[EdLUG] Free Sun Rack

[Andrew Ferguson]

Hi all,

This message is on behalf of The Tardis Project at the University of 
Edinburgh. Tardis is a student-run computing facility, founded in 1987. 
(More info on our website: https://tardis.ed.ac.uk/). Over the past 
30-plus years we’ve been running on a variety of hardware, starting off 
with a GEC Series 63, then migrating to mainly Sun hardware, and now 
we’re exclusively on x86.

For the past decade or so, the server rack we’ve used has been a Sun 
rack. I believe (but am not 100% sure) it was originally called a ‘Sun 
Expansion Rack’, designed to store rack-mounted expansion modules for a 
Sun mainframe computer. Using it as a regular server rack with non-Sun 
equipment has always been a bit of a fiddle due to the non-standard 
depth and the imperial-measurement screws.

Earlier this year we finally upgraded to a donated Dell rack, leaving 
the Sun rack now surplus to requirements. We have no use for it, so it’s 
destined for recycling. However we thought we should check to see if 
there’s any interest in it before it is scrapped. It’s not in the best 
condition, a bit rusty on the top, but it still works (heck, we were 
using it until February!). I've attached a single photo of the rack to 
this message, pictures of all sides of the rack (in higher resolution) 
can be found in the following Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/IsTzbL3

The rack is currently on the seventh floor of the Appleton Tower 
building in the central area of Edinburgh. The University is enforcing 
strict social distancing measures, but the building is open during usual 
working hours. Logistically getting it to ground level and out the 
loading doors shouldn’t be difficult - it would then be the 
responsibility of the interested party to take the rack away!

This is almost certainly a long shot, but it seems a shame to scrap it 
without checking to see if there's any interest first.

Kind regards,
Andrew Ferguson

(member of The Tardis Project)


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