Rack and Equipment Installation
Some design recommendations on how to install electronic equipment within a rack and some standard pitfalls.
Equipment Rack Installation
The picture above shows an equipment rack [or cabinet] with an equipment chassis install within it. Note how the heavy chassis is installed in side the rack.
All ways try to install the heaviest gear near the bottom of the rack to prevent the rack from tipping over when the gear is pulled out on its rails.
When possible install anti-tip legs to the rack to also prevent tipping, or some other Anti-tip Device which protects the enclosure from tipping when servers and shelves are extended.
Power supplies should be installed at the bottom of the rack, heavy server units near the middle and light weight patch panels near the top of the rack, maybe a 1U rackmount panel temperature meter at the top most position of the rack, as an example.
EIA-310 does not specify rack depth. So be sure to specify or know the internal depth, usable depth and overall depth.
Height is also given in 'U', 1U = 44.45mm, 2U = 88.90mm
Design note: The term RETMA may be found instead of EIA-310, which is the old name for EIA.
