Ground Stud: Who Needs 'Em, Really?

[locampo]

Many devices seem to come with a Ground Stud on the back (ground cable not included, of course). It just occurred to me that I can't think of a single time I've seen this used. 

So... I'm not very electrically-inclined... I couldn't explain 3 phase power, and I still can't wrap my head around the difference between watts and volt-amps (seeing as how the former is, by definition, a function of the later)... so I may just be ignorant or dense here. But my assumption was always that if you're using a grounded outlet, you're fine and this is unnecessary. In part, my assumption is based on the fact that I've never seen them used and the one time I kind of remember asking about it, I got looked at weird. But, upon looking into it, it seems like it's recommended for EMI and ESD. And yet, I can't think of a time I've seen them used or anyone had ever asked about or thought to do it. 

Is this just IT laziness of most engineers in most places just taking a shortcut? Like people who think anti-static wrist straps are silly? Or is it really just so much a non-issue that it's not worth wasting the time of a busy engineer to worry about? Or is this something that only matters in niche cases that most firewall people don't concern themselves with because they assume that's the responsibility of the power and racks to know whether it's matters in that particular location?

've found remarkably little in the way of documentation in this regard, other than documentation that it, in fact, exists... nothing stating best practice or the reasons why or why not to use it (other than if the people managing the rack you're installing your equipment into tell you to do so, I suppose). 

Curious of peoples' thoughts and answers here.

[JayGolf]

Hi @locampo ,

I’ll start with a slightly uncomfortable admission… I think a lot of us in IT have probably ignored that ground stud more times than we’d like to admit. I’m definitely guilty of it myself over the years, and I’ve also worked with some incredibly meticulous engineers with 10-gallon brains who never bothered with it either.

From a best practice standpoint, the chassis is supposed to be connected to the facility grounding system. That’s why the stud exists and why you’ll see it referenced in most hardware installation guides.

Now personally, I'll be honest here... the only time I ever grounded equipment was back when I was in the military where Id run into situations where equipment was posted up in less than ideal environments. Post-military, when I started working with the NGFWs and deploying them in large data centers like Equinix and CyrusOne, I cant recall ever using it once, seeing it done so, or called out in a SoW. I guess I leaned in on trusting the idea that the racks are SUPPOSED to be bounded into a grounding system. 

With that being said, after learning what I have while working at Palo Alto Networks, I would absolutely do what I can to properly ground them.

Would love to hear anyone else’s experience!

[OtakarKlier]

Hello All,

In major data centers everything must be grounded. The racks are grounded. When you mount a device using metal hardware to the rack, the device is now grounded since the rack is.

The grounding is mostly for static discharge or if someone accidentally has a broken power cord and it 'electrifies' the rack. Seen it and watching things go sparky is not as exciting as is sounds. so grounding protects equipment in these cases.

Hope that makes sense.