Rack mounted servers take up a lot of room when flat in a traditional rack. The alternative? Wall Mount!
Looking around for wall mounted rack enclosures, there very few available commercially. For lightweight equipment, you can get wall mounts that hang equipment vertically. E.g. for example Rack Solutions make ones for up to 3U with 105lb / 48kg load bearing. This would pushing it for up to 3 x DL360 servers. I also was’t convinced on the merits of hanging servers by the ears that weight ~17Kg each. It also makes plugging in cables underneath not so easy. They are really meant for lightweight patch panels and switches.
There are also other wall mount solutions that can be mounted horizontally or vertically, e.g. again from Rack Solutions, they make 1U or 2U wall mount enclosures that would have done the job, however, you need the rails to mount the servers and I don’t have the rails, and also quite expensive – the 2U is $190!. These particular ones only go to 2U also and I wanted 3U to allow for expansion, although I am sure with a bit more searching I could have found 3U alternatives.
Wall mounting the servers horizontally seemed the way to go, so it was DIY time. A few photos below of what I ended up with. Read on below the gallery for more details of the installation.