IKEA Server Rack

nope, not a lack rack

I recently moved and had the most geeky problem there is:

Where do I put my servers and the coffee maker?

I've read a lot of things about Lack Racks, where people use the 7€ LACK table from IKEA to mount rackmountable servers. But since I have neither a rackmountable server nor the table at home I had to think of something else to house my two servers.

I did however have an old KALLAX (former EXPIDIT) shelf and this is how I built it:

For the impatient here is the final result:

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The building process

Cable management

For cable management I was using pipe holders since they are much cheaper than any solution that had "cable" or "management" in their names. These are about 4 Cents (€ cents) a piece (2€ for a bag of 22 pieces). I mounted them with one screw per holder because this way I'm able to add/remove cables without needing to unscrew the whole thing.

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Roller Skates

Since I know I have to change cables every now and then I felt the need to mount some kind of rolls to the bottom of the rack so I can move it easily without any danger to the servers. So I picked up a few furniture rollers and mounted them with some screws

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Modem and router

I've been provided a Thompson modem/router from my ISP. This thing really really sucks so I bought an additional router and configured the modem to be just a modem and let my router do all the routing

I installed the modem sideways in the lowest segment so I can easily check the LEDs and reset it if it doesn't do what it's told.

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Since my Linksys router is also my AP I mounted it on the top left side of the self

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The Servers

Here you can see the pipe holders with one screw each. I've put the NAS in for fitting

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And added the power cables and the Xeon server

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The switch

To connect all devices I bought a Cisco 8 port Gigabit smart switch that can be mounted nicely next to the Xeon server.

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At this point I realized that the switch's power cable has to be connected on it's side. Nope.. not the side facing down -.-

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Much better here!

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The pipe holders are doing their job like they've never done anything else in their lives!

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Finished

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The coffee maker fits in place perfectly and since it's not used very often I don't think the steam will affect any of the servers.

Let me know, what you think about this project!

Tags: cable-management expidit ikea kallax lack rack rack server

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