Can DL360 G4's be rack mounted one on top of the other?

[Tom Ednie]

I'm getting mixed feedback from my peers. Can anyone tell me whether it is OK to rack mount the DL360 G4's right on top of each other? Or should space be left between them? It doesn;t make sense that space should be left between the servers but there does seem to be venting of some sort on top of the DL360s. Thanks Tom

[Steven Clementi]

Tom:

Physically, you can easily mount dl360's on top of each other.

In doing this, you should make sure you have adequate cooling for the rack.

The HP rack configuration tool allows the servers to be mounted on top of each other as well.

Of course. rack space is always at a premium and you want to make use of the available space. I have configured racks with multiple Dl360's on top of each other with no issues with either heat OR HP Support.


Steven

[David Claypool · Accepted solution]

Airflow is all front-to-back. Rack doors should be perforated (rather than glass) to supply the proper airflow. If enough power and cooling is available for the rack, yes, it is possible to put as many as 42 servers in a 42U rack.

What some people have discovered is that loading up a rack like that may not be practical when it comes to cable management and egress from the rack (BladeSystem solves this problem elegantly).

Some who are not ready for blades and are looking for maximum density as well as convenience will put 21 of the 1U servers spaced 1U apart in a rack. However, for proper airflow, be sure to have a 1U faceplate between each one.

Frequently you will see a mixture of equipment in a customer's rack, and it's very common to see a set of 5-8 1U servers all mounted on top of each other with other stuff above or below it.

I highly recommend the paper "Optimizing data centers for high-density computing" at http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00064724/c00064724.pdf