One closet rack replaces the ADU closet's tangle of gear: the network switches, the new 8-bay NAS, six Sonos Amps, the UPS, the AV matrix, and the game consoles. Everything below is the current, owner-locked plan — not the earlier drafts that got argued down along the way.
Closet prep: Thursday, October 1, handyman and electrician together. Full instructions with photos and the back-wall drawing: ADU Closet Prep.
This closet went through several rounds of "will it fit" before landing here. The short version: it fits, it spins, and the money's been spent.
Heaviest gear sits lowest. Two slots stay open on purpose — one for airflow above the Amps, one for a game console's exhaust — which is how 23 of the rack's 25 rack-units end up "used."
| U | What's there | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | UPS — Tripp Lite SMART1500RM2U | On its own 4-post rail kit |
| 3–4 | NAS — UniFi UNAS Pro 8 | On rails from its box; taking over from the old UNAS 2 |
| 5 | NVR | ordered 9/25 — NVR G2, processing, no ETA; Protect keeps running on the UDM Pro until it is |
| 6–11 | Six Sonos Amps | Three 2U mounting kits, front ears |
| 12 | Open vent gap | Airflow path above the Amps |
| 13 | Switch — USW-24-PoE (2nd unit) | Native 19 in rack ears — no UACC-Pro-Max-16-RM mount needed here. Takes the slot the Pro Max 16 had (owner decision 2026-09-28); NAS and NVR lose their 10G/2.5G home — see open items |
| 14 | Cable manager | |
| 15 | Switch — USW-24-PoE | Three door readers, TVs, Apple TV, other room lines |
| 16–17 | Shelf: hub (SER8) + Apple TV | Vented, adjustable-depth shelf |
| 18 | AV matrix | On its own rack ears |
| 19–20 | Shelf: two Xfinity cable boxes | Vented, adjustable-depth shelf |
| 21–23 | Shelf: PlayStation 5 | Lies flat. The shelf plate sits at the bottom of U21, so 3U gives ~5.1 in of height for the 4.1 in console |
| 24–25 | Open | U24 is the PS5's rear exhaust clearance; U25 is the one true spare |
| rear, 0U | Tripp Lite PDU (14 outlets) — the wall-power strip | Mounted vertically on a rear post, no front rack space (owner confirmed 9/27). Six Amps, AV matrix, two Xfinity boxes and the PS5 plug into it; it plugs into the wall, not the UPS |
What changed recently: the Mac mini came off this shelf plan entirely (it's on its way out), and the PlayStation 5 joined as the AV matrix's fourth input — that's the console shelf at U22–24. Exact rack-unit numbers get a final check when the rack is physically built (build-order step 4) — this table is the plan, not a confirmed as-built.
Every wire that isn't already inside the rack lands on one wall panel, wired once. Reaching it again later means pulling the rack out of the closet — a rare job, not routine service.
| Port | What lands here | Cameras on it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uplink to the main house (via the laundry rack) | — | The rack's only way out |
| 2–3 | Garage 1 runs ×2 → the USW Pro Max 16 PoE out there (owner decision 2026-09-28 — Garage 1 keeps the Pro Max 16 rather than the Lite-8; owner: probably two cables; confirm both exist and which is live) | C07 Garage 1 corner, driveway (G6 180) · C08 Garage 1 corner, toward the pool gate (G6 Turret) | Both cameras hang off that switch, not this panel directly. The Garage 1 → ADU Cat6 is reported to exist — confirm on the walk |
| 4 | Side gate — new run | — | Coming; nothing on it yet. Reserve the port and label it now |
| 5 | Doorbell run | C10 ADU front door (G6 Pro Entry) | Replaces the Nest doorbell; PoE from the USW-24 |
| 6 | Doorbell run | C11 main-house front door (G6 Pro Entry) | New run — the Nest there is Wi-Fi, no usable wire assumed |
| 7 | Doorbell run | C12 kitchen door (G6 Pro Entry) | |
| 8 | Backyard deck run | C02 back yard near the exterior TV, facing the deck (G6 180) | |
| 9–11 | Other rooms — live in-wall runs, rooms not yet traced | — | Tone them out during the wall-panel step and write the room on the label |
| 12–16 | Unnamed ×5 — live runs, destinations unknown | — | One is the wired Samsung TV. Not spares: something is on the far end |
| 17–20 | Spare ×4 | — | Empty couplers; future runs land here |
| 21 | HDBaseT to the ADU Bedroom Frame (matrix out 1) | — | Beside the coax (owner). Shielded jack + shielded cord; carries power to the TV-end receiver — never a switch port |
| 22 | HDBaseT to the ADU Garage Frame (matrix out 2) | — | Same rule as port 21 |
| 23–24 | Coax ×2 (RG6 keystones) | — | Xfinity feeds for the two X1 boxes on the U19–20 shelf |
Cameras that do not come to this rack, so nobody looks for them on Panel A: C01 dog run / back gate → the drain box (USW-Lite-8-PoE), fed by an outdoor fence run from the culvert (owner decision 2026-09-28 — was the Primary Suite closet) · C03 and C04 gate in/out → Switch Gate · C05 Garage 3 driveway and C06 Garage 3 garden → USW Garage · C09 culvert is wireless (UDB bridge in the drain box, which now also switches C01). Full placements on the Camera Wiring Plan.
On the wall and ceiling: raceway replaces the loose J-hooks originally planned, run on both the wall and the ceiling. Cable ties to the rack posts use metal D-ring hooks (4 on the data-cable post, 4 on the power post) so a rack spin loads the D-rings, not the plugs; the ceiling drops use bridle rings screwed into the joists.
Check before mounting. What actually shipped is 1.4 × 1.6 in raceway, ×2, 99 in each — not the 2 × 2 in duct originally picked for this job. The bundle it needs to carry (16 shielded network cables + 2 coax + the speaker bundle) works out to roughly 2 square inches of cable, which is bigger than this raceway's cross-section on paper. Hold the actual raceway up against the actual cable bundle before cutting or screwing anything to the wall — don't assume it fits just because it's what arrived.
4POSTRAILKIT rails (the UPS ships with 2-post ears only, and 46 lb hanging off front ears alone isn't acceptable)| Item | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| USW Pro Max 16 PoE | delivered | Owner decision 2026-09-28: reassigned to Garage 1, not this rack — carries C07 + C08, uplinked to this rack over the Garage 1 Cat6 (Panel A ports 2–3). No UACC-Pro-Max-16-RM mount needed anywhere now — drop it from the shopping list |
| USW-24-PoE (second rack switch) | delivered | In the 9/26 UPS delivery; owner ticked Arrived |
| UNAS Pro 8 + 10G DAC | delivered | In the 9/26 UPS delivery; owner ticked Arrived |
| 2× WD Ultrastar 24 TB drives | delivered | On site 9/25 — for the UNAS Pro 8's RAID pool |
| RIVECO 25U rack | delivered | Amazon: left at the front door Sat 9/26 1:58pm |
| Tripp Lite SMART1500RM2U UPS | ordered | Arrives Oct 1 |
| 4POSTRAILKIT + 15 A cords ×5 | ordered | Arrives ~9/28–30 |
| Rear PDU / power strip | delivered | 9/27 — the whole rack + cabling order is now on site except the two carrier-returned items |
| UNAS Pro 8 + readers/chimes/sensors; USW-24 + 6 cameras; bullet + mounts (three UniFi orders) | delivered | UPS Sat 9/26 7:32pm; owner ticked all of it Arrived 9/27 |
| Second USW-24-PoE (UniFi order US6283785, $408, ordered 9/27 evening) | ordered | Owner decision 2026-09-28: deliberate, not a duplicate. Takes U13, the rack slot the Pro Max 16 had — order status "Ordered," no ship date yet |
| 3× StarTech 2U vented cantilever shelves | ordered | Ordered 9/27 evening, arriving 9/29 — the owner's pick over the 1U shelves for the hub/Apple TV, Xfinity boxes and PS5; the three 1U shelves on site become spares |
| 2× Avery cable labels | ordered | Arriving 9/29 — for the wall panel, patch cords and speaker pairs |
| 3× 1U vented shelves | delivered | On site 9/24, with M6 screws, 10G DAC pair, keystone blanks, Cat6A couplers, RG6 keystones, Velcro, split loom, switch rack ears, coax |
| Raceway: 2×2 in ×2 (132 in, 8 pieces each) | shipped | Due 9/27 — the low-voltage run. The 1.4×1.6 in power-cord raceway was returned to Amazon by the carrier and refunded (9/27); owner's call: the power cords get their own 2×2 run — 3rd 2×2 pack ordered 9/27 (order 113-9604435-3406624, arriving 9/28) |
| Panel C banana-jack posts — Cable Matters 5-packs, 3× red ring + 3× black ring (30 posts, 24 needed) | reordered 9/27 | Order 113-3810550-5669826, arriving 9/28. Replaces the VCE 6-packs the carrier returned (refunded) |
| Patch panels ×2, lacing bars, D-rings, bridle rings, cable tester, 20× Cat6A 25 ft, 6× speaker runs, HDMI, blank panel, power strip | delivered | All delivered 9/27 (29 + 8 + 3 + 1 items across four packages) |
| Beszin 4U hinged wall bracket | delivered | Owner ticked Arrived |
| 3× RackStackMount dual-Amp kits (Etsy) | shipped | UPS window 9/23–9/29 — not on site as of 9/26 |
| UniFi NVR G2 | ordered | Ordered 9/25 (US6275540), processing, diskless — the two SkyHawk 24 TB drives for it are already on site |
| Closet exhaust fan + low intake grille | pick still open | The actual cooling system for this rack |
| Second NAS power module | optional, not bought | Would let the NAS run off UPS and wall power at once |
you hands-on · claude keyboard · GATE stops until you say go. This is the doc's canonical ten-step sequence — if anything elsewhere drifts from it, this order wins.
Tape the closet and settle spin vs. the front-access fallback (plan view taped 9/26: 43 × 40 in front zone, spins with ~3 in front-to-back margin — still owed: the stair-soffit height over the shelf side, and the shelves have to come out first); confirm the four laundry-zone speaker runs actually reach this closet (still to confirm); the six Amps are identified (Deck, Family Room, Pool, Living Room, plus ADU and Garden already in this closet) — the open piece is how the two Connect:Amps mount, since the kits don't fit them.
Handyman + electrician: shelves out, faceplates off, outlet moved to the bay's right side wall, patch and paint, backer, wall bracket and both ducts up. ADU Closet Prep.
Exhaust fan + low intake installed on the closet's left wall, thermostat set, the rack temperature sensor and its 90°F alert live in Home Assistant before anything else goes in.
The off-box HA and InfluxDB backups live on the UNAS 2 — the NAS being migrated. Copy the latest backups somewhere that is neither NAS, and vzdump the Proxmox guests before touching anything.
UPS, both switches adopted and named, Sonos spanning-tree settings applied, NAS and NVR up, the heat-test passed — before the rack ever moves into the closet.
Copy Music and the HA backup share to the UNAS Pro 8; re-point the media server's music mount, Music Assistant, and the nightly backup jobs; prove a restore actually works. The old UNAS 2 stays powered and untouched until that restore is proven.
With the bracket already up from Thursday: wire Panel A and Panel C. Every cable labelled at both ends with its port and run name, every run terminated and tested end to end with the cable tester, results recorded, nothing live until it passes. Test the two TV HDMI-extender lines for picture and power, then hang the raceway and cable bundles.
Move the hub, Apple TV, matrix and existing lines onto the new switches in place. Verify Home Assistant, Grafana, the control site, TVs, and the ADU Sonos zone by name. Rollback: re-patch to the old closet switch, which stays adopted and powered until this step is done.
Roll the built, cabled rack into place, lock the casters, fit the anti-tip strap, plug the wall ends in by label. Verify everything again.
Move the four laundry Sonos units one at a time, one Ethernet jack each. Verify each zone plays by name and that no switch port goes into a spanning-tree fault. Rollback: the unit goes back to its laundry-room port.
Confirm the watcher monitor is alive, log the whole cutover in BUILD-LOG.md, push device names into UniFi, update the network map. The old (pre-rebuild) closet switch is now surplus — Garage 1 is covered by the relocated Pro Max 16 PoE, not this switch (owner decision 2026-09-28).
USW Media Rack port-18 trunk change it needed) has no camera left to feed. Not cancelled here — flagged for the owner's call.