I’ve seen a mix of posts talking about grounding server racks.
I just got like 8 HP DL160s, ea w/ 550w Power Supply. I got an additional ubiquiti switch, patch panel and some other gear.
Really I sunk a small chunk of change into all this because I wanted to provide resources for coworkers and myself - even if I get canned at my current position I thought that “hey in the interim maybe this can help alleviate pain points - mainly a lot of networking pain points since we often don’t have granular control of switch / routing access + other things yaddayadda”.
So anyways. I got this gear. I got an open 15U Star Tech rack.
I got 20amp breakers in this tiny apartment that I’ve crammed this gear into.
And I have two separate power runs on some thick gauge wire from one 20amp circuit & another from another 20amp circuit.
Both runs going to their own independent 1U power / ground strip that’s mounted.
The gist was, at least as much I figure…the power draw can be pretty damn daunting. So I wanted to split the load between the 8 rigs + switch between two separate 20AMP circuits.
Everything is 3 prong.
I can’t tell you how the hell the apartment is wired…but it’s a new apartment building and I believe the building code at least has a solid ground…I beleive. I’ve never been shocked. But I also haven’t been purposefully trying to cause a ruckus.
So here my hairy bearded Irish self is just checking out these strange grounding points for the 15U server rack thinking to myself “is this necessary?” - “how the hell would I ground this to anything since I don’t have like an earth ground somewhere on the floor where this rack is located?”
In the words of Rocy IV Ivan Drago voice - “If he dies he dies” I guess I’m willing to sacrifice the gear if it does die…somehow. I got the gear at a steal - but in tune it’s purpose does serve more than myself as it’s built for me and my team and we all work in open source so I was happy to get it at a very badass price point. My thought is not grounding the server rack when everything else is grounded won’t cause the gear to die. Maybe it’s overkill dividing the power across two separate 20amp circuits but idk I’d rather not be constantly tripping breakers.
/ramble-questions
Ay thanks for any insight, input, thought and help!
For low power density (120V <10kVA) it isn’t as important but as voltage and current increase, it is important for safety as the rack can become energized if the supply ground is interrupted. Most PDUs have a high leakage current, meaning they leak current into the rack to which they are mounted.
u/stereolame - woah, I suppose I’ve heard of PDUs definitely in passing but I didn’t know that they could have some leakage current. The 15U rack, just has like “power strips” like the mounted 1U kind that aren’t a PDU - but I guess perhaps that’s better than if I had actually gone with 2 PDUs ( 1 for one 20 amp circuit, 1 for the other 20 amp circuit ) [ all 120v ]. Thanks for that insight!
I’ve heard of PDUs definitely in passing but I didn’t know that they could have some leakage current
They don’t. Maybe the equipment connected to them will but the PDU leaks nothing of any significance, it’s fairly passive.
Someone else already pointed out that server chassis provide ground continuity bonding to the rack…
Then I tossed the ground strap from the rack to my UPS’ ground screw…
And my UPS uses a grounded plug into the wall. Functionally grounded.