December 2008
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Moving and Organizing My Home Server Closet

I actually did this back in August but I didn’t get around to uploading the photos til today so here it is!

Some wise person suggested that since I had a free room that I move my servers to the closet in that room instead of keeping them in my own closet. I’ve gotten used to closing the door to the walk-in closet each night to lessen the noise of the fans but having them in another room would be even better! I decided if I was going to do this that I should do it a little better than last time. I now have three servers: One acting as my router and running IPCop, a second running a web server for local development and testing, and a third running Samba and acting as my main file server. It started as just one and grew to more.

Instead of taking up more floor space, I decided to stop by the local thrift store and find some sort of small desk. I found a pretty beat up rolling desk and paid $10 for it. One wheel fell off while I was rolling it out to the car but oh well. haha. Anyways, it fit in the closet and had two levels for my computers to sit on.

I had some zip ties and cable running hardware from when I planned to re-run my grandma’s phone line a while back so I used those to run the cable along the wall instead of the gaff tape I used previously. I couldn’t mount the switch on the wall but I did put it up above on the top shelf of the closet. I used zip ties as cable management to run the permanent cables up to the switch. As I get more or have temporary cables I won’t worry about the neatness so much but at least the existing cables are managed nicely. It’s not perfect by any standards but I think it’s a step up and not bad for an amateur with a couple hours.

Photos below:

5 comments to Moving and Organizing My Home Server Closet

  • daphne

    Oh, did you retake new pictures? Lol. The last photo definitely looks different now right? 😀

    Considering that you have positioned everything in one room, you don’t have cables running outside right? I actually didn’t bother to look around but now I am curious. Opps. :$

  • Yea, a couple of the photos look different now. The sticky zip tie holders don’t hold up so well I found but since I’m renting I’m reluctant to screw into the wall much.

    Well you helped me run one cable outside to the other room remember? The other one comes through the wall into my bedroom. Everything else is wireless 🙂

  • daphne

    Oh right, I didn’t notice the one going to your bedroom. Or maybe I don’t remember it. How come you have one running to your bedroom?

  • That one goes through the phone outlet that I don’t use. If you didn’t notice then I did a good job, right? 😀 It’s for the xbox in the bedroom to play movies from the server.

  • daphne

    Oh ya! I still don’t remember seeing it. Geez, I am blind. I just found out another annoying thing about the wireless at home today that I might want my brother to run cables(against my mum’s wishes hahaha). Still liked the cool connection I had there! 😛