack rails from where I'm Co'oping. woohoo! Some are the roller arm type. I smell retractable keyboard rack tray.
Others would help maybe mount the little 12" lcd better.
 
My final preplan issue is the heatsink. I only have about 45mm of room when factoring in the height of standoffs, pcb, and , socket. So I want probably a 40mm max hs height including fan.

Anyone have any ideas that would adiquatly cool a 2500+?
 
emm. We already purchased the motherboard, which we didn't want to pay $100 for (like the vias). We already had the proc as a spare so in total it was $60 for a mobo and proc that is probably more powerfull than any VIA setup. VIA definatly has its place, but I hope we can keep our pings low with this 2500+. We are currently running the firewall on a 1.4tbird I believe.

After talking it over with relic we have come up with 2 possible cooling solutions out of parts we already have or will soon have.
1) A 1u copper hs with an old 60mm delta "blacklable" fan to push some crazy air.
2) A tall hs (CAK-38 v2) with 2 40mm fans pushing air from the side. I will be getting some 5v 40s in a shipment that will hopefully do well at 7v ;)
 
This thread seems to be getting a little stagnant. Im not sure if people just don't care much about rackmount stuff, it doesn't look like it is getting off to an exciting start, or it is just getting overshadowed by the various Doom 3 mods. Ill take some time to explain my reason for logging this work. Which, out of around 30+ cases Ive modified, Ive shown only 2-3 on the forum. And that was a long time ago.

In the old days (Im 20 so these were old days to me) there were BIG cases. There were server cases that were taller than you (well, I was a kid then). The geeks seek to shed their oppressive "desktops" in favor of the ultimate in 100+lb glorious server towers. And as server technology moves on, the old addage of bigger is better still live on today in pc enthusiests. Though it seems to be slowly fading away.

Server tech doesn't seem to be idolized as much nowadays because it is much more of an everyday occurance. No longer is it a lumbering beast that humms away behind closed doors of a large company

Rackmount is the current technology that is used in larger networks and server applications. I think that people still like the idea of rackmount parts, but are very deterred by prices. Any standard pc item's price will go up 400-500% of an "equivalent" rackmount item. You can get $20 mid tower that will work fine, but the cheapest rackmount cases I can find are around $100 with shipping. This causes the thought of a rackmount setup to be stopped before it even realy enters someone's head.

If you look around there are many possibilities to build a pretty cheap setup. Dumpster diving could yield some good possibilities. Ive just been lucky and gotten stuff before it hit the trash. You can find relatively cheap new rackmount bare boxes that you can modify to hold anything from a combination of little switches, hubs, routers, and maybe access points, to pc parts for a home file server. You can find some of these in Jameco's catalog, but not online unfortunatly. Rack mount rails and brackets Id immagine arn't too pricy and you can mount stuff like monitors, keyboard trays, and why not? PC cases with them. There are many many possibilities... Thats what they designed it for!

And lastly the rack itself.
Ive seen some basic stands for ~$75, and those were tall, probably 8ft ones. I honestly don't know how many different sizes are easily accessable to purchase.

The case I am doing is going pretty cheaply. As for modding so far the only money I have put into it is for some taps and a tap wrench. I can't use them yet until I get the PSU though. Which may be today or tomarrow. (my packages are sitting at the fedex building waiting to be thrown on a truck for final delivery) The total price (component wise) will be far lower than probably anyone's pc they are using to read this. The thing I need to do though is keep everything relatively standard for quick and easy repair. If our firewall dies we are out of internet untill it is fixed. If anyone remembers my vcr mod they know I can shoehorn decased psus into tight spots. But resoldering is not my idea of quick and easy, that's pretty permanent. That may prevent this mod from being very spectacular, but its very practical.

Practicality is one very real use of pc modification.
 
Woohoo! Stuff came in today!

The small 3com NICs we already had were slightly too big. As you can see...

tallnic.jpg


Here is one of the new ones (blue) compared to the old one. The red lines show how long the recular pci slot takes up. The 3com card was already small.

nics.jpg


Here they are in the mobo. Im not sure if both will be put in or if the onboard will be used. Once the onboard gets blown its done, but cards you can replace. We have had alot of NICs blow in the past. I may put that RJ-45 protector to use (see the pic of back of case with fan) on the incoming wire.

monics.jpg


Here's the new psu, a 300watt 1u. Its shiny :D. Got 4pin mobo and single serial ata power on it too.

psu1.jpg


The fans on it have the flow director fins like the tornados :eek: Something tells me these are gonna spool up to around 10k.

psu2.jpg


And here is the mock layout.

layout1.jpg


Would ya believe it. Relic doesn't think there will be adiquate cooling, atleast with the cd-rom in there. He proposes leaving it out and putting more fans. The most he will need I guess, after initial installations, will be some front usbs to boot from a thumb drive or something. Hmm. That is tempting, less work and more cooling.

What do you guys think?

BTW you can find Relic mostly in the AMD and DC forums.

[edit] Also I hope to do some cutting tomarrow, at least to get the I/O plate in, then maybe drill and tap the mobo mounting holes.
I also realize that I screwed up editing the first pic, will change soon.[edit]
 
I agree. You can boot from a USB thumb drive, or a USB CD-ROM if needed. You'll prolly never use it during normal use. With the network connections, once it's up, you can load from across the network if needed. Add more fans. (Maybe make a front USB port for emergencies???)

Also, what PSU is that, and do you have a link for it? Looking for a good 300W 1U myself right now. (Have you fired it up yet? Turbine loud, or just fan loud?)
 
I agree that you probably need to add one intake and one exhaust fan. It's really not the components you're using, but the space you're putting them in. I recommend blower or crossflow-style fans. A crossflow fan would be a tight fit for the intake (~1U high), but I think you could put it above the HDD in the front. A blower could fit above the mobo between the cpu and agp slot in the back, or next to the mobo behind the CD-ROM. I'd keep the CD-ROM and maybe go with a laptop drive/adapter if neccessary.
 
Here's everything. All from newegg.

1u 300watt psu
Tiny Aopen NIC, Heh now its out of stock.
Logitech trackball

I have not tested the psu yet unfortunatly.

Im still undecided sofar about the cd-rom. I don't want to dump any more money into it or else a laptop drive would be next on the list. Ive got an allelectronics order comming in today with a few cooling possibilities.
 
Thanks for the link on the PSU. (Bonus - it's from NewEgg!!! :D ) (I spend way too much money with those guys.)

Keep us updated... more pics too.
 
Where's this rack mount pictured at? It looks like a hole for a hot-water heater, but that's next to it.
 
tom61 said:
Where's this rack mount pictured at? It looks like a hole for a hot-water heater, but that's next to it.
Click to expand...

It is in an enclosure that we built because we are walling up most of the basement. I don't know if we are planning to put a door there of some type. The back is open to vent hot fan air if we do put some sort of front cover.

I mounted the psu. I got pics, but im tired. See ya in 8 hrs. :p
 
Here we go.

psuin2.jpg


I know I haven't sanded yet but damn, the camera realy makes that cut look like crap.
psuin1.jpg


Ive got the back end mounted on some standoffs. The whole thing is raised a few mm off the bottom. Realy crappy pic taken way too close.
psuin3.jpg


I plan on keeping it rack standard, meaning nothing but cables can occupy other Us in the rack... That makes cooling a little tricky. All external screws except for front and back will be countersunk.
screws.jpg


Here is some of the more interesting stuff I got from allelectronics: Uncased squirl cage blower, 2x40mm 5v fans, nicke plated 2" handles, White toggling pushbuttons, 25mm fan, 2 in 1 on/off rockers with dpst momentary rockers.
stuff.jpg


We'll see what happens tonight.

Im always forgetting something..
Yes the psu fans sound like a leaf blower. Atleast as far as 40mm fans go. Definatly not as loud as larger tornados or the 60mm black label.
 
Can't update now, the pics didn't take on the server. I will have to wait until after work to get them on there.
 
Update

I tried some new camera settings to see if th pics would be any better. It didn't seem to do much though.

Anyway, we were concerned with the northbridge, It had an older style small alu heatsink on it. We wanted to have this as stable as possible so we slapped a big (20 to 25mm thick) antec 40mm on it. There was already a northbridge fan plug on the board, which made me wonder about what other versions of this motherboard there were.
north.jpg


Next comes our idea for cpu cooling. It looks like it means some buisness to me. I hope it won't be too loud :eek: eeh like we care about a loud firewall anyway.
hsf.jpg


As for updates to the case, I got the motherboard mounted.
moboin.jpg


The I/O plate went in pretty smoothly
moboin2.jpg


Most likely what is next is mounting the HDD, cutting some plug access to the NICs and make a hold down bracket for them.
 
Looking good there. I like how you modded that system to fit in that old busted UPS.

It looks like that mobo has onboard vid right? I checked Abits site and it says nothing about onboard video... :confused:
 
Yeah, Its got onboard video. I haven't looked into the documentation enough to see what the specs are, but you don't need much to display a winXP desktop. Onboard is onboard, If ya want to game on a board the onboard is generally ignored and disabled anyway. For projects like this, though, it helps alot.
 
Pherret said:
Yeah, Its got onboard video. I haven't looked into the documentation enough to see what the specs are, but you don't need much to display a winXP desktop. Onboard is onboard, If ya want to game on a board the onboard is generally ignored and disabled anyway. For projects like this, though, it helps alot.
Click to expand...

I am working on a mod for my shoutcast server. I have a work log up on the overclockers.com forums. I was using a VIA board but it wont boot anymore.. so I wanted a new mobo. I saw the opticle and thats sweet cuz I have opticle inputs on my stereo, but the board I get must have onboard vid. Thanks, I know I wouldnt ever think to game on onboard, lol.
 
but you don't need much to display a winXP desktop.
Click to expand...

Hold it, I thought you said you were building a firewall... Not a 'Please hack me now and hard' box. :p I'd highly recommend using Smoothwall instead of Windows, don't worry, It's very easy to install, and free too!
 
A random thought: Get one of the small single-system UPSs and hack it to fit in the case...
 
Small update:

I got the Hdd mounted.
hdd1.jpg


I hope it gets cooled well just bolted to the bottom like that. I may put some standoffs under there to raise it up.
hdd2.jpg


I finally found some cheap laptop style cd-roms on e-bay. They are designed for 1u servers and already have the IDE/power breakout cards attached.
 
Pherret said:
Small update:

I got the Hdd mounted.
http://mods.lsg1.net/server/hdd1.jpg[IMG]

I hope it gets cooled well just bolted to the bottom like that. I may put some standoffs under there to raise it up.
[IMG]http://mods.lsg1.net/server/hdd2.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
Assuming the case is made from metal, it's best to attach the HDD directly to it, so that the case acts like a heatsink.
Click to expand...
 
There is not much actually touching the case metal, so there would be a nice well of hot air under it that a fan wouldn't be able to do much with.
 
pherret, next case u get like that, let me know, i'd like one.. i just don't want to bust up a good ups..
 
Rather big update, well... atleast it was alot of work to me.

The cooling system has been built. It is composed of a bunch of brackets, hand made from ~22gauge galvy steel. That was alot of dremeling and drilling!
Cooling1.jpg


Here it is screwed to the case. The 60mm fans are different because I didn't have a second antec fan, which is the slightly slimmer one. It puts out quite a bit more air than the thicker nidec.
cooling2.jpg


The top is sealed off by some foam glued to the top pannel of the case. I just didn't think it was quite exciting enough to take a pic of... like screws.. screws are much more exciting;) This all creates a chamber where the fans can make use of all available vent area on that side.

I was going to cut NIC access and things but my allelectronics order came without the nibbler. After uselessly calling their "customer service" number, I left a rather distrought e-mail. They replied by telling me their customer service hours and that they would have the nibbler sent out. I swear I called the customer service at least a half hour after their supposed open time (pacific time adjusted, they are in CA).

BTW I forsee the nibbler being useful for small holes, like the RJ-45 in the NIC, which is too small for the dremel to do.
 
That's looking great - kind of like a poor man's laptop without the screen :). Where'd the steel come from?
 
Cool project man! I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to advanced networking so could you explain why you need 2 NICs for a firewall system? All my guitar equipment is rack mount stuff and I've always thought it would be cool build a computer rack system. Especially considering that there are a variety of portable music equipment rack enclosures.
http://www.skbcases.com/product/pro_audio/rack_mount.html
 
cgrant26 said:
Cool project man! I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to advanced networking so could you explain why you need 2 NICs for a firewall system? All my guitar equipment is rack mount stuff and I've always thought it would be cool build a computer rack system. Especially considering that there are a variety of portable music equipment rack enclosures.
http://www.skbcases.com/product/pro_audio/rack_mount.html
Click to expand...
im wondering the same about the NIC
 
cgrant26 said:
Cool project man! I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to advanced networking so could you explain why you need 2 NICs for a firewall system? All my guitar equipment is rack mount stuff and I've always thought it would be cool build a computer rack system. Especially considering that there are a variety of portable music equipment rack enclosures.
http://www.skbcases.com/product/pro_audio/rack_mount.html
Click to expand...

2 nic.. one for data in.. one for data out..

as for the musical enclosures.. most of them aren't deep enough to carry pc rackmount equipment.
 
Sorry if this is OT, but is there any kind of config (besides bridging) on a regular system to config NICs to do that? I've got like 5 or 6 extras laying around. Would be nice to put 1 or 2 to use.

I also just looked at my SKB and your modded UPS and I see what you mean about the depth not being enough. Oh well.
 
Pherret said:
I was going to cut NIC access and things but my allelectronics order came without the nibbler. After uselessly calling their "customer service" number, I left a rather distrought e-mail. They replied by telling me their customer service hours and that they would have the nibbler sent out. I swear I called the customer service at least a half hour after their supposed open time (pacific time adjusted, they are in CA).

BTW I forsee the nibbler being useful for small holes, like the RJ-45 in the NIC, which is too small for the dremel to do.
Click to expand...


Be prepared to have a sore hand if you plan on using a nibbler for steel. OUCH. ;)

Nibblers are definately not made for anything more than small, simple jobs.

For a more "simple" mod I'm really loving this. Can't wait to see it completed.
 
Yeah a firewall is a data filter. It prevents bad stuff from getting into your network. You have one NIC to take in the "raw" untouched info and filters out things that may harm the network and the computers on it. It then puts the ok stuff, the web page you are viewing ect, back out through the second NIC which is attached to the rest of your network.

Many times you find this in a firmware form, such as in a home router. You can do the same in software form, but you need a computer with the right components to run it properly. Doing this in software on a relitively small network allows you to have 1 do-it-all server box to run the firewall, dhcp, dns, maybe serve files, and all kinds of other things. And it is as easy to access as walking up to it, or virtual desktopping it I guess.

Firmware home units may do dhcp and dns too, but your options are not even close as when you are dealing with a pc as a base unit.

Firmware is probably faster though, in most cases, which keeps your gaming pings down. Someone who knows please correct me if Im wrong.

As far as the mod goes Ive got some good ideas for buttons and leds on the front plate. You know how most cdroms use parts of their front plate plastic as a spring to hold the button in place, Im thinking on similar terms. Other screw-on buttons would just look out of place, as the case will stay white.

timetrap said:
That's looking great - kind of like a poor man's laptop without the screen :). Where'd the steel come from?
Click to expand...
Its just some homedepot steel plate leftover from other mods.
 
XP firewall = Smoothwall box thats been kicked around the room, lit on fire, and torn to pieces by an A-10's main cannon.



Overall though this is a good idea and I like it.
 
I believe we use a 3rd party program and just the os as an os. All I said was xp desktop.

Our current firewall is running on 98.

Posted by retardnewb: OAH NO DON'T USE 98 FIREWALL U WILL B H4X0RD 2 DEATH!!!

Anyway, Im currently trying to figure out the best way to get NIC access that looks good but still gets held down well. I got the case fans all wired up to a single 4pin and I may cut and solder the rpm wires to the correct lengths, because I can. Hopefully some pics later tonight.
 
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