Best Rack Servers

You can often find rack servers in data centers because of the scalability they provide. Assembling the servers on racks also maximizes air flow and simplifies maintenance and diagnostics. If there is a problem, you can just slide the server out of the rack.

A type of rack server called a rugged rack server is often used in military and industrial applications. These servers are certified to military standards and stress-tested to work under extreme heat or cold, impact, high humidity, or vibration during transport.

One of the characteristics of rack servers is their convenience. IT personnel can slide them in and out of the server bay with ease. This feature enables technicians to swap parts if needed without the need for downtime.

The resources, services, and performance of the server will depend on the needs of a program or application that works on the server. Different use cases require unique server configurations and resources. For instance, a server installed in a remote military installation will require mobility, which a server installed in a commercial warehouse will not.

The number of servers a bay can hold will depend on the depth of the rack and its width. Most rack servers’ width is 19 inches, to fit a standard 19-inch server rack configuration.

Industry racks come in 19-inch, 23-inch and 24-inch widths. The height of the server bays is measured in rack units. A rack unit is 1.75 inches, and the most common rack heights are 42 and 44 units. Since this is equivalent to 77 inches of usable space, it allows you to stack a lot of servers.

Blade servers are the smallest in terms of size. They consist of a thin, lightweight, modular computer that can be positioned upright without taking much space. They often sit inside racks in what is called “blade enclosures” or systems. Blade servers are smaller and more mobile than rack servers.

Blade servers are, like rack servers, slideable and can be swapped hot. As such, they can be easily scaled and upgraded. They also consume less power than tower and rack mount servers. The downside of blade servers is that they are limited in their expandability because of their small size.

As a general rule, servers are more expensive than consumer-grade computers. They are designed, built, and tested to a stricter standard, thus vendors can charge more. A rack server can go from $400 and upwards, depending on the chassis. A mobile chassis, like the ones used for military operations, can be $1000 or more.

Rack servers offer much greater storage capacity than blade servers but still in a small, stackable size. Their convenience makes them more in demand, hence they cost more.

Rack servers are smaller than tower servers, and they are mounted inside a rack. These racks look like regular metal shelf units, designed to stack a server on each shelf. The rack server is designed so you can vertically stack one over another. Therefore, they are very convenient to use and occupy less space than a tower server.

Often, the rack server is housed with other devices together, like storage units, cooling systems, SAN devices, batteries, network peripherals, and more.They are easier to organize because of the presence of management tools in the rack.

Because of this convenience, it is easier to identify, remove, and replace a malfunctioning server. Rack servers are the best choice for small businesses or wherever you need to maximize server space without having a dedicated server room.

If you are looking to have a small-sized server but still have a lot of storage and performance, a rack server has several advantages:

• Power: Rack servers usually work as stand-alone systems. They can provide a powerful performance and can run data-heavy applications.
• Convenience: Mounting a server within a rack is convenient and saves a lot of space.
• Cooling: It is easier to cool a rack server than tower servers. Rack servers are usually equipped with internal fans. Also, placing them in a rack helps in terms of air flow and cooling the servers off.
• Good for low quantity of servers: Although rack servers can be stacked on top of each other, they are better for when you need fewer than ten servers.

A rack server unit should contain the following basic components:

• Motherboard: Also known as a system board, this is what enables the communication between components by using data buses.
• RAM: This is the server memory, or random access memory. The more slots you have in your server rack, the more server memory modules you can add, which reduces the chance of latency and helps access data faster.
• CPU: A central processing unit is what executes instructions.
• HBA: A host bus adapter for connecting external devices to the server.
• I/O ports: Input and output ports, for instance USC, serial ports or AUX ports. These ports are generally embedded into the system board.
• Drive bays: These are useful for adding hard drives (HDDs) or solid state drives (SSDs) to your server.
• Supporting equipment: This includes a cooling system, cable management units, rails, network security devices, and any other system that supports the server’s function.