Damn. TIL. knew about the first of course but who am i as three seperate pieces is new to me

Nice, glad it worked for you

Fair enough - racks in entirety/untouched dramatically reduces the risk of not being able to get stuff back up because of miscabling or missed cabling. I could see that approach being sensible if you’re moving across town.

I personally wouldnt if moving between cities, YMMV of course.

I’ve been in charge of relocating several data centres.

We tore everything down, servers out of racks etc.

All servers, fabric switches drive arrays etc were individually wrapped in bubble wrap then the heavy removalists cloth then into the large metal moving boxes (1500mmx1500mmx1500mm roughly) before being stacked so they couldn’t move around, followed by ratchet straps securing groups of kit together.

All this was done by professional removalists - no reason you can’t do it though.

Basically the principle is flexible padding (bubble wrap) to allow for movement close to the device without impacting it, heavy shock absorbing material (the felt), then put into a robust container (metal box) so limiting impact risk.

I’d strongly recommend NOT to leave them in the rack - a couple of screws vibrate loose and then that device drops onto the one below it, bounces up and down through the journey and wrecks them both.

If it’s a mile up the road, sure, you’ll probably be fine and get away with it, multiple hours on the road ? It’s not surviving it.