So....I had an accident with my lab....

Nafe92014

Hey all,

Learned a lesson today when I was cleaning/dusting my apartment: Never put heavier equipment on top of a rack, I was dusting my equipment when suddenly, my 2811 detached and fell, hitting the other stuff on the way down, and literally dented the brackets of my PDU unit. luckily, I slid my hand under the bottom of the 1841 to try to cushion it. My hand couldn't support the 75lb weight all at once. So, I looked and saw that one of those cheap garbage screws for the rack came loose. Thankfully, no ports were damaged and everything boots and runs fine.

this is before the accident:

And this is now, as I spent an hour remounting everything.

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Comments

clarson

Sorry to hear about the incident. Glad nothing was terribly damaged.

yes in a home lab, heavier at the bottom is a good practice to follow.

But, in a production environment, heavier equipment generally means it uses more power. more power means it generates more heat. and being heat raises, the pieces of equipment that generate the most heat are placed at the top. That way the equipment below it are cooler and cooler equipment lasts longer.

OctalDump

This is why home labs are good: you learn things you weren't expecting. And this is a lesson much better learnt at home than in a datacentre with $60,000 of equipment running critical applications.

Always put safety first. Put the heavy things at the bottom and fill from the bottom up. This puts the centre of mass lower down, and so the rack will be more stable, especially if your rack isn't well secured. Equipment can be very heavy, and lots of equipment can be very, very, very heavy.

Nafe92014

Would you guys recommend using washers with the mounting screws? I heard washers and help hold things better.

OctalDump

Nafe92014 wrote: »

Would you guys recommend using washers with the mounting screws? I heard washers and help hold things better.

I've always used washers where they are supplied. I think that the standard mounting brackets for these switches kind of fulfil the role that washers would. I think the advantage comes where the bolt (mounting screw) rests directly on the rack frame, since it allows a greater area of contact with the frame. With these the bracket is in between the mounting screw and the rack surface.