Homelab - Location of 'servers' around the house

BlizzardX

BlizzardX

BlizzardX

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
2,748
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
Morning,

Bit of a random question but I wanted to get some feedback, even if not fully qualified due to different countries.

I live in Auckland, New Zealand; also known as the winterless north. Temperatures often sit in winter at 3-5 degrees over night and 15 degrees during the day, but with reasonable humidity due to the position between two large natural harbours.

I currently keep my home lab in a cupboard, but I'm looking to add new whitebox servers and I'll be soon run out of space, heat control and finally my partner would like the cupboard back!

My question is simple really, what would the pitfalls be if I was to place the entire system under the house? Our house is a raised sub-floor on concrete piles with a brick base and lots of airflow. The humidity should be low due to the high air flow, and the area is dry underside as the clay is always hard and slighly flaky.

I don't think humidity or upper temp range will be an issue, but would I have trouble with 4 or 5 servers running 24/7 when the outside air temp drops to around 4 degrees? I think under the house iwll be slightly warmer but I'm not sure.

Thoughts? comments? Any thing is valued.

Thanks,

Chris
 
You should be fine. The problem would be when the servers are colder than ambient causing condensation. Which won't happen without special cooling.

I can't think of an issue currently other than if it's dusty down there clogging up the cooling vents/fans.

You are somewhat relying on wind speed to keep airflow going as 5 servers could pump out a fair amount of heat(depending on specs) personally I'd consider an extractor fan on one side and even an intake on the other to keep the air moving. Unless it's well vented already?
 
Last edited:
If anything the servers will always be hotter than the surrounding air temp. Currently looking at some form of rack to put them in (currently seen a 22u with doors and fans etc.), so that should assist airflow but the base does get a lot of air moving through it, you can really feel it hence why its lower humidity than the outside air.

Dust may be an issue, which is why I'll be using filters and the like and will check it once a week to be sure.

I'm looking at consumer whiteboxes built around i5/i7s so heat output is relatively limited, especially in 4u cases with decent fans moving around.

Thanks for the reply!
 
I would recommend against putting the servers under the house. You should put them somewhere where you can easily get at them. Especially should a fire extinguisher be required.
 
Hi Quartz,

I guess the question is why? I currently have them in a cupboard which has limited airflow and temps don't exceed 45 degrees normally, so surely in a space with clear and cooler airflow is better?

The clearance under the house is around 1.5m near the main door, which is where they would be located so access is not a problem and they all use some form of KVM to remote manage the hardware itself.
 
BlizzardX said:
Hi Quartz,

I guess the question is why? I currently have them in a cupboard which has limited airflow and temps don't exceed 45 degrees normally, so surely in a space with clear and cooler airflow is better?
Click to expand...

Put a grille at the top and bottom of the door and your airflow is sorted.

The clearance under the house is around 1.5m near the main door, which is where they would be located so access is not a problem and they all use some form of KVM to remote manage the hardware itself.
Click to expand...

What happens if they catch fire? How quickly would you notice?

And, since the servers are outside the house, how are you going to protect them from theft?
 
Hmm personally I dont lke the idea of setting up servers that are exposed to the elements. The airflow wouldn't be a problem, but what about heavy rainfall, or frost. Dust could be a problem on drier days. How easy would cable routing be for power and data? How sensitive is the data on the servers from theft? Does having the power and data cables going external possibly open you up to someone stealing power or network connectivity/hacking?
 
Would it be a better idea to build some sort of server "room" under the house to protect from these factors? That might make some of the environmental and security issues less prominent.
 
I think it means the house is built on stilts and then the bottom is closed off using bricks so not exposed at all.
Just not insulated as it appears it's not required.
 
i think it sound ok and as long as it stays above freezing and is fully water tight and bug/animal proof then i think it should be good.enjoy the cuboard
:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom