Grounding Server Rack

Looking for some good advice for those who have experience installing server rack equipment either at home or a data center.. Here it goes:

I have a server rack in my residential basement sitting right next to 2 100 amp fuse panels. In my dumb wisdom, I didn't think to ground the server cabinet and had thought the Tripp-Lite PDU would server as a good ground point for the equipment plugged into it. Well, here comes mother nature with her 1 gazzillion power of light and I lost my Linksys switch and, possibly, my AV receiver. I can't say for sure the lightning storm caused this but, nonetheless, I should be grounding my server cabinet for good measure. Yes, I do have a whole surge protector on both panels. So questions:

1) Can I tap into the ground bar in the electrical panel? Is that sufficient?
2) If no, do I need to install a ground rod outside and run stranded #6 to the rod?
3) If #2, is it safe for the stranded ground wire to pass through the siding of the house? Last thing I need is a big ass bon-fire.

TIA for all advice.

 

In industrial settings the electrician will install a grounding bar in the data center and all the racks and cabinets will be bonded to that bar. And/or the plug strip is bonded to the cabinet, which in turn connects to the building's ground. (does your PDU have a bonding lug?) Then when you plug your 3 prong plug into the plug strip everything is grounded together and all is good . . . Assuming your house wiring is up to code I don't see any need for #2. And If you actually did put in your own grounding bar and also wired to the house ground, well, headaches can ensue. It is possible to have a voltage differential between the grounds and at the very least you'll get a nasty 60Hz buzz on the AV equipment. My teams goes to great extremes to make sure all of the AV equipment is connected to the same ground, because buzzes. (I work for a large organization so I'm talking about big conference room AV systems.)

As for mother nature, well she is going to win every single time. One of our buildings was struck by lightning and the magic smoke got let out of all the server room equipment. And, that was in well designed data center. If you are in a lightning prone area there are things you can do to protect, but IMHO all bets are off if lightning hits close by.

 

The PDU does not have a grounding lug. Should I add one? If so, where would I ground it? The house is newly built (2014) so all electric is up to code. Another question.. The PDU serves:

- Router
- 24-port POE Switch
- 1U server (mainly for Plex)
- Camera system (3 IP cameras)
- Monitor
- Amazon fire
- Dish Hopper
- Onkyo AV reciever

Should I separate the last 3 items above onto it's own PDU or it doesn't really matter? What other things could I do just for extra measure? Would a rack mount surge protector help and/or GFI outlet?

You're the 3rd person who said the same thing about "out of luck" if the lightening is to close.

Sorry for all the questions and I appreciate the response. I want to be sure I set this up to, at least, minimize impact.

 

• Based on what you have in your rack I don't see any need to do add a grounding lug. Once lightning gets into your house's wiring all the grounding in the world isn't going to stop the damage. With the commercial stuff I work on there's more codes to deal with and it's more complex. When there are multiple microphones, amps, mixers etc and they all want to add a buzz to the speakers we will do all kinds of things to keep it quiet, including grounding.
• As long as the PDU is can handle all the amperage of the devices I don't see any advantage in putting another one in the mix.
• A quality surge protector is a good idea, but check the specs on the PDU it might already have one. I've seen surge suppressors that advertise insurance against lightning damage. That might be worth looking into.
• GFI outlets are required near wet areas to keep people from getting shocked. They won't protect from lightning and IMO aren't needed for dry areas.

Glad to hear I'm in good company about the out of luck thing. I saw the aftermath of a direct lightning hit on a 40' norway maple. It looked like it had been blown up from the inside out. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that kind of energy.

 

Thank you for clearing this all up.. I'm going to invest in a surge protector. The PDU doesn't have one built-in. It came with the rack when I bought it used 4 yrs ago..