Building a mini home data center (cupboard)

I?m looking to build a small outside cupboard (data center) to store a couple of servers in. The server and electrical side of things I?m fine with. I?m just looking for some tips on the structure its self. I?m thinking of having this building a fair distance from the house (well as far as I can) so if the worst ever happens (burglary or fire) I still have my photos/ home videos and other data safely stored. Cloud storage is not an option due to the large quantity of home videos (in the Tera bytes), this is from both upload / download speed and cost perspective. So for the structure I?m thinking of starting with a concrete base, and a brick outside . The inside having a frame made of stud walling. There would be a waterproof layer between the studs and the outside bricks. The inside of the stud walling would be covered in ply, with insulation between the ply and waterproof material. For air flow I would add a couple of breather blocks on the bottom course of the bricks. This would also let out any condensation from the bricks. I would also put some vents at the top of the inside structure to allow heat out, These could be closed in the winter. The roof would be wood with 2 layers and insulation in between, and a felt course to make sure it was waterproof. Not really got any ideas as yet for the door which I would use to access the servers. The important part is the inside does not get damp and the temperature is not allowed to get too cold or hot. I may need to add some fans to extract heat, but the heat from the servers in this small space should keep the temperature up. Any views / improvements / tips / crucial things I have missed?

Reply to
Andrew
Loading thread data ...

Any risk of thefts from sheds? (Obviously, you might have an indoor backup too).

Reply to
newshound

Small buildings in strong sunshine tend to get awfully hot inside unless you have active ventilation. Keeping dust and humidity at bay will be the hardest part whilst maintaining an even temperature and avoiding a condensing atmosphere. Astronomers have similar problems keeping scopes in good condition in small observatories. It is amazing where spiders and thrips can get into even when things are hermetically sealed.

Strong summer sunshine will potentially cause you overheating problems unless the structure is cunningly designed to be self shading. Adding ventilation without introducing dust will be a challenge.

Reply to
Martin Brown

I tried something similar in our loft, and discovered that they get hotter than you'd think :-)

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

Obviously some kind of raid or other internal back up system in case drives running all the time peg it. Watch out for creepy crawlies. Use a very tight piece of mesh over any air bricks or wasps and other things move in. The door is probably going to be your biggest challenge I think to keep weather out. Also what happens if there is a power cut? Is there some way you can arrange for graceful shut down from this and some way to keep the hardware from getting too cold if its a protracted outage. Depends how safe safe has to be I suppose.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

I actually think your insulation is a bad idea. The servers will be putting out what - 200,300,400W ?

That will build up fast if you insulate a small space and may eb extremely bad in summer.

The rest sounds fine though.

Reply to
Tim Watts

I've got unlimited cloud backup for $60 USD a year. Others are cheaper. The important thing isn't your total volume of data, it's rate of change. The backup software will get your existing videos online eventually, and if they don't change, no more needs to be sent.

IMO you should be doing that if you're concerned about your data. The outside server cupboard won't be as secure. Doing both is also an option though - the local backup will be faster to restore from.

(obviously you will also need an internet link where you're not paying per GB, but that's easy too these days).

The things I would be concerned about would be water, dirt and critters. Also consider how much you're spending on electricity - especially if you're adding fans, the cost does add up, and suddenly the cloud-based storage starts to look better value.

Reply to
Clive George

Of course I have indoor backups ;) these are 2nd level backups, (hopefully randomware proof as the files are never overwritten( even if changed) and are not accessible to the windows clients. My current outdoor backups in a different building are also heavily encrypted so that if a tea-leaf gets them they are totally useless from a data perspective.

Reply to
Andrew

Agreed, the current location is in direct sunlight in an outside building. Lost an old disk recently I don't think either the age of the disk or the heat helped the situation. My new place is in the shade under some large bushes, mainly to keep them out of site, and provide shade

Reply to
Andrew

Yes i found that out too, lost a disk recently. hence the new location

Reply to
Andrew

Agree with the raid as a principle, however despite using raids heavily at work I have gone for the approach of multiple non resilient backups, Also its cheaper and ,more flexible for my home needs

Like the point about the creepy crawlies though not thought about that one.

Power cut again an excellent point, given the risk of power cuts is low and the cost is high to protect a couple of servers which should in theory stand a crashed shutdown, plus i can rebuild quickly , and recover to data to as well. I had not planned this. but is something to consider.

As for how safe. I have had a couple of NAS drives in a locked out building in a box to protect them from water for the past 4 years, and no real issues (except a disk failed recently). Crime is low in our areas. I mainly want to add a little more protection to all the family videos (Tera Bytes), in case we ever get burgled or have a fire. I also want to provide a reasonable environment for the devices to maximise their life (well as long as it can be) , with out building a proper data center with full AC, power redundancy and CCTV etc.

Reply to
Andrew

Agreed , well sort of, it does get a little too cold (-5-6C), and these server will only be active at night for the majority of their time, but the point about a lot of heat is a valid one. I was thinking of putting a network connected thermometer in there as well to allow monitoring and tuning of the environment. Reason for the insulation is I don't want the disks to spin up and be cold as this could cause moisture to build up on the disk platters and the disk to destroy its self.

Reply to
Andrew

My last-ditch backups are in a storage unit ten miles away!

(BTW, your sig separator is broken...should be two dashes and a space, not three dashes!)

Reply to
Bob Eager

Use helium-filled drives.

Reply to
polygonum

So, basically... you have paranoia and have upset some of the people you ar e asking to help you because of the way you have set up your computer. Most OSs come with easy data back-up capabilitiesthese days. Have you ever cons idered a system that is designed by people who are security conscious?

Why don't you just form the habit of taking a USB wherever you work and bac king up regularly?

Some of the flash drives available these days hold enormous amounts, are ch eap plus they don't need to be turned over all the time like the good old f ashioned reliable stuff.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

There is no such thing as 'unlimited': you will get kicked off eventually if you have 'too much' (whatever that means). They're betting that your dataset growth will be throttled by your upload pipe.

While it's not quite the same thing as plain storage, running servers on-premises frequently comes in cheaper than the most barrel-scraping of dedicated servers. For example, a recent server purchase was the cost of renting similar hardware for 3 months - that's from a cheap host, let alone AWS.

Power is extra, of course, but $100 or more per month buys a lot of power in the UK - even if the datacentre has cheap power and cooling located next to a nuclear power station in the Arctic Circle.

If you can architect the servers to be not-loud, how about keeping them indoors somewhere the heat will be useful? In a cold room, maybe, instead of running the heating? Or use it to dry clothes instead of running the dryer?

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Which it will be. The one I looked at said they're fine with customers doing 5T, which sounds like it would match what the OP wants.

Yes, this is true. And I have the amusement of watching people at work believe Azure is going to save them money. But for storage, what it gives you is a decent offsite backup, which is the critical thing.

Reply to
Clive George

This group used to be useful for DIY advise / discussions , but now appears to be full of people who care more about how many dashes there are than trying to help or calling me paranoid. As I stated earlier I did not want to discuss IT or the merits of different solutions. I was looking for some advice about a DIY project.

Thanks for nothing guys...

Reply to
Andrew

Seems a bit early to be spitting your dummy out.

A number of people have raised points that you seemed grateful to receive. Wait a bit longer and if you don't alienate everyone first, you might get the advice that you're looking for.

Without a doubt Usenet is withering so it's not the repository of knowledge and experience that it once was but there are still some very knowledgable people around. Maybe you're just expecting too much?

Oh, and your sig separator is wrong. ;-) A trivial thing perhaps but it pisses people off. Your intention maybe?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Oi - I gave you a considered reply :(

Reply to
Tim Watts

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.