I referred to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19-inch_rack and went with an 800mm depth of the cabinet. This is enough for all of the rack equipment that I currently have. Make sure you have enough extra space at the back (i.e. beyond the 800mm) to accommodate cables and connectors. I would suggest at least 100mm extra.

I want to build a 19″ cabinet for myself to hold my servers and networking gear. I’ve just ordered two rackmount cases and some rack rails. My question is how deep should I make my cabinet? or will my rack case (mounted on rack rails for maintenance) determine the placement of the rear rack rails??

Thanks and keep up the great work

2. I am switching everything to Ubuntu. I’ve had to keep the primary server running Fedora until I can migrate the configuration of the services over to what is becoming the new primary server for the house (the media centre in the living room). I’ve tried out slack before and loved it at the time, but then I got impatient of waiting for new releases. If I were building a ‘mission-critical’ server, I’d probably go for slack or classic debian (as runs on my web server) for stability. For around the house though, I prefer to opt for simplicity.

You wouldn’t be the same Mike Peachey that I knew at Durham, would you?

1. How in the hell do you afford all the equipment? Do you eat?

2. Why is (what seems to be) the primary production server running Fedora Poor? I will *probably* start off with MythDora for the MythTV server, but the whole rest of everything, right down to laptops, runs on Slackware.