I took a couple hours and finished building the rack, moved the servers to them, tried to do some decent cable routing (and failed), and am now making sure everything runs.

I decided to tighten the one shelf installed and to install the others after I put each server on, so I'll be sure I've got the spacing right. I tightened the ends of the shelf sides I'd nearly completed installing previously. I tightened the half-dozen bolts on either side, giving it the extra stability of being held to the rack on both the front and back. The shelves are rated for 110 pounds this way, which should be enough to hold the servers.

I started with the big server. I did the right thing and shut it down and powered it off before unplugging the cables. While it powered down, I cleared all the smattering of things from atop the server. The server is just sitting atop the other rack server on a workbench, and there's some network gear, a monitor and keyboard, and general detritus that was in the way. I also brushed the dust off the top with a brush that happened to be there. I just pulled the power cords, as they're easy to identify, and not tied to any specific outlet on a UPS. The server has 4x950W PSUs, all of which require power to start, but the server can run with just one. I generally plug two of them into battery spots on different UPSs, and the other two into surge spots on the same UPSs, but it doesn't really matter which goes where. I don't expect any of the PSUs to fail, but this way there's a chance that if one of the battery PSUs fails and the power goes out that the server can still run. There are three network ports in use, two to the internal LAN (one for the management port, one for the system) and one direct to the Internet. Thankfully, I'd previously decided to color-code them, so the grey ones are plugged into the LAN switch, and the blue one to the Internet. Mental note made, I grunted and lifted the server, swung around and slid it onto the shelf.

The big server wasn't as hard to put on the shelf as I thought. This was especially helpful since I had to do it twice. Although I'd tried to line all the rail bits up, I managed to get one corner one hole too far down. A few turns of screws and bolts, moving the rack nuts, and screwing everything tight again, and I slid it back in again. The server sat on the shelf solidly the second time. The pins that should slide into the Sun rail kit just nudged the shelf sides, giving the server a little horizontal stability, too. The shelves fit almost all the way to the back of the rack, covering most of the server's bottom, so there isn't any concern that it will slip back. The server ends are narrow enough to go all the way through, with no "ears" at the front, so it's relying on friction to keep it from being pushed through. It does way a solid 80-90 pounds, so it isn't likely that'll happen, even if someone pushes against it with their hip to move the rack (didn't happen to me yet).

After getting the big server in, I put the second set of thin rails a spare hole above the big server. I did the same shutdown and de-cabling for the little server. It only has 2x200W PSUs, and I do a little riskier one battery and the other surge. This one is easier as only two network ports are in use, and they both go to the LAN. This server supports the others with disk space and running a database server. (If you can see this, the database is running.) This server is a 1U, and doesn't weigh nearly as much as the other, so it was easy to lift, spin, and slide into place. It does have ears, but just to keep the server from going through the rack, not to mount it. It, too, is supposed to use a Sun rail kit, but the pins on the side also don't fit the kit I have.

After getting the rack servers in, I set to mounting the half-shelves I bought. I hoped to use one for the UPSs and the other for the network stuff. Although I got the option with the back extensions, they aren't long enough to reach all the way into my 22-inch rack, so they're only mounted at the one end. I set the lower one just a couple holes above the 1U server, mounted on the back, since that's where everything is going to plug in. The shelves are rated for 60 pounds, which should be enough to hold the UPSs, and is certainly more than enough for the network gear. I pulled the other ends of the power cords out of the UPSs and put them on the shelf, facing the front, but with their outlets right at the back of the shelf. The shelf is a mere half-inch short of letting the UPSs sit completely on them, but their feet are on the shelf, with just the back sticking out that half-inch. I then mounted the second shelf just above the UPSs, and put the routers on there. I decided to put the WiFi router atop the rack, so that the metal of the rack wouldn't get in the way of the antennas.

I shut down the mail (and log) server and pulled its plugs. Simple workstation-turned-server, its PSU is plugged into a battery port on a UPS, and its two network cables were different colors for the LAN and Internet. I moved the server to stand on the bottom of the rack, where it fit beneath the 4U big server, with a few inches above it. I noticed its network cables wouldn't be long enough to reach the shelf with the network switches, so I dug around and found other cables.

I shut down the final server and pulled its plug. Also a workstation-turned-server, but only connected to the LAN. It's a bit bigger than the other one, so there was more squeeze than I'd hoped, I was able to slide the mail server between the rack pillars to give room for both servers, with a little space between, and still keep its feet out of the hole on the bottom of the rack. The bigger server is much longer, too, so it sits a little more forward and misses the holes completely. I also found different cables for this server as the ones it had been using were actually far too long.

I put the switch and Internet router on the top shelf, with the WiFi router on top of the rack, as mentioned. I plugged each of them into UPS battery outlets. I also put the monitor on the network shelf, which lifts it to right in front of my face, although about half-way back in the rack. I set the keyboard atop the 1U server, which fit neatly between the rack pillars.

I set into trying to wire things neatly.

I made all the LAN connections to the switch, going top-down on the servers, left-to-right on the switch. The rack servers have grey cables, and the standing servers are using yellow cables, as they're farther enough down the rack that my grey cables are all too short (except that one 25-footer...). All of the Internet cables are blue, connecting those two servers and WiFi router to the Internet router, and it happens that the cable to the Fiber box is also blue. The WiFi router and LAN switch are connected with a red cable, just because it was the right length and set it apart from the others.  I got all the cables connected with mostly neat routing over the back of the rack. The yellow cables from the LAN switch to the standing servers are both 6-feet long, which is a couple feet too many, but I don't have any 4-foot cables, and the 3-foot are too short to reach. I do have some 5-foot cables, but they would also drag on the ground, and are blue, ruining my scheme. I didn't cable-tie them to the rack pillars, but might do that later.

I started on the PSU cables. I plugged the UPSs into the wall, so those cables would be out of the way. The big server has some honking cables, that are 6-feet long, so they, too drag on the ground. I put two of the big server's PSUs' cables, one each, into UPS battery ports, and the other two into the same UPSs surge outlet. I put the other rack server's PSUs' cables into the remaining UPS, one each battery and surge outlets. I plugged one of the standing servers into the same UPS as the small rack server, in a battery outlet, and the other server into one of the other UPS's battery port. I plugged the monitor into the last UPS in a battery outlet. As soon as I plugged the rack server PSUs into surge ports, they turned on. I had to bonk the buttons on the front of the UPSs to turn on the battery ports. I wasn't able to be as neat with the long PSU cables, but it didn't turn out too bad. They drag on the floor, but I'll zip-tie them to the rack pillars when I get around to it.

I scooted the rack back against the work bench, careful to not catch any cables beneath the wheels. I plugged the monitor and keyboard into the one server, and turned it on. All of the other servers had turned on when I turned on the UPSs; I'm not sure why this one doesn't power on automatically, but it isn't a critical server (yet), and the power rarely fails, so no worries.

Once that server finished booting, I started screen and started trying to shell into the other servers. The rack servers also don't boot the main systems on power on, so I needed to go into their service ports and tell them to power on. The small server wasn't reachable on the network, so I peeked at the cables, and sure enough, one had come loose in the shuffle, so I pushed it a little harder, and it lit up. A few "start SYS" commands, and the waiting began as they each (so slowly) counting their RAM before booting their OSs.

I cleaned up my work area some, and looked at all of the free workspace space I have to shuffle other things around on, so now I can start clearing some of the regular basement clutter!

I returned to my desk and started checking the systems to make sure everything is up. All of the smart devices reconnected to the WiFi just fine, based on their presence in the devices list on the router. The Internet seemed to work, and the web servers were serving. Once the rack servers finished booting, I restarted the database zone on the Solaris box (it is configured to automatically start, but doesn't). I ran a few other sanity checks, re-filled the firewall deny lists, and started tapping this out.

From the time I started shutting down the big server until the database server was back took 1 hour and 52 minutes. Not too shabby.