Home Server Closet Cooling: Options?

[TheSaint]

I'm trying to build a small server/tech closet in my garage. Ideally, it can fit a standard rackmount server system that way I can put the whole thing on casters and slide it in and out for service. I don't want the closet to be larger than necessary, and I'm thinking a standard 42U 19" rack. As this whole unit will be placed in a garage, I want to enclose it with a wood/drywalled enclosure which will have a door on it with deadbolt for physical security. At the front of the door to the closet, I want to install a mesh screen to filter incoming air, as I don't want to introduce extra garage dust to the components inside. In the ceiling of the cabinet, I'm planning on mounting a large fan to blow the hot air out and through to my attic.

 

Any thoughts, or suggestions on my suggested setup? Anything you'd do differently? 

[GDRRiley]

that seams good. a large box fan may be fine for the top. 

[QFA350]

Drill a few 140mm holes in the top of the cabinet and attach standard 12v high power fans like Delta fans or do what I said before with the holes and run 140/120mm ducting with a fan up into your ceiling.

[TheSaint]

That's a good idea, I can probably frame in a box fan above the setup to push the hot air out. Not sure if I need to fashion any type of intake fan to the closet door to make sure there's enough circulation to keep the airflow going. I guess I'd just have to watch the temps on the devices and see if it can be done just off pulling the hot air out, and perhaps adding the pushing of the cool air in from the front.

[Eniqmatic]

Sounds decent and glad to see you are going to vent to the attic. As you say some nice fine filters on the intakes should keep dust out.

 

Not sure what type of equipment/servers your running but I assume they are nothing enterprise?

[TheSaint]

Here's my shortlist of equipment I plan on putting in the cabinet: 

 

• Some sort of NAS server. Thinking about taking my old setup here and repurposing it for use with some as-yet-to-be-picked NAS OS:
   
  • Intel Q6600 w/G0 Stepping
  • Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P LGA 775 Mobo w/Intel P35
  • 8 or 16GB of RAM (need to do some testing on two DIMMS)
  • Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W PSU
  • 3TB WD Red NAS drive
     
• I'd going to add a UPS for smooth power delivery. Not sure on model yet until I determine what kind of capacity I need.
• A 16 or 24 port switch for whole-house Gigabit networking (perhaps with POE on-board if I can find one at a decent price)
• Separate POE switch (small, just 4, 5, or 6 ports, enough to cover the IP cameras)
• ASUS Cellspot Router by Tmobile
• Cisco Cable Modem
• Some sort of thin-build device for pfSense or other firewall, unless there is a way to run say pfSense and a NAS OS on the same physical box in a virtual machine? I'm new to VM's, so I'm not even sure that's possible (or advisable?!).
• Home automation hub (SmartThings, Insteon, etc.)

I can vent into the attic area directly (it is insulated with sheetrock and insulation, so it will heat the attic up a bit more, or I can put a vent and attach it to whatever fan enclosure I mount in the server closet and install some sort of roof vent that bypasses the attic altogether. 

[Eniqmatic]

Nothing enterprise then, so great. They should all be fine, but obviously after initial installation of everything then keep an eye on your idle temps. Then start a bit of load on the equipment and just make sure all the temps stay fine and nothing gets out of hand. POE switches can get a little warm sometimes just from the amount of power that is in constant use, but because you are using half a dozen or less it shouldn't be bad at all.

 

As for virtualizing a NAS and pfSense, sure its totally do-able, providing the hardware is there. It will also depend on which OS you want to use for the NAS? You will need probably a bare minimum of 3 NICS if you wanted to do a combined NAS and pfSense box so just bare that in mind.

[TheSaint]

23 minutes ago, Eniqmatic said:

Nothing enterprise then, so great. They should all be fine, but obviously after initial installation of everything then keep an eye on your idle temps. Then start a bit of load on the equipment and just make sure all the temps stay fine and nothing gets out of hand. POE switches can get a little warm sometimes just from the amount of power that is in constant use, but because you are using half a dozen or less it shouldn't be bad at all.

 

As for virtualizing a NAS and pfSense, sure its totally do-able, providing the hardware is there. It will also depend on which OS you want to use for the NAS? You will need probably a bare minimum of 3 NICS if you wanted to do a combined NAS and pfSense box so just bare that in mind.

I still haven't made up my mind on which NAS OS to use, have a few parts on order to complete a sandbox build environment, then I'm going to download the ISO files for FreeNAS and others, and test things out. I've used Synology before in helping setup a few small businesses, but have never built one from scratch. As this custom-build will have no need for a graphics card, I'm going to use some of the PCIe slots for additional NIC's as you suggested, in addition to the Gigabit port already on the mobo.

[Eniqmatic]

In the case of FreeNAS, virtualizing is a little trickier but still do-able. In order to make it stable and reliable, there are some prerequisites that you should definitely adhere to if you want it to run properly. Everyone will tell you you can't virtualize FreeNAS but its because they've read someone else saying it and they don't understand or haven't done their own research into it. But don't take it from me, read this post from a developer: http://www.freenas.org/blog/yes-you-can-virtualize-freenas/

 

Please read over the recommendations and take note of what you need to do. If this sounds beyond you or you are not sure, I would just build a separate system and use the Q6600 for pfSense (that hardware isn't the best for FreeNAS as it is).

[TheSaint]

Right. That's why I really want to sandbox everything and test it out, and then build a separate system if advisable not to push one machine beyond its limits, or start getting slowdowns/crashes. Certainly not something you want on your file server! I'm just trying to recycle my ol' Q6600 if at all possible. Hate throwing working parts away.

[Mikensan]

Do you live in an area where the summers are hot, and during those times does the garage get very hot? 

If you want a solution that moves a lot of air, get one of those fans meant for radeon systems and just run some 6" PVC pipe to your attic. That'll definitely create some airflow lol. 

 

You could always go with a portable AC unit, but they eat up a lot of electricity and I don't know that with what you've listed that you would need it. As long as it's not much over 90 degrees with everything running it should be fine, only when you seriously task the CPU with something over extended periods of time it will wear on the equipment.

 

I ran some laptops and old cisco switches in an actual closet with no ventilation for a few years. Laptops were being used as a firewall and a super wonky NAS. Never had anything go wrong.

[TheSaint]

1 hour ago, Mikensan said:

Do you live in an area where the summers are hot, and during those times does the garage get very hot? 

If you want a solution that moves a lot of air, get one of those fans meant for radeon systems and just run some 6" PVC pipe to your attic. That'll definitely create some airflow lol. 

 

You could always go with a portable AC unit, but they eat up a lot of electricity and I don't know that with what you've listed that you would need it. As long as it's not much over 90 degrees with everything running it should be fine, only when you seriously task the CPU with something over extended periods of time it will wear on the equipment.

 

I ran some laptops and old cisco switches in an actual closet with no ventilation for a few years. Laptops were being used as a firewall and a super wonky NAS. Never had anything go wrong.

The garage where the components are going to be located (inside of a closet) stays cool all year round due to strong insulation. Ambient heat isn't going to be a problem, it is more so the concern of whatever heat the components themselves throw off in a semi-confined space. I've thought about even cutting out the a huge portion of the sheetrock and putting a massive box fan on low RPM all the time in this closet. Certainly would move a lot of air!

 

Trying at all costs to avoid an AC unit. The long-term electricity bill would be murder, and I think that if I plan my closet properly there should be enough ventilation to keep temps down without it.

[Mikensan]

55 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

The garage where the components are going to be located (inside of a closet) stays cool all year round due to strong insulation. Ambient heat isn't going to be a problem, it is more so the concern of whatever heat the components themselves throw off in a semi-confined space. I've thought about even cutting out the a huge portion of the sheetrock and putting a massive box fan on low RPM all the time in this closet. Certainly would move a lot of air!

 

Trying at all costs to avoid an AC unit. The long-term electricity bill would be murder, and I think that if I plan my closet properly there should be enough ventilation to keep temps down without it.

Yea if the garage is cool then there's no need for an AC unit. You could get away with one powerful fan, either sucking or blowing. I wouldn't put the fan flush with the floor, I don't think you'd get but a few degrees compared to chest level anywho.

 

I would say put an inlet vent on the door, so if you do use a filter it's easier to get to (just open the door and bam you're on the other side) and a fan sucking air at the top of the closet.

 

Same racks already have fans on the top, could always make use of those as well.

[TheSaint]

3 minutes ago, Mikensan said:

Yea if the garage is cool then there's no need for an AC unit. You could get away with one powerful fan, either sucking or blowing. I wouldn't put the fan flush with the floor, I don't think you'd get but a few degrees compared to chest level anywho.

 

I would say put an inlet vent on the door, so if you do use a filter it's easier to get to (just open the door and bam you're on the other side) and a fan sucking air at the top of the closet.

 

Same racks already have fans on the top, could always make use of those as well.

My thought was to ceiling mount the box fan so that it is pulling the hot air out of the closet and forcing it into the attic or beyond into some type of roof vent. I agree, if the box fan is too close to the floor, it will constrict airflow and probably pick up more dust would be my guess. I was thinking a large box fan run at low RPM would pull a lot of air due to the larger blades, plus with the large blades and lower RPM compared to multiple smaller fans, it would also be quieter. Don't want it to sound like a datacenter in my garage.