Server in the garage

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

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Isle of Wight
Are there any potential issues with running a machine in my garage? Cable modem has been running in there without issue for around 9 months now. The garage stays fairly dry, is single skin (rendered breeze block), garage door is an insulated double skin sectional and the window is double glazed.

I've put it in what is essentially a kitchen unit - I think it's ok ventilation wise, it's hardly air tight but the top rear panel is missing so there is available airflow.

My only concern is that water pipe, although the majority of any leak should in theory run down the back of the unit rather than in to it. It's currently switched off to avoid any burst pipes over the freezing months, although it'll probably go back on again shortly.

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I became fed up with the noise, even when hidden under the stairs so moved it to the garage. The upshot of this is that now I have easy access to Spotify in the garage (after sticking a soundcard in there), all controlled from my phone. It certainly sounds better through the Audigy 2 than it did just plugging my phone in to the speakers (old solution).
 
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MikeHiow said:
Are there any potential issues with running a machine in my garage? Cable modem has been running in there without issue for around 9 months now. The garage stays fairly dry, is single skin (rendered breeze block), garage door is an insulated double skin sectional and the window is double glazed.

I've put it in what is essentially a kitchen unit - I think it's ok ventilation wise, it's hardly air tight but the top rear panel is missing so there is available airflow.

My only concern is that water pipe, although the majority of any leak should in theory run down the back of the unit rather than in to it. It's currently switched off to avoid any burst pipes over the freezing months, although it'll probably go back on again shortly.

180373_10150143476205695_696930694_8120549_5271762_n.jpg


I became fed up with the noise, even when hidden under the stairs so moved it to the garage. The upshot of this is that now I have easy access to Spotify in the garage (after sticking a soundcard in there), all controlled from my phone. It certainly sounds better through the Audigy 2 than it did just plugging my phone in to the speakers (old solution).
Click to expand...

Keeping the machine off the floor it should be fine but will be more susceptible to corrosion. I have seen it happen on a number of machines but it did not stop them working. On a couple the USB ports corroded and fell apart, other the other, all the rear ports had one level or another of corrosion but they all still worked fine.

How about wrapping the pipe loosely in some plastic (thick gauge at base or a couple of plastic bin liners at worst) so if it does go then it may help at least divert the water somewhere away from the unit the machine is in.

Make sure the guarage is secure to avoid it going missing and goes without saying, backup anything you don't want to loose on a regular basis to another machine / hard drive kept in the house. If someone is going to break in and steel the machine then they are also likely to steel a portable hard drive I would imagine.

The last thing I personally would do is make sure nothing personal is on the machine just in case it does get nicked and password protect / encrypt it.

It si a good solution for noisy machines used as a nas for streaming movies and the like though. I believe a number of members are already doing just that (others use a loft like I used to).

RB
 
There are no security concerns, in fact the garage is probably more secure than the house. A plastic panel on a PVC door is going to be a lot easier than the garage door which is locked on the electric operator as well as two automatic side locks. :)

Not that it's really needed around here - until I fixed the electric operator this evening, the garage has been unlocked with valuables in there for months.

I'll have a think about the plastic thing - it may be worth just installing some kind of rear panel to the back of the unit again to separate the water pipe from the rest of the cupboard.

As for corrosion, any suggestions on perhaps reducing potential damp in there? I guess something like a box with cat litter and holes, or a whole load of silica sachets would do the job?

I'm going to stick a thermometer under there tomorrow, just to keep an eye on temperature, too.
 
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Cool, must be a nice place to live :D.

Maybe get some PVC pipe, cut down the length to open it up and wrap around the other pipe so the water pipe is in the centre of the pvc pipe. Make sure the cut is facing away from the cabinet. You could even lag the pip in the centre of the PVC pipe to help prevent it freezing if you wanted. Without pics it is hard to advice more accurately (if you have pics then I cannot see them from work). Trying to waterproof the cabinet may produce issues for ventilation.

Really not sure how to stave off any corrosion if the place is not protected. The corrosion I have seen was over two years + so it is not a quick problem. Really depends on the size of the space and how much you are willing to spend I would guess. Others are probably better positioned to give you specifics of what they did as my machines were old and still worked fine until I replaced them even with the corrosion.

RB
 
The only slight problem I can see is during summer there could be potential for heat to play a factor but even then I don't think it would be a significant change. You could just lag the pipes with the insulation foam and put some tape around that to stop any leaking if the worst happens. All in all it's a brilliant idea + it can keep your car warm during the cold months.
 
Ok, can see the pic from home.

Yep, I guess lagging the pipe and making sure it is sealed with duct tape is probably the best. Maybe make a hole in the shelf below the pipe and the bottom of the cabinet then put a bit of PVC pipe in vertically so if the water pipe does go then the water has somewhere to drain to, away from your machine.

RB
 
I have a 24U rack in my garage with a couple of servers / routers / switches etc running with absolutely no issues whatsoever :)
 
Would love to use my garage for this.

Do you guys get any problems with condensation etc?

I once went in mine during a foggy evening and my gym stuff was soaked in there (but maybe its not as air tight as yours!) :(
 
It all depends on the construction of your garage.

I have the advantage of it being attached to my house, proper walls, a flat roof, double glazing and a fully sealed and insulated sectional garage door.

If I had a concrete garage with corrugated roof, I probably wouldn't put my server in there, at least not without some kind of decent enclosure.
 
Why don't you insulate the water pipe? You can buy foam pipe insulation in 2m lengths quite cheap which should minimise the pipe bursting due to a cold snap.
 
If I'm honest, I do not believe the pipe would burst there due to freezing, especially not now the server is in there - the thermometer was reading 22c inside the cupboard with an ambient temperature of around 10c.

Preparing for the eventuality of the pipe bursting is something I'd like to do just to be sure rather than because I think it will - there are more reasons than freezing pipes for leaks to occur, thus I need to look at solutions that address leaks as a whole.

I think the answer is to shield off the pipe from the rest of the unit with wood or plastic, lift the server off the bottom with some rubber feet and drill a drain hole in the bottom.
 
MikeHiow said:
It all depends on the construction of your garage.

I have the advantage of it being attached to my house, proper walls, a flat roof, double glazing and a fully sealed and insulated sectional garage door.

If I had a concrete garage with corrugated roof, I probably wouldn't put my server in there, at least not without some kind of decent enclosure.
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Must be the door then has a dent in it (from previous owners) and that allows outside air in, also not attached to the house, stand alone, however I have a Aironet 1310 there and its happy but that is an outdoor unit.

I would like an aironet in the house also, maybe the loft???? what do you think?

feedback welcome.... 1310 in the loft also? those 1310's aren't cheap...

EDIT: My 1310 cost £160 absolute bargain, but no chance of getting another at that price lol
 
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You may end up with a toasty warm garage in the summer, but I can't really see any issues apart from that... I've seen servers installed in far less suitable places!
 
My garage may aswell be outside but what about placing a rack in there full of cisco kit and server(s) with condensation?

instant death???? .... or server heat defeats condensation before condensation destroys server rack?

How much heat do I jneed to generate in order to defeat outdoor weather condensation issues 99% of the year round?
 
It has just about zero impact on the garage now. The temp under the cupboard is staying at a healthy 21.7c with an ambient temp of 9.7c.

The server is the loft probably wouldn't have worked for me either, if it was loud enough for me to hear it upstairs (albeit only at night in absolute silence) I think it would have been just as bad or worse in the loft.

Of course, that all depends how loud your server is.
 
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