In Part I of this series I explained how my apartment was burglarized and how my first attempt to secure the place fell short for me in a few areas. I stated three goals that I had for the future:
In Part II of this series I explained my backup strategy. Now in this post I’ll show you what I’m doing to fulfill the second of my goals, physically securing Windows Home Server.
I want to start this post by saying that I do realize that no affordable amount of physical security is going to stop a determined thief from getting what he wants. My main goal is to deter the casual burglar that is trying to grab as much as possible in as little time as possible. Hopefully I’ve further reduced the timeframe that a person has to grab and go by install a home security system and video surveillance. The alarm siren blaring will hopefully scare potential thieves away before they get anything but really if they do grab anything before the cops arrive (YES the alarm is monitored 24/7) I doubt they will head for my WHS in a locked cabinet in the closet in one of my kid’s bedrooms. Not to mention that it is worth WAY less than anything in the media cabinet in the living room (in case you’re reading this you jerk!). MY WHS does of course house my digital pictures and home videos so it is important to ME just hopefully not that big of a target to the wannabe gangsta eyeing my XBox 360 Elite!
Affordability is kind of a theme throughout these posts. Like I mentioned in Part I – I don’t want to spend a ton of money because in reality my best defense is my data backup strategy at least for everything that can’t be replaced by insurance then of course my Insurance is my true safety net for all the physical property that can be replaced. Everything else I’m doing is really just piece of mind for myself and, the hope is, at the very least a deterrent for the common thief.
So with price in mind I was looking for a way to physically secure my WHS. My first thought was to lock the server away in a gun safe. This is problematic for a few reasons.
1) Gun safes are pricey.
2) Most do not have adequate ventilation for a server.
3) None that I could find are wired for power and network connections.
Now if I had weaponry to secure (I don’t currently but I’m considering getting some protection) and I could also utilize the gun safe as a housing for my WHS then the price would not matter, I’d just be using something I already need for another ancillary purpose. I think points two and three are the real problem I doubt there are any gun safes that are adequately ventilated for a server!
I switched my search to a nice sturdy locking cabinet and after googling for a few minutes I ran across this Locking Cabinet at Home Depot that looked like it might fit the bill.
It is mostly plastic but is is darned sturdy plastic! It does have a metal front and the lock seems pretty secure. The doors are also ventilated at the bottom which will save me some modification time. Plus the plastic will be easy to modify to accommodate ventilation/cooling solutions and holes for wiring. I was/am a bit weary of a plastic cabinet serving the role of “secure” but the benefits (price and ease of modification) outweigh the negatives (less secure).
Next up was cooling. I know that my WHS is fairly efficient but even so it will need adequate air flow when placed inside an (essentially) sealed chamber. One of my favorite sites for cooling solution is Cooler Guys they have some of the best cabinet cooling solutions out there! For my solution I decided to go with:
(1) 360mm Fan
(1) 110v AC to 12v DC Power Supply
Yes a 360mm fan. That is 36 centimeters or a little over 14 inches! This thing is HUGE! I thought about going with two or even four 120mm case fans then decided that I’d rather just have one fan to install and worry about.
With a utility knife I modified the back of the cabinet, cutting a hole large enough to let the enormous fan pull some air across my server and external SATA enclosure.
I’ve been running this configuration for about a year now with no issues whatsoever. The server and eSATA enclosure are safely tucked away in the closet with the added bonus of being our of earshot. All in all I’m extremely happy with my choices and can’t think of much I’d change. One note is that without filters on the front vents the inside of the cabinet does get quite dusty so I’ve added a calendar item to clean it out once every three months.
Next up is how I’m integrating my alarm and video surveillance systems. I think part IV will end up being a few installments all on it’s own.
If anyone has any other solutions to securing their Windows Home Servers, please share in the comments!