[TriLUG] Pretty OT: Rack Slide Rails

Brian Henning brian at strutmasters.com
Wed Dec 28 10:14:31 EST 2005


Hi Folks,
   Please pardon this bit of noise for me to ask a practical question of 
anyone who may have experience using slide rails (the ball-bearing sort 
as often found in more expensive desk drawers, etc) on rackmount 
servers.  I have a 3U server that's mounted 1U above another 4U server, 
and 2U under a shelf, which makes it impossible to work inside either 
box without unmounting one which, when working alone, is a huge PITA... 
  So I'm hoping to put slide rails on the upper one so I can just pull 
it out, either to work on it or to get it out of the way of the one 
below.

My concern is that our racks are two-post, rather than four-post.  Which 
means there's no rear posts for the rails to attach to.  Can anyone 
speak to whether the rails can sustain the physical load of a server 
(say.. 30 pounds?  actually have no idea how much it really weighs) 
mounted only to front posts, without bending?  The rails appear to be of 
a rather lighter gauge of metal than the case itself.  I'm thinking I 
may need to try to find some sort of angle braces that would bolt to the 
rear of the posts and give support to the back end of the rails..

To help anyone who may be curious, the rails are these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16856999203

It really looks to me that the "ears" of those rails are only 1U high, 
and wouldn't stand up to the load of a 3U server when supported only at 
one end..

...and if I need bracing, surely such must exist, but where might I find 
it?  I don't even know what terms to use to search Google..

Thanks a ton,
~Brian

-- 
----------------
Brian A. Henning
strutmasters.com
336.597.2397x238
----------------



More information about the TriLUG mailing list