If your cabinets are only partially populated and have perforated ventilation holes in the front and rear, you may not need additional cooling fan kits. Server manufacturers typically recommend a minimum perforation factor for the doors of the cabinets that would be used to house their servers and this is typically from 63% upwards; to allow adequate air flow from front to rear.
18U Srver Racks and Data Cabinets
18U server racks and data cabinets from Server Room Environments including wall mounting data cabinets, floor standing server racks supplied on casters and roadside enclosures. These 18U racks and cabinets are designed to provide a protective environment for IT servers and network peripherals and meet a range of budget, application and specification needs. For each 18U there are a number of choices to make including the width of the cabinet and its internal depth. Each can be supplied with accessories to customise the rack for its specific application including paint colour, cooling, cable management, blanking plates, castors, trays, shelves and KVM switches.
18U Server Cabinets Guide
When selecting a rack or cabinet there are several factors to consider.
Rack Height
A 18U rack or cabinet can house equipment whose total height when placed into the rack is no more than 0.80m. Care therefore has to be taken when selecting a rack to make sure that there cabinet height is sufficient to house the IT server, networking peripheral or IoT device.
| U Height | Metres | Centimetres | Millimetres | Feet | Inches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18U | 0.80m | 80.01cm | 800.10mm | 2.63ft | 31.50" |
For referrence 1U=1.75inches or 44.45mm.
Rack Width
The standard rackmount width is 19inches (482.6mm) and cabinets are typically available in 600mm or 800mm width. Most products will either fit to the front rack pillars using cage nuts onto flanges attached to the rack-mountable device, or slide rails running from the front to the rear pillars or sit on internal shelves or slide-out trays. Room should be left around the rack for adequate air flow and access.
Rack Depth
The depth of cabinet available range from 600-1200mm. Care should be taken when selecting a rack depth to ensure that it is suitably long enough for the equipment to be housed including any necessary space for cables (bend radius) and connection access. How to manage cables is important for any rack size for easy cable identification and to avoid accidental disconnection.
Open or Closed Racks
The majority of server racks and data cabinets supplied are enclosed rather than open frames. An enclosed cabinet with a front and rear door and side panels is more secure and will provide with more efficient airflow management.
Shelves for 18U Rack Cabinets
Shelves are ideal for devices that cannot be installed into floor standing cabinets. As part of our cabinet accessories range we provide a wide selection of “rack shelving”: https://www.serverroomenvironments.co.uk/rack-mount-shelves including:
- Fixed rack shelves 1U from 350 to 800mm in depth and available in standard or heavy duty types
- Telescopic shelves 1U from 450 to 800mm with sliding rails
- Adjustable depth shelves1U from 300 to 900mm
- Modem shelves 1U, 2U and 3U from 200 to 500mm
- L brackets
All rack shelves can be painted to match the server rack colour supplied. The shelves can be ordered with a 18U cabinet or as additional items.
Cable Management and Connections
Patch panels (24 and 48 port), patch panel cable and specialist cables are available from Server Room Environments including smart hands to provide on-site network cable installation and routing. Cables rings and rack cable management bars are also available from our rack accessories range.
Other 18U Cabinet Options
Other wall mounted data cabinet and floor standing data cabinet accessories include:
- Blanking panels: installing a 1-6U server rack panel in open U-slots wil improve cooling system efficiency and airflow in a server rack and separate cold and hot airflow.
- Door security: with RFID door handles managed by an access control system that can also manage door entry and exit in the server room or data centre.
- Rack mount fire suppression Units: to provide in-rack fire suppression.
- Environmental temperature monitoring: monitor cabinet temperatures, humidity, water leakage and other environmental factors and receive email and SMS text alerts for alarm conditions.
- Rack mount UPS power backup: from 500VA to 20kVA including battery extension packs and rack mounted UPS maintenance bypasses.
- Power distribution units (PDUs): in single and three phase products with a range of IEC sockets and interface options.
18U Server Rack and Data Cabinet Installation Checklist
This is not an exhaustive list but provides some general check points when preparing to install an 18U floor standing server rack or comms rack cabinet.
- Rack Height: calculate the total height of the equipment to be installed in the cabinet. The total height should be calculated in U height. If shelves are needed for certain devices assume 1U high for the shelf plus the height of the devices. An Excel spreadsheet can prove useful to map out where each device is to go in the server rack and also for cabling. If there is an uninterruptible power supply to install this should ideally go at the bottom of the rack.
- Rack Depth: calculate the maximum depth of the equipment to be installed. Server cabinets have a shorter internal usable depth than their overall size. A 1000mm deep cabinet may have a max internal depth of 870mm. The internal depth you need should also take into account cable radius bend.
- Rack Width: decide if you need a 600mm or 800mm wide rack. 600mm is the standard for a 19inch server rack. 800mm provide extra width for cable management and air flow.
- Airflow: include blanking panels in your layout to fill any spaces that would be left blank without kit. This helps to prevent hot and cold air mixing in the cabinet and improves overall cooling and airflow efficiency.
- Cable Entry and Doors: decide on bottom up or top down cable entry and the front and rear door options for security and cooling.
- Cabinet Colour: choose a colour, normally black or grey, that will match other cabinets in the server roorm or data centre.
- Power Distribution: calculate how many devices are to be powered and their plug types. This will determine the size of power distribution required either via the mains power supply, sub-distribution board or uninterruptible power supply.
- Location and Logistics: decide on the location of the server rack. Walk through the logistics from unloading to the final installation space to make sure all doorways are wide and tall enough for a built cabinet. Also ensure that you have a safe way to move the cabinet its point of use. This may include a lift or specialist delivery by a logistics company with a stair climber. Where it is too difficult to deliver the server rack built, a flat pack option should be selected. The location for the server rack should be secure, avoiding any overhead water or cooling pipes and provide at 2m working space at the front and rear of the cabinet.
Server Room Environments are a leading and trusted UK server racks supplier. We offer superbly priced and high-quality server racks, open frames and cabinets (floor standing and wall mounted) tailored to your requirements. We hold ISO9001, ISO27001 and SafeContractor certifications amongst several others, demonstrating our commitment to the supply of quality of products and the delivery of services safely and securely to clients across the UK and overseas. For more information or to check a price or how fast we can deliver an 18U server rack, open-frame or cabinet, please contact our projects team.
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