Yesterday I wrote a short note about getting the rack assembled. Today, having lived with it for a couple of weeks, I want to write the honest version: the one with the regrets in full, because the photogenic homelab posts never mention them and someone should.
the case for the garage
The logic was sound. The garage is detached enough that noise doesn't reach the bedrooms. There's a spare ring main out there, an existing run of Cat6 from when I wired the house, and crucially, space. A rack in a cupboard is a sauna. A rack in a garage has room to breathe.
So I bought a second-hand 24U on castors, bolted it together over a weekend, and moved everything off the IKEA shelf that had served as my "datacentre" for two years. The server, the NAS, the switch, the UPS. It looks the part. People who don't have one of these are impressed by it, which is, if I'm honest, about a third of the appeal.
the regrets
Damp. This is the big one. An unheated garage in a British winter swings through the dew point most nights. The kit stays warm enough to keep itself dry, but the moment I power something down for maintenance, condensation becomes a genuine worry. I now have a cheap hygrometer zip-tied to the rack and I've talked myself into a small dehumidifier I haven't bought yet. Humidity has hovered around 70% on the worst mornings, which is higher than I'd like for spinning disks.
Power. I measured it, eventually, with a plug-in meter, because guessing is how you get a bill that ruins your week. The whole rack idles around 110W, which is fine, but the older server I rescued spikes hard on boot and the UPS complains. The lesson: measure before you populate, not after. I have a 1500VA UPS doing the job of a 2200VA one.
Noise. I swapped the loudest fans for Noctuas where I could, but a rack switch with a 40mm fan is just going to scream regardless. With the garage door shut it's a constant whine you stop noticing until you go in, and then it's all you can hear.
Cabling, again. I cabled it twice. The first time I was eager and the second time I was correct. Velcro, not zip ties, so future-me can actually change something. Patch leads cut to length. A label maker, finally, because "the blue one" stops being a useful identifier the moment there are three blue ones.
would i do it again
Yes, but differently. I'd size the kit to the rack instead of cramming a half-depth switch into a full-depth frame with rails it was never meant for. I'd sort the damp before moving anything in. And I'd accept earlier that the rack is partly a hobby in itself, not just somewhere to put servers. Pretending otherwise is how you end up justifying a £200 PDU you absolutely did not need.
It's tidy, it's mine, and the UPS is no longer balanced on a stack of paperbacks. For a garage, that'll do.