move rack with SAN and Itaniums

[Franky Leeuwerck_2]

Hi to everyone.

Maybe a stupid question, but I'll post this one anyway.

We have a rack (wheels below attached) containing an EVA3K with HP-UX Itanium servers, HSV's ..

Can we simply move this rack about 10 inches while the systems are up and running ?
Or should we shut everyting down ?

Franky

[IT_2007 · Accepted solution]

If you have cables are not tied very tight and had long enough length then you can move slowly along with rack. Check server rack and EVA rack physically before you decide to move for cables like network, SCSI and Fibre cables.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Well, you have actually asked two questions. 1) Can we? Yes, probably. 2) Should we? No. In any event, whether a move of 10 inches or 10 miles, make sure you have good backups. Although it's very unlikely, the rack could tip over during the move --- or a caster could fail and cause the rack to tip over. Bear in mind that a rack weighing several hundred pounds could actually experience several tens of g's as a result of a wheel going over even a small obstruction and then dropping. Drives that are running are much more prone to damage than those which have stopped and parked.

[Franky Leeuwerck_2]

Thanks for the quick replies.
I really appreciate this .

Best regards,
Franky

[Mark Ellzey]

One other thing to be considered, along with the cautions mentioned by the otheres, is dust. Depending on how long your systems have been sitting there, there may be a sizable layer of dust inside the cabinets. Even in air-conditioned server rooms, this can and will occur. A little bitty dust bunny, dancing across an energized system board could cause a disaster much greater than just a cable disconnet.

Regards,
Mark

[Franky Leeuwerck_2]

Mark,

That is correct.
Thanks,
Franky