I’m pricing out an HL15 and am trying to figure out which rail kit I need (and if I need to adjust my rack).
I have the old Startech 4 Post Rack 25U ( https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/4postrack25 ).
Does the rail kit mount on the outer or inner set of holes on the front and back - I currently have rails designed both ways.
It’s about 24.5” between the inner hole sets.
If it’s the inner I either need to get the short kit or I need to expand the rack out a bit (which means adjusting my other rails…).
Thanks!
You want the set of holes on the very front and very back. Those are for 19" equipment and are the ones that are 18-5/16 inches apart on center horizontally across the front. I’m not a racksprert, but my understanding was the other set of holes were for mounting PDUs, cable management, etc to the side of the rack, I’m a bit surprised you have rails using them.
There is a discussion on page 17 or so of the User Manual about installing the rails.
The inner set is exactly like the outer set, so that tends to confuse me. I’ve had rail sets that mount fine just to the outer set, but others that indent a bit at the mounting points, so mounting them on the the outer set causes then to hit the edge of the inner set and angle in instead of being straight, so they don’t mount properly and have to be put on the inner set.
A better look at the rack itself:
OK, well if both sets of vertical holes are the same distance apart, you will need to use the inner holes. If you use the outer ones there won’t be enough space for the rails to pass by; the rails are about the width of a rack hole.
Yeah..that’s what I was thinking might be the case..some rails are designed so that they work with that rack style..some aren’t..so I probably need to either get the short rail kit or bump the rack depth out a slot so the normal kit will fit on the inside…(and maybe add a new rack to my shopping list lol).
Thanks for the input!
Because the HL15 is only 20" deep, I think either should work. I’d probably get the short rails unless you have some other reason to resize your rack. If the server itself were deeper you might not be able to pull it out all the way using the inner holes, but at only 20" I think fully extended the back of the server should still clear the front of the rack by a couple inches.
I’m not sure why the short rails are more, and so, expensive on the 45HL store though. They seem to be available and in-stock directly from Supermicro for only $99 (+ shipping);
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Yeah I think that’s the call. The deepest thing in my rack currently (apart from the servers I’m in the process of replacing with this and another one) is about 18”..so expanding the rack out just for a rail kit doesn’t make much sense.
I can always upgrade the rails later when I eventually get a nice cabinet..but that’s kinda low on the priority list hah.
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Short rail works great!
(yes I still need to pull the old drive enclosure..but the UPS is sitting on top of it and I didn’t feel like fighting that last night..I’ll have my bro help today lol)
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