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robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Not like that!

I can't be the only one with a rack at home. Show us what you've built!

Here is mine. Total residential overkill. I am still buying components. Eventually there will be 11 Sonos amps (there is a ZP100 round the back so I have 6 right now). I've also got my eye on a DL-380 to provide a bit more power as my poor Synology is taking a bit of a hammering acting as my Docker host

IMG_2387.jpg
 

DoFoT9

macrumors P6
Jun 11, 2007
17,586
99
London, United Kingdom
Nice. I very much condone the use of UniFi products. Personal preference would be a Dell server of sorts (I have just got my hands on a Dell R430 server with ESX, for various things) but either works!

I unfortunately live in an apartment and cannot modify the place for cabling, but hope to sort out a smaller rack of sorts.
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Nice. I very much condone the use of UniFi products. Personal preference would be a Dell server of sorts (I have just got my hands on a Dell R430 server with ESX, for various things) but either works!

I unfortunately live in an apartment and cannot modify the place for cabling, but hope to sort out a smaller rack of sorts.
I used to have a floor standing rack in the corner of my living room when I lived in a flat in London. Eventually I redecorated and decided it was too much and had a small rack in a cupboard. I laid cable under the floating laminate floor and just ran it over the skirtingboard (base board) to some surface mount outlets. All easily removable (although I sold it with it all in place)
 
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stridemat

Moderator
Staff member
Apr 2, 2008
11,364
863
UK
Not like that!

I can't be the only one with a rack at home. Show us what you've built!

Here is mine. Total residential overkill. I am still buying components. Eventually there will be 11 Sonos amps (there is a ZP100 round the back so I have 6 right now). I've also got my eye on a DL-380 to provide a bit more power as my poor Synology is taking a bit of a hammering acting as my Docker host

View attachment 870581

Nice rack *ronwink*

Basically you have what I want. Apart from the amps, what else you got doing what in it?
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Nice rack *ronwink*

Basically you have what I want. Apart from the amps, what else you got doing what in it?
From the top:

1U : Speaker patches (11 stereo pairs of ceiling speakers
1U : Wall Ethernet patches (47 ports including the WiFi access points)
1U : 48 Port Ubiquiti PoE Gigabit switch : this provides ethernet to the wall ports/WiFi access points
1U : 16 Port Ubiquiti 10G switch: core aggregation switch; provides connectivity between the other switches (and the core devices on the network)
1U : 48 Port Ubiquiti Gigabit switch : connects all the devices in the rack; originally would have takes some of the duties of the other big switch but I was able to connect some other devices direct to stuff in the rack
1U : Ubiquiti USG Pro : router
4 x 3U : Sonos Amps. I am using shelfs front and back to double up the capacity. Eventually will have 11 amps
3U shelf : Virgin Media router in modem mode, Virgin Media v6 Tivo DVR, Growatt solar panel logger
2U : HDAnywhere 8x8 HDMI/HDBaseT matrix: this is a cool device that has 8 HDMI inputs, 8 RJ45 outputs (but does not use TCP/IP) and a bunch of IR IO. You can watch anything on any of the inputs on any number of outputs. So we can watch Virgin TV anywhere in the house including on any number of screens at once. This has 8 ethernet drops from round the house plugged straight in to the back sparing space on the patch panel
1U : Synology NAS. This is a pretty old unit (2012 spec) that came from our old house. Right now this is the core server on the network. It is overworked!
1U : Hikvision NVR : Networked CCTV recorder. This has 8 PoE network ports on the back so saves 8 ports not the PoE switch and patch panels.

At the bottom: APC UPS. Currently not in use (!). I eventually want to add a second UPS as there is a lot of kit. I need to get this sorted out as it's annoying to wait for all this stuff to boot when power goes out.

Not in shot 7 x Ubiquiti 802.11AC in wall access points. This is total overkill but gives us amazing WiFi!

The network is split into 4 vLans: one for my wife and I, one for kids, 1 for guests and 1 for IoT devices. The sinology hosts various services like internal DNS, PiHole (different instances for different networks), Unifi Controller, AirPrint server (makes our ancient laser printer AirPrint capable), AirPlay proxy (makes our old Sonos Amps AirPlay 1 targets), www server, LDAP and radius etc. Hence the need for a more powerful server in the future! DL380 g7 can be had for £100-£200. 2x6 core Xeon and loads of RAM for that price!
 
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