Rack mounting for dummies

[Stupid]

I've been using a SNAP server as my home storage for about five or six years. I've gotten immense help from these forums and have posted a few times.

Up until now, I've just been storing the server on a shelf in the closet of the guest bedroom. This worked, but not a very elegant solution. plus whenever we have guests, I need to power down the server due to the fan noise. As a result, my server has something like 400+ restarts already logged (it had less than 50 when I bought it).

Recently, I've acquired a 20U rack. This can live in my garage and I've already run network cable and power to the new location. I went to install the SNAP server, but I didn't have any rack mounting brackets.

I asked our IT people here at my employers and they graciously gave me a couple of rack mounting "ears". But these don't seem to fit the 4500 for some reason. The holes drilled in the ears don't line up with the threaded holes in the server case at all. Plus, the server seems to be about 3/4" narrower than the rack opening. I'm not sure the "ears' would work even if I could attach them!

Keep in mind that I now NOTHING about rackmounted equipment and am trying to get up to speed.

I did some research online and it seems that there is a slide rail kit that is meant for the 4200/4500.

-> Is there a "standard" (i.e. inexpensive) rail kit that will work for me?

-> Failing that, are there vendors that sell the 4200/4500 rail kit? (Overland doesn't seem to.)

-> Can anyone with one of these actually mounted in a server rack provide some advice on how to get the working as cheaply as possible?

THANKS for anyone's input!

[blue68f100]

I bought a lot of misc rack slides off of ebay. Of the 70+ pieces I had 6 complete sets. But these were 36" long, so I had to cut them down in length and weld the ears back on.

So All that is needed to do is mount the outer part of the rails to the rack, then then inner rails pieces to the server. Then slide them together and your done.

If your using mounting ears (no slides), you mount them to the server then have someone support the back while you install the screws. The 4500 are heavy units, I would add something to support it (wood).