Moving a Data Center Rack Enclosure

[JackMDS]

That said, there is a difference between "Macho" behavior that the consequences are personal. To potentially destroying Data Center hardware that can bring buseness and other people livelihood down.

It is called Perceptive.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I mean I really don't think it's that crazy. You can slide the back end of a car around on some cafeteria trays and he said he only had to move it a few feet on a tile surface.

It's fair to want to be extra careful, but I feel like that went out the window the second discussions happened on how to do this without taking the gear out. So in place of that, I was trying to get creative.

FWIW I'm the same person who put an 87" tall glass and metal display cabinet into my Mazda Protege 5 wagon and carried it into my house by myself. The point being that one day my hubris will probably get me killed or sent to the hospital, but in the meantime we might learn what is possible with a little creativity

This whole situation reminded me of this video.

Lol, you just hire the Murphy law firm from time to time

 

[Lordhumungus]

In my defense, it's not macho behavior when that's the only way to get it done. There was no one around to help and thing X needed to be accomplished, so I used my brain and back and figured it out.

Now obviously I don't know if that's the best answer here, but this isn't a "talk me off the ledge from doing something" thread right? It's more along the lines of help me figure out how I can accomplish this through non-conventional means? OSHA may not approve but if it gets the job done...

In any case, interested to see how this all plays out.

 

[ch33zw1z]

You've been given lots of advice. There's variables in play that could end the project in disaster. Such as tipping, weak floor spots ( yes, it happens).

Is this stuff up and running? Production? Dr? Backups?

 

[XavierMace]

I mean I really don't think it's that crazy. You can slide the back end of a car around on some cafeteria trays and he said he only had to move it a few feet on a tile surface.

A car's weight is spread out over a much larger area and the center of gravity is far lower.

 

[Lordhumungus]

The "on the spectrum" part of me almost wants to go buy a server rack on Craigslist and fill it with sandbags or something just to see if I can move it.

In other words, I think unemployment is finally starting to eat away at my brain

 

[Red Squirrel]

If the centre of gravity is low enough, and the floor is structurally sound and straight with no edges of any kind I think it could work. Not familiar with how raised floors work, are the racks on a solid paltform and then the raised floor is all around or do the racks actually sit on the raised floor? Ex: are those tiles actually made of steel or other solid material or are they only made to walk on? You could probably unbolt the rack,then hammer some wedges under it at 4 corners to lift it. Then keep adding blocks so you can then get some kind of platform with casters under it. Then you could probably push it around by pushing on the caster platform (not on the rack).

Either way, this needs to be recorded and if anything goes wrong it needs to go on Youtube. Personally, if it was my own server rack, I would be unracking everything and then reracking it in the new location. Would give an opportunity to reorganize and recable stuff. But I guess if you need to move it live I can see the reason to move the entire rack.

Moving a whole server rack live within the same building is still not as impressive as moving a single server to a whole other building - using public transit, though.

 

[ch33zw1z]

If the centre of gravity is low enough, and the floor is structurally sound and straight with no edges of any kind I think it could work. Not familiar with how raised floors work, are the racks on a solid paltform and then the raised floor is all around or do the racks actually sit on the raised floor? Ex: are those tiles actually made of steel or other solid material or are they only made to walk on? You could probably unbolt the rack,then hammer some wedges under it at 4 corners to lift it. Then keep adding blocks so you can then get some kind of platform with casters under it. Then you could probably push it around by pushing on the caster platform (not on the rack).

Either way, this needs to be recorded and if anything goes wrong it needs to go on Youtube. Personally, if it was my own server rack, I would be unracking everything and then reracking it in the new location. Would give an opportunity to reorganize and recable stuff. But I guess if you need to move it live I can see the reason to move the entire rack.

Moving a whole server rack live within the same building is still not as impressive as moving a single server to a whole other building - using public transit, though.

Tiles vary. Some tiles are stronger than others. These are the questions that are asked while ordering racks of equipment, and planning the physical move and install. Some tiles I have to lift are filled with a material to strengthen them, each tile weighs about 25 pounds.

Raised floors are tylicaly built on 2x2 metal framework, held up by metal pedestals. When big racks of equipment roll in, often additional pedestals are required to meet requirements based on the weight of the rack where it will be planted.

The walkways where the movers bring the racks in, and throughout data centers, are usually beefed up, because they're expecting those areas to be used to move equipment in and out of the data center, and don't want to rework to floor for each rack, so it's just common sense to make sure those areas can withstand more than is ever likely to roll on it.

Some of the frames that roll in weigh more than ton.

If the OP is seriously gonna try this, some planning is required. Not just at the spot intended to plant the rack, but the path in between. All the way down to pulling up tiles to check the supports, inspecting the path for any tiles that don't sit flush, or have edges that stick up even a little. Won't take much for this to go south quickly.

 

[corkyg]

It has been 8 days since the issue was posed. Surely something has been done by now?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It has been 8 days since the issue was posed. Surely something has been done by now?

We'll get an update once OP is out of the hospital, I'm sure.

 

[bfun_x1]

You've been given lots of advice. There's variables in play that could end the project in disaster. Such as tipping, weak floor spots ( yes, it happens).

Is this stuff up and running? Production? Dr? Backups?

Up and running. About half of it is EOL and without vendor support. The good news is we have back-ups. The bad news is that it doesn't matter since I have no back-up hardware.

 

[bfun_x1]

It has been 8 days since the issue was posed. Surely something has been done by now?

I'm still waiting on an approval from a technical review board. This doesn't help me at all but it does give others the opertunity to object if they feel it willl affect them.

 

[corkyg]

Ah, yes! The old CYA.

 

[sdifox]

Can you even pull the rack out of its location? I doubt it will clear the standard isle pitch when you have to turn. And pushing a loaded rack sideway is just jenga. Plus what other have said about walkway isle load capacity.
Rent a server lift, take everything off, stack everything up.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I'm still waiting on an approval from a technical review board. This doesn't help me at all but it does give others the opertunity to object if they feel it willl affect them.

You have a "technical review board" that you need to clear, but you're moving two fully loaded racks with two people? Doesn't add up. Get the equipment and/or resources that you need.

 

[bfun_x1]

This story has a conclusion! I went on vacation for 3 weeks and I was able to get a deadline extension from the facility. I never got the resources I needed from my management but I was able to get help from a friend in another department and his manager agreed to pay him for the time. We ended up moving the racks completely full. We kept three of the racks bolted together which made them really stable but also extra difficult to move. Every little bump on the floor was an obstacle and every inch was a battle. It took about 4 hours to complete the move and half that time was spent rerouting cables through the floor. The only bad thing that happened was me getting a nasty gash down the back of my leg from the metal edge of a falling floor tile.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Was the equipment at least turned OFF?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Was the equipment at least turned OFF?

Why do you think it took them half of that time just to move cables? Each time they moved it another tile, they had to unhook each cable as quickly as they could and attach it again in the next open tile.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Lol, at that point does it matter?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Lol, at that point does it matter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4

Power off, heads parked.

 

[ch33zw1z]

While I dont disagree, my point is that if someone is willing to push 3 racks together, lifting tiles as you go, you've already made the business decision that the gear really doesn't mean much to you.

 

[bfun_x1]

Lol. This is what I did. I removed the extra power strips from inside the racks and plugged them into the new location but kept them above the floor. Almost every device had redundant power supplies so I was able to move one PSU to the new circuit above the floor before disconnecting the second beneath the floor. After the racks were in place I connected the second PSU back through the bottom of the rack and below the floor. Then I was able to disconnect all the above floor power cables and run them through the bottom of the rack as well. There were only two non-critical devices with single PSUs that lost power. The WAN connections had to go down for a few hours but that was expected.

 

[ch33zw1z]

No guts, no glory

 

[Carson Dyle]

So it was all going to be offline anyway, but it was too much trouble to power everything down?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So it was all going to be offline anyway, but it was too much trouble to power everything down?

You ever work in the kind of shop where they don't know if their stuff will survive a reboot?