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Any have a free tool that help me to design a new server room ???

13 Replies

I'm not sure of any, but Microsoft Visio and similar programs are a decent start.

Ive always liked Microsoft Visio myself for such projects.

depends on what you are truly asking. If you just want something so you can draw up a floor plan, then Visio or any CAD software will work.

If you are wanting to determine power, cooling, and network and so one, then that is a whole different set of requirements. I have not designed a comm room from the beginning and I have not been able to reach out engineering department to see what they do, but i did locate the following tips that may help:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/six-tips-to-help-design-a-server-room-for-speed-and-security/1056555

In most cases, a little research of the hardware going in the room and you should be able to get the requirements of the power, cooling, and so one. Then just use some basic logic and you can get a set up that works. Just remember that growth is always coming and leave a little extra room, it always comes in handy.

One more things, never assume that it will always run, hardware fails and you want to make sure that you have good cable management so you don't have to disconnect 2 other servers to work on the one you want. Most equipment comes with cable management arms and you need to use them.

LibreOffice Draw has the basics, and it's free and run on about any OS.

http://www.libreoffice.org

I usually use Qcad for floor plans if you want more of a CAD app, but I'm not sure if anyone has a pre-compiled free version for Windows out there. I usually run it on Ubuntu since it's in the repositories.

TeleFox

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Apr 13, 2012 at 17:43 UTC

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I know this sounds kind of unique, but I am pretty good with Google Sketchup and using 3dWarehouse.

I make all my own mock ups for our big implementations with Sketchup.

Here is an example of one I did...

http://www.wikisoftpeople.com/sketch/datarack.jpg

Also file can be downloaded at

http://www.wikisoftpeople.com/sketch/data.skp

John White

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Apr 13, 2012 at 18:09 UTC

I'm pretty sure Visio isn't free people. :-)

Phoneguy.Jim

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Apr 16, 2012 at 10:56 UTC

I like Smartdraw http://smartdraw.com . It's easy to learn and reasonably priced. Not free, though. I've done all of my stuff with it.

btw, nice job with Sketckup, Telefox.

The learning curve takes a bit, but sketchup is a great tool for layouts, both the entire server room and at the rack level.

Having a 3d layout that lets you "walk" around a rack is pretty cool, too bad there's nothing for doing wiring diagram/layouts (real cabling never looks like what gets drawn... ever)

John White wrote:

And this would be a great discussion for a data center group!

http://community.spiceworks.com/feature_request/show/Community/2585

And as if by magic, here it is!! :-)

Is there a plugin of spiceworks to have the diagram inside it ?

Something like Autocad WS

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