Hi selfhosted community,
I’m in the process of moving across the country and need some advice on the best way to transport my server equipment safely. I have a 15U server rack, a 2U server, a 1U server, a 2U UPS, a 1U PDU, a 1U network switch, a 1U network router, and a 1U patch panel. I’m planning to pack everything into a 4×8 U-Haul trailer along with the rest of my bedroom, desk, and computer equipment.
I ran a few queries into a couple LLMs and they basically say to pack everything in the rack and secure it down. I just couldn’t see that working out at all. Figured I might get some human input.
Here are a few questions I have:
- Packing: What’s the best way to pack these items to ensure they don’t get damaged during transport? Should I use bubble wrap, foam, or just some moving blankets?
- Securing: I’ve got plenty of ratchet straps but is there any other - options I should be aware of?
- Anything else I’m not thinking of atm?
Additional Tips: Any other advice for transporting sensitive electronic equipment would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your help! Looking forward to your suggestions.
Take out any spinning rust and pack those in a foam HDD case. Number them as you pull them for easy reinstall.
Put a bit of plywood under the rack, ratchet strap it, and now you can put it on a dolly without the lip hitting the equipment as you try and lift it. For avoiding it falling off the dolly, use a 2nd ratchet strap and wrap it around the chassis / dolly.
Put a 2nd piece of plywood on top once its in the uhaul so you can load more boxes on top… Maybe even do that at first so the initial strap is securing it as well.
As for the bottom plywood, if you add some felt pads, then it will help you shimmy the chassis into / out of its position once its unloaded. I have my rack vhb taped to ply with felt under it and recommend it to people IRL a fair bit.
I like the plywood and felt pads idea, thank you.
I’ll definitely be taking all the hard drives out and wrapping and packing them in boxes.