n00b Q's - HD partitions/mounts & racks

[KlfJoat]

Hey, there.  Long time listener, first time caller.  :-)

I've been eyeing LinuxMCE for a while now, and I'm just about ready to make the plunge.  I've got a couple of questions.  I've searched the forum and wiki, but couldn't find any relevant answers.

The first step, obviously, is wiring.  I'm a professional nerd.  I'm used to commercial structured cabling.  I've read where commercial racks can be intimidating to buyers when reselling a home.  However, those little Leviton home panels seem too wimpy to use.  Plus, where do you put the core if not a rack?  Most home automation books I've skimmed just lay out the options, but don't really give pros/cons.  I'm interested in hearing a variety of opinions and experiences.  Links to books and outside sources are appreciated as well. 

Second, I'm speccing out the core. I'm thinking of using a SSD as the OS drive.  Because of the write cycle issues inherent with flash media, I figure on using a spinning HDD for constantly-changing items.  Also, I'm interested in using XFS on the media partitions and wherever MythTV puts live/recorded TV.  I've read that things get... complicated... with trying to exert too much control over LMCE's disk drives.  But the things I'm wanting to control are below the level of LMCE.  So what is stored where inthe directory tree?  What gets written to a lot?  I'm assuming swap and /var, but what about /home? 

Thanks!
Cliff

[los93sol]

In my experience it's only intimidating if it's not properly planned, documented, and implemented.  I have defined standards for wiring, terminations, and labeling to streamline the wiring in my home.  I have also laid everything out on a floorplan that contains both a hardcopy in a notebook with accompanying documentation and a USB stick with the digital copy in the binder as well.  I've also put together some quick help documents for performing basic changes to the home wiring.

For example, in my rack I have 2 RJ45 24 port patch panels, and a 24 port switch.  I punch everything to the B punch pattern so that I can do the following with my 3 patch panels.  The top patch panel is prewired all 24 ports hot with traditional analog POTS line.  The second patch panel is the CAT5 lines going out to different rooms around the home.  Then the switch is below that.  This lets me simply move a single jumper to switch and outlet in the home from network to phone with no punchwork necessary, it's very quick, and very easy for ANYONE to do.  The fact that I label all outlets in each room, and on the patch panel side, as well as provide a floorplan in my binder makes it incredibly efficient to make changes.

That's just one example of what I've done in my environment to make things easier on me, I also did similar with coax in the house as well since I have both cable and satellite service, it is very quick to switch between service types without having to monkey around with routing cables through my rack, just move a single 12" jumper and I'm done.  This configuration also keeps your rack wiring INCREDIBLY clean and tidy.

Hopefully this gets you thinking about the things you can do to make avoid an intimidating situation, in my case, all my existing wiring was a rats nest of undocumented cable runs which required toning and fumbling around to make even basic changes, I took those past experiences into consideration when laying out my rack setup and used the opportunity to rectify those problems.

[KlfJoat]

Thanks for the info.  A couple more questions.  You say you have a rack...  What kind?  2 or 4 post?  Full height, half height, quarter-height, 15U?  Wall-mount, floor mount, or rolling? 

What kind of rack-mounted RG6 terminator do you have?  Do you have a rack-mounted RG6 splitter?  Where do you get rackmount RG6 equipment?  Most RG6 termination blocks or splitters I've seen fit into Leviton-style panels. 

What do you think about using racks and rack equipment vs. Leviton-style panels?  Choosing one over the other?  Choosing both? 

Thanks!

[ggmce]

I'm looking to do the same. I picked up a side out rack from Middle Atlantic off e-bay for a pretty good price. My plan is to mount it inside a cabinet that will be in my "media room" and is where I have all my cabling coming to from all over the house. The suggestion above about labeling the panel is excellent and is the way I'm planning to set things up. I'm also getting ready to build the Hybrid/Core that will sit in the rack, so I'm looking at picking something like this up;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150519438421&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

If you have a spec on what you are building for your Hybrid it would be helpful to know what it is as I am not seriously into computers and the amount of options and choices available have my head spinning.

I also picked up a rack mounted switch and POE injector for my IP cameras. I've tried configuring them with Zoneminder before MCE is set up, but that has proved to be rather difficult.

looking forward to any info you have to share, when I get the rig assembled I'll get some photos...