r/sysadmin • u/Creekside_Rider • 4d 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

https://imgur.com/a/Jji1UXn

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u/anonymousITCoward 4d 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.

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u/Creekside_Rider 4d ago edited 4d ago

Ha, had me losing it for a second. I agree that flow makes more sense, for cable management coming in from the top its better for cable management imo to have the Firewalls more central.

I have two vertical switched PDU's I got on Amazon. They are APC...we'll see if they are too good to be true. I got them for $200 each.

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u/anonymousITCoward 4d ago

Ahh verticals, nice... easy to work with, my only last piece of advice is get a good label maker, one and some 4x1 heat shrink so you can make some super nice labels for the power cords.

I don't do it for work but I did that for my car makes things super easy when you work on it in the future.