Get one of these as a ceterpiece: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1
Put the real servers around it, and make sure to put a lot of LEDs on them. If the company is good, use blue LEDs. If the company is evil, use red LEDS.
Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
31–40 of 57 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#32Wide racks, structured cabling, cable combs, "real" overhead tray, clever lighting. Buy multiple exact lengths of cables instead of using service loops. Use the right kind of PDUs to minimize power cable lengths. You can order custom racks and have them use any metal or paints that you want. Hire good electricians, get them to bend hard metallic conduit instead of flexible or plastic, have it bundled instead of just…
I think this is bad advice, frankly. Such things are not unusual, non-tech suits always want blinkenlights and such, because they think it'll impress prospective customers. The stories I could tell, datacenters like circus acts.
The key is to keep the blinkencrap away from the real network/servers/patch panels, because those things have to actually work at all times, and it's your neck if it doesn't.
When you start adding extra switches and whatnot to the network just because they look and blink nice, you're actually adding points of failure into the network, stuff that can affect your network for whatever reason if something goes wrong.
I would advise either outright refusing to do it, or adding completely unconnected bling like rsync's comment lists -- expensive junk that serves no purpose except look flashy. But just never connect that crap to a production network.
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#33[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#34Create a waterproof wall of glass around the room's glass walls, fill the between space with water and aquarium plants, put some fish. And in the server space proper, put a Cray in the middle, the one that looks like a 60s outer space couch, and hire a couple of str-- I think the fish will do fine.
Q: What kind of fish belongs in a server room? A: A crayfish!
At UQ in Queensland we hung a plastic yabbie inside the crays flourinert recycling tank (The flourinert tank had a ballcock and was basically like a see through toilet cistern, hidden inside a normal cabinet.)
(A yabbie is an Australian crayfish)
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#35Hire talented pros, who care about the details, to design your rack and do your cabling. I can give you some referrals if you'd like. I was on the project to build Apple Park and I know the guys who did the cabling for that job. Extremely clean and attractive work.
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#36Just a thought. You can buy low-voltage very pretty LED strip lighting in just about any colour for next to nothing. Maybe just get whatever racks/servers/you want and then decorate them with these...?
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#37One thing that I saw that was kinda cool... cutouts in the floor of the reception area that had cable and fiber running under the floor into the data center, with glass floor tiles above, and some lights in the channel.
Kicker? It was all left over cable, and didn't go to or from anywhere.
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#38Doors. Get doors on the racks and screen print them with the company logo. It looks sharp, doesn't cost much, and hides a multitude of sins.
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#39Wide racks, structured cabling, cable combs, "real" overhead tray, clever lighting. Buy multiple exact lengths of cables instead of using service loops. Use the right kind of PDUs to minimize power cable lengths. You can order custom racks and have them use any metal or paints that you want. Hire good electricians, get them to bend hard metallic conduit instead of flexible or plastic, have it bundled instead of just…
I think this is bad advice, frankly. Such things are not unusual, non-tech suits always want blinkenlights and such, because they think it'll impress prospective customers. The stories I could tell, datacenters like circus acts. The key is to keep the blinkencrap away from the real network/servers/patch panels, because those things have to actually work at all times, and it's your neck if it doesn't. When you start a…
I'm not the one who initially suggested decorative server equipment... the original poster is clearly working under duress.
Re: Ask HN: How to make a photogenic server room
#40I love Linus' (tech tips) neon-pink rack!