The perfect server room?
Solution 1:
- Enough space for expansion
- Plenty of network ports
- Sufficient network bandwidth
- Plenty of dedicated power sockets
- Should not be on the ground floor (risk of flooding + less secure)
- Fire suppression facilities + smoke alarms
- IP KVM for remote access
- Telephone (so the operator can call a support line while looking at the hardware)
- Pens + paper
- A label printer - label everything!
- A standard printer (nice to have)
- Spare network and power cables
- Air conditioning (also dehumidifies)
- Good UPS (with automated/controlled shutdown functionality)
- Sufficient power to run everything (and enough for expansion)
- Entrance security (preferably also with logging)
- Physical security (security on windows, entrance, etc.)
- Whiteboard (nice to have)
- Fireproof safe (for storing backup tapes, passwords and installation media)
- Good server racks - well maintained (cabling)
- Enough space to work comfortably behind the servers
- A table large enough to build/dismantle a server on (plus monitor, keyboard and mouse)
- At least 1 chair
- Tidy patch panel (especially if you patch to PC's and telephones in the office)
- Good lighting
Solution 2:
You might want to place a small shelf near the entrance to put a pair of these
(source: a-chainsaw.com)
Solution 3:
In my experience, the ideal server room will have the following:
- Large enough to house your cabinet or rack. You should have at least 4 ft. of walking space in front and back, ideally all around. If you can get away with it, plan for the possibility of a second rack in the future.
- Secured. You don't necessarily need an armed guard, but at least a good lock. A biometric or card swipe is always good. Home depot has locks that use touch pads so you can assign codes to unlock the door.
- Usually, the server room is also the telco's entry point (demarc), so you'll have your T1 smartjack's there, your PBX or phone system, etc. We usually dedicate one wall and put up plywood so telco's and providers can mount their equipment.
- Air conditioning is a given. You need to keep the room at around 65 - 75 degrees. A dedicated thermostat is preferred since you don't want the A/C to be shut off in the server room on weekends or at nights.
- Power is extremely important. Since your rack is most likely in the middle of the room, you will have cables going across the floor to reach the outlet if they are wall based. If you can have the outlets put on the floor, that's best. If you can't, use some cable covers to avoid tripping over wires. Get dedicated circuits put in for a clean line of electricity. Make sure you have extra outlets on all walls, in a pinch, having access to an outlet can be critical, especially if you need to plug in a laptop or other device.
- Keep a small cabinet or shelves where you can store manuals, cables, spare cards, drives, etc. You want this in an easy to access place during installations and troubleshooting. Keep this out of the way in the room, but accessible.
- Cable management is critical as well, both in the rack and from the plywood wall. Over time it gets very easy to just plug cables in. If the cable management is there, it's easier to keep things organized and label/mark both ends of all wires, the last thing you want to do is trace wires when your network is down.
- For the cabinet itself make sure you have adequate UPS's, cabinet cable management, a good KVM, a 1U slide-out keyboard/mouse/LCD to save on rack space and plenty of ventilation. Cabinet design is a whole dissertation in of itself!
- If the room is closed off, make sure you have proper ventilation for air flow. You'll need some kind of intake vent so hot air can escape. If needed, use a fan to suck the air out. For fresh air, you can put a vent on the door.
- Definitely a phone near the cabinet with a list of support numbers, "911" contacts, etc.
- If I can, I try to have a place to hook up a laptop close by so you can access tools, test against another working system, test client software, etc.
- And there's nothing wrong with a chair for when you are waiting on hold for that tech support rep to come back on the line :)
There's a lot that can go into a server room, if you can get away with a lot of this, your life as an admin will be so much better. The easier it is to get to equipment, trace the setup and get your problems solved, the more effective you can be. Good luck!
Solution 4:
I was just watching the film 'Eagle Eye' - apparently the perfect server room involves covering the walls with oddly-coloured fishbowls, which talk via infrared (???) to your main 'CPU', which itself moves around on a robotic arm with a glowing 'eye' set into the middle. Oh and build the whole thing over a large body of water too, this will help in some way ;)
Solution 5:
Look at everything from a risk management point of view and everything will fall into place.
- Physical security: What is at risk if a malicious (or ignorant) individual gains access to the server and network hardware? Who will have the permission to enter? Server hardening required? (disable removable drive bootup, BIOS password, disable USB, etc.)
- Climate control: 5 servers and 30 PCs won't make incredible heat in, say, a 20x20 room, but that's a bit much if you're stuffing it in a coat closet. Running at elevated temperatures and/or humidity will shorten the life of your hardware and lead to data loss and expensive replacements. Consider simple ventilation with a dehumidifier or possibly A/C system sized for your needs.
- Business continuity: Battery backup? Data redundancy? Fault tolerant LAN/WAN connections? Any single points of failure in your infrastructure? Do you have enough excess power to run your infrastructure and not blow a fuse if someone plugs in a vacuum cleaner?
- Growth: Have a contingency plan in place for when management demands you double, nay, triple your infrastructure. How will all the critical dependencies scale?