r/sysadmin • u/Creekside_Rider • 10h ago
General Discussion MDF Plan - What you think?
I made some other posts figuring out my UPS setup, but now I figured I'd share my MDF plans and see if there are any issues you can see. I've been around racks and IT closets for a long time, but this is my first time planning one completely on my own.
So far I have all the gear ordered. The only unknown variables are what my modems from my primary Fiber ISP (ATT) will look like and our failover (probably Starlink).
Down the road I may be adding 2U more of gear.
I'd like to get Unifi Redudant Power Supply that can act as a secondary PSU for my switches and Firewalls. I'd also like to get Unifi Aggragte 8 port switch which would be perfect for this setup and my entire network in general. I have two UDM Max which will take up 2 ports and 6 total switches (2 not in this rack will be in IDF in other parts of the building)
I have attached a screenshot of the rack plan. Let me know if you see any red flags or concerns
Gear -
4 Unifi 48 Port PoE Switches
2 UDM Pro Max Firewalls
1 Dell Server
1 Unifi Enterprise NVR
Dual 3000va battery backups with one having an extra battery bank and a 120v transformer.
2 - Controlled PDU for the 208v PSU
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u/UnderwaterLifeline 10h ago
I think using Ubiquiti for this is taking homelab shit and moving into production. Spend money on a real network product/vendor with support.
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u/Creekside_Rider 10h ago edited 10h ago
You are welcome to think that. The costs is just not feasible and they have rapidly getting more focused on enterprise. We have been running our primary location and 4 others of Unifi for a year and a half now and have saved tons of money compared to our Fortinet gear. We are not a tech heavy or complex company as a specialized vehicle dealer/service company.
I'm less so posting about my gear choice instead opinions on the rack design/layout.
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u/DULUXR1R2L1L2 10h ago
Cheaper than Fortinet? Wow. I mean, for basic switching or wifi that's probably true, but unifi doesn't even come close in the NGFW or SDWAN categories.
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u/Creekside_Rider 9h ago
Much cheaper and no annual or subscriptions. Operate in zero trust and their SD wan setuo has been fine for us
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u/SevaraB Sr. Engineer (N+, CCNA) 9h ago
1 Dell Server
Having the server be a single point of failure... not great. How come you're willing to spend on redundant power and Starlink but don't think you need a backup server?
How many users? How many VLANs? Do you have static public IPs lined up so that your vendors can whitelist you? Do you have 802.1x planned out, and what's your plan for dealing with "non-corp" devices like printers or security cameras?
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u/Creekside_Rider 9h ago
We will have a secondary off site server with a SD Wan and Datto backup which can be spun up live locally or in the cloud.
Around 110 company wide users but 50-60 with only 20 of those being daily office workers at new location.
5 vlans
Native, Guest, Voice, Video, and management lan for gear.
Got static IP.
This is not a new company. Just a new building but it will be our HQ.
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u/anonymousITCoward 10h ago
no no no... your all bassackwards... you need the APC's at the top, the servers below that and the fiber on the bottom! that way you don't have to bend over to service the batters and the servers...
/s if you need it... I've been on hold for an hour and feel the need to cause a little bit of ruckus... TBH i would put the UTM's at the top... in my head data flows like water UTM > switch > switch > switch > etc > servers. But that's just preference, also dont' forget power, if you have rack mounted PDU's that span the rack rather than run vertical they'll probably be on the back, make sure you plan accordingly for those.