Just wondering how you all go about grounding your server racks in your houses? I know large data centers likely ground their racks to a common grounding bar. I just got a rack for my house and the instructions mention to ground to an “earth ground connection”.
I’m considering 1 of 2 things: 1. Ignore the instructions and just rack my gear or 2. Connect a wire from the ground point on the rack to the ground connection on the nearest outlet in the room. The second option would require a wire going through the outlet plate cover.
After reviewing several videos of server rack builds, I can’t find a single one that mentions anything about grounding the rack. I think I may be worrying too much about this, but I don’t want anyone in my house getting electrocuted.
My gear will be connected to a PDU that is then connected to a UPS which will then be plugged into a properly grounded outlet. The rack is on plastic wheels. I guess I also considered a third option of putting some rubber mats under it.
How do you all ground your racks in a residential situation? Thanks!
If you have a properly wired home then it’s not much of a concern. Most equipment with proper 3 wire grounding plugs will also be grounded to their case which will be touching the rack.
Agree with Tom. If you have a proper 3 prong power plug and a properly grounded outlet that you are using, you should be fine. You could always install a GFCI outlet if you want a little extra protection.
That’s a tricky question and the answer depends on many things:
what is the neutral point treatment in your area
does your ups have an insulating transformer
Consider your house is properly wired. If there is a default on the line the differential protection acts and cut power. Your ups is triggered but with the line cut it has no reference to ground. And thus you don’t have any differential protection on the gear powered by ups.
Some high end ups provide a automatic ground connection after the transfer switch disconnect from main line.
I would run a ground cable from the electric panel. Not from an outlet or with visual sign on it.
Generally speaking all metallic structures have to be grounded.
For the USA, that’s just plain incorrect in a residential setting. Neutral is bonded to ground at the service panel, by code. Neutral is also bonded to ground at the service pole. Residences do not have differential protection, only over current protection. In a residence that is up to code, you will never lose reference to ground unless there is a physical disruption to the conductors within the home, which is super unlikely, and really not worth protecting against.
That’s why i was talking of the treatment of the neutral point in your area.
I’m in france. Here the neutral point is grounded at the public transformer.
In your house you create a grounding with a pole in the soil and connect it on a distributor. Starting from there it’s distributed without interruption to different circuits and on the metallic parts in bathroom and kitchen.
I’m surprised you don’t have differential protection.
Blockquote
Neutral is also bonded to ground at the service pole
You mean electricians connect ground on neutral pole of breakers?
For the original question i would connect the ups to ground. There is screw for that. Then you can assume all gear connected to ups will be grounded by the ups.
I don’t know for u.s but here in a rack all elements are grounded including patch panels
I can’t say for europe. We have thousands of standards but not for electricity.
In france grounding is mandatory.
Each part of the rack needs to be connected to the chassis and the chassis itself needs grounding with a 6 or 10 mm2 wire gauge depending on power of equipments it’s holding.
So in theory you can’t even ground to a socket which is connected with a 2,5mm2 (or 1,5mm2 ) cable (still it’s better than nothing).
The main reason is despite your equipment main be grounded via its socket the ground circuit is not immovable and can be open by just unpluging the socket. Moreover the gauge is not sufficient.
Ground circuit needs to be immovable.
When electricians make an it room they always wire a 10mm2 ground cable to distributor in the room and each rack is grounded to the distributor.
Generally speaking the only equipments that don’t need grounding are the ones from “class 2” which means built with double insulation.
Grounding…
You should not play with electricity if you dont know what you are doing… Hire a professional for it as insurances etc might become invalid if you have fixed things yourself if an electrical fire occurs and they see its home made solutions.
With that said (as i am obligated to point it out).
Do not create dual ground points as it “can” create interference if a current loop occur.
Always use the original grounding construction built in to the power cable connectors.
if you dont have a wall socket with grounding, then you need to add a grounding wire the right way from the fuse box.
Then you have a solution we do not speak of even if its as good as original wiring from the box.
If you live in a place with normal soil and moisture (not sand soil) then you can drive a 2meter (6.5feet) long metal digging bar/spike down in to the soil and connect a grounding wire to that one and then in to the rack main connector socket and let the original construction to the entire rack and go thru its original construction.
I have to point it out, this is not the right way, but it works.
AND… i have to pont out what you never-ever-EVER under any circumstances should do… as i have seen.
people that has a old house with metal pipes with water heated radiators. i have seen when they connect a ground cable to the radiator… Yeah it works… and then you get a electrical malfunction and all current goes in to the radiator system… and all radiators in the house get electrified… and then a small child might touch a radiator and die. or you stand in the shower… and get an electrical shower.
So do not be one of those.
electricity above 48V starts to become dangerous if it have some AMPs.
I dont know if this was to some help… But please… dont play with electricity.
Edit
English is my second language, so i apologize if i missed out on some wordings.
