This height what When it is necessary to specify the form factors of server equipment, special mounting units are us for convenience: 1U, 2U, 3U, and so on. We tell you what they mean, how they help to choose a server for a company, and what non-standard equipment sizes exist.
The server form factor is a standard us to determine the height of server equipment. This is convenient when you ne to calculate how to place the infrastructure in telecommunications cabinets or server racks, because the size is known in advance and is standardiz.
Mounting units of server equipment This height what
You’ve probably seen photos of data centers – millions of servers and even more wires. To arrange all this IT magnificence beautifully in the rooms and organize it, the equipment is plac in server racks or cabinets. These are special racks that make it easy and convenient to service the equipment.
Server racks can be different in width – standard ones have a 19-inch front panel, but there are 23- and 24-inch ones. But the height of each shelf inside such a rack is measur in special mounting units, units, and is unifi.
1 Unit = 1.75 inches. By the way, this value is equal to 1 Old Russian vershok — 44.45 mm. The unit is abbreviat as U, and sometimes as RU (from English Rack Unit).
Units help standardize the sizes of equipment This height what
Making it easier to plan its placement. The holes are position so that when installing the structure it is convenient to place a server that is exactly 1 or several units high.
At the same time, in rack-mount devices, there is a free gap left – it turns out that 1U of a server means that the height of the device is 43.7 mm, and another 0.75 mm remains as a free distance for the gap when placing.
Here are the most common form factors:
Form factor 1U
1U form factor server
Server with 1U form factor (Source – Citylink)
Inexpensive and compact, but not the most productive model, but it will suit any office – it does not require much space for placement. 1 unit is enough to accommodate 1 processor and up to 10 disks. This configuration is suitable for solving various simple tasks, you can use it as a web or mail server.
Our UK mobile phone number data is uk mobile phone number data the mobile phone addresses and various contact information of individuals or companies within a specific industry. And from these you can know about the customer’s needs and tastes. In this, customers will get a good idea about your virtues and create a good relationship with the customers. Which is good for your business organization.
Form factor 2U
2U form factor server
2U form factor server (Source – Citylink)
This server is suitable for more complex tasks – working with resource-intensive applications, rendering. Due to the enlarg case, it can accommodate twice as many disks, several processors and up to 6 graphic accelerators.
Due to its high performance potential, this server is quite popular
Form factor 3U
3U form factor server
Server with 3U form factor (Source – MosVideoPro)
The format is not the most popular, but it is capacious. As a rule, it is us to deploy a virtual environment, store data and create dicat services. This configuration accommodates up to 24 drives, graphic slots, allows you to place higher expansion cards, while spending less effort on cooling.
Form factor 4U
4U form factor server
4U form factor server (Source – Citylink)
The 4U server is exactly 7 inches high. As you can see, it is quite a bulky device. It is suitable for organizing data storage systems, stacking and backup.
There are also more capacious models – the 7U server form factor and the 10U form factor.
Such configurations are usually us in data centers
10U form factor server
10U Form Factor Server (Source: Karma Group)
The higher the form factor, the more expensive the purchase of equipment will be – not all companies can afford its placement and maintenance. In addition, the selection and installation can take weeks. For beginning startups and fast-growing projects that will subsequently have to deploy new capacities, renting a server in a data center is suitable.
You can rent a virtual or dicat server. A virtual server, or VPS, is essentially part of a physical server, divid between several participants. On it, you get access to dicat resources – individual disk space and a processor. A dicat server is a full-flg physical machine that only you use.
What do racks, towers and blade servers mean
In addition to units, when choosing a server, it is important to consider the case design options, vertical or horizontal. These are Rack, Tower and Blade. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.
Rack mount
Servers design to be install in separate racks or cabinets. These are typically 1U, 2U, or 3U configurations and can be install vertically or horizontally.
Racks are typically us in commercial or corporate environments where high server density is requir. They provide a convenient way to choose the scalability and functionality, and each node will have its own processor, cooling system, and memory capacity.
Tower The Tower form factor is similar in shape to a desktop computer and can be plac on the floor or a table. Such equipment takes up from 4U to 7U. At the same time, a server with a 7U form factor is plac vertically.
Towers are convenient for small companies, but it is worth considering that the servers should not overheat and be in dust. In addition, it is important to avoid power outages.
Mini-Tower and Micro-Tower
Another case class. Mini and micro towers are suitable for simple tasks, such as email, network storage, or backup. They are not measur in units, as they are non-standard in size and are not rack-mountable. They are usually plac vertically on a table.
Blade server
Blade in English means “blades” – devices in a blade system are install like blades in a holder. These are narrow compact servers measuring 1/4U to 1/2U, which are mount in a single blade system. Inside it there are already power supplies, controllers and cells for drives. Such systems accommodate up to 10U.
Durability, space saving, high-quality cooling and functionality are the advantages of blade systems, but they will cost much more than other configurations. What is a blade server for:
In addition, if you ne a server with a non-standard layout, you can rent a dicat server – for example, Reg.ru offers configuration assembly for projects of any complexity.
How to choose a form factor
When choosing a server form factor, you ne to consider the following points:
room size,
power and performance requirements,
budget.
Desktop towers are suitable for small companies, call centers and offices. But only if you do not plan to deploy additional capacities. If the company is going to grow and scale in the future, then, of course, it is more profitable to choose rack systems. And for working with large volumes of data, where high scalability is ne, it is worth taking a closer look at blade servers.
