Server rack cabeling nightmare !

[KDF]

Started not long ago at a new place, and I'm just now getting round to sorting the server room. Basically its a dog's breakfast of a nightmare !

Anyone ever done a complete rebuild of multiple racks with multiple servers, ip phone networks, UPS power systems.

I will be working just after christmas day when everyone else is on holiday so will have a 2 day window where I can pretty much take it all offline.

Any tips/products to make my life easier ? what about cabling redundancy so people don't have to ad-hoc new connections in the future thereby keeping it tidy ?

 

[H182]

Only way of doing it really is to stick it out. Maybe plan beforehand where you think the cables are going to go and make a diagram.

 

[The Hoff]

Best thing you can do mate is do a good prep, do a full audit of the what's what prior and labelling up as much stuff as possible (stickers on CAT5), take photos of the current setup to refer back to if need be.

Bout all the advice I can give, the rest of it is just common sense and tedious. I gave up trying to manage our patch panel, tidied it 6 months ago and it's already a mess.

 

[Lee]

Done it a few times, it's one of the worst jobs ever.

We're going to have to tackle it again in the new year when all the old switches come out to be replaced by a Cisco Catalyst WS-C6500E.

 

[Longy]

Get colourful patch cables as they look pretty!

 

[fulhamfcboy]

Yeh, the only problem with using colour coded cables for each network (i.e we have one for the ilo boards, one for our management network and one for the public network) is that everything is good until some idiot cant find the colour cable they want, so uses any old colour as a quick fix....Ive been caught out by that many a time.
I always make a point of mapping out the ports, and whilst it may sound obvious the best way to trace cables is to pull it out and watch the switch port go down...our Cisco switches have a 30 second renegotiation on them, so the port goes orange until the 30 seconds is up....

 

[dk]

i've got to go through this jsut after christmas too when we redo our server room, new blades, SAN storage and UPS so everything needs doing as all the racks are also moving for our customer demo suite too, so unracking and re-racking all servers.

To aid patch paneling on the cables we use a product called patchsee i think and we have a tool that shines a light down the cable and so we can see where its connected the other end, they can be helpful, and we colour code them too for different departments.

All our network connection points around the building are already cabled up for a full building so we don't have to mess with adding more cables.

 

[cli0 172]

Will give you some tips later m8 seeing as it's you

 

[Mike_182]

I'll get some pics of the state of our server room now, after around 200 hours of work each from three people tidying and reorganising it... It was a job and a half. Patch panel is next years job but there's downtime for that and as a 24/7 business there's no good time to do it...

 

[FiDoDiDo]

Remember a story from work when they left a work experience guy in the network patch room and asked him to tidy it up, you can imagine the outcome...the network team had to redo the whole thing the next weekend lol

 

[TELFORDS_LURK]

Done it a few times, it's one of the worst jobs ever.

We're going to have to tackle it again in the new year when all the old switches come out to be replaced by a Cisco Catalyst WS-C6500E.

We did this back in October Half Term. All our old 3com edge switches and core came out, replaced with a Cisco 6500 at the core and 3750's at the edges.

Basically just took 2 days of ripping everything out, put new equipment in and labling up and plugging in cables back in a logical order. Also labeling the ports in the software of the switch aswell so you know which port connects to which edge switch without having to physically go to the switch and trace the cable back from a switch port to a patch panel.

 

[Mike_182]

Solarwinds is also fairly helpful for this, as it'll do you a nice map of your switch stacks for you, including what's attached to each port.

 

[_Kenny_]

Where you working after QMUC mate?

We haven't had to redo our server room yet thankfully...!

 

[Revels]

If its anything like the cables behind my desk, it will be beyond a nightmare.

Why do cables, that youve put in a straight line, not tangled, manage to get wrapped around everything else?

 

[ben_p]

sub-contract the polish?

 

[KDF]

Ok, I have a plan of whats happening and what will be going where. I've got 2 days whereby I can bring down almost any service I need to. The cables will be colour coded and labeled ! As I and only one other person is allowed access to the server room, keeping the patch in order shouldn't be a problem.

I really love the idea of patchsee but don't think I could justify having to buy 100's of new CAT5E's when we already have a ton of them.

Kenny, I'm now working for a Civil Engineering company.. your still at Edinburgh Uni right ?

 

[dk]

Ok, I have a plan of whats happening and what will be going where. I've got 2 days whereby I can bring down almost any service I need to. The cables will be colour coded and labeled ! As I and only one other person is allowed access to the server room, keeping the patch in order shouldn't be a problem.

I really love the idea of patchsee but don't think I could justify having to buy 100's of new CAT5E's when we already have a ton of them.

Kenny, I'm now working for a Civil Engineering company.. your still at Edinburgh Uni right ?

luckily my boss is a geek and he loved the idea of them and got them just to see what they were like, they are useful though!

 

[KDF]

I noticed on their site you can get a free sample kit !! might be able to convince the boss if he see's it in real life.

 

[cli0 172]

Ok, I have a plan of whats happening and what will be going where. I've got 2 days whereby I can bring down almost any service I need to. The cables will be colour coded and labeled !

Glad to see my advice was of help

 

[Daz]

No matter how long you plan for this, it'll always take longer..

I did a VERY "quick", single cabinet move around the other week. Literally take 3 servers out, turn them on their sides (they were standing up on shelves before), and put them back on their own shelves. It took 3 hours.. and that wasn't even fully finished. Working solid, too.. AND that only involved cables to the servers, two routers, and all power cables!

It's HELL.

Saying that, I installed a new switch the other day with no cabling in place at all.. got it really tidy, all patched in, in like 30 mins..

 

[Adam K]

i have cabled up a lot of the servers in Symbian's server rooms, the main thing that i've found makes all the difference is cable management arms, you can get rid of loads of length of cable just by bundling it into the arm rather than having to let it dangle down the sides of the racks.

 

[dk]

i have cabled up a lot of the servers in Symbian's server rooms, the main thing that i've found makes all the difference is cable management arms, you can get rid of loads of length of cable just by bundling it into the arm rather than having to let it dangle down the sides of the racks.

good idea, we aren't using those on our ProLiants, will make sure we do for the refit.

 

[dk]

I noticed on their site you can get a free sample kit !! might be able to convince the boss if he see's it in real life.

thats right, thats what we did, got the sample kit!

 

[Mike_182]

Sorry, no pics as yet. Got to work this morning to walk into a comms room with a fairly acrid smell. Turns out the fire brigade had to come in last night as one of the servers exploded...!

 

[KDF]

My old place had argon or halon gas or something.. it would put the fire out.. but only by removing all the oxygen from the server room lol.. if you didn't get out quick you didn't get out !!

 

[Mike_182]

My old place had argon or halon gas or something.. it would put the fire out.. but only by removing all the oxygen from the server room lol.. if you didn't get out quick you didn't get out !!

Same - argonite extinguishant. But it didn't go off! Lol.

 

[Cookie]

We spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on Netapp kit and Blades, *poof* cut down the wiring

 

[KDF]

My old place had argon or halon gas or something.. it would put the fire out.. but only by removing all the oxygen from the server room lol.. if you didn't get out quick you didn't get out !!

Same - argonite extinguishant. But it didn't go off! Lol.

D'oh !

 

[Mike_182]

Same - argonite extinguishant. But it didn't go off! Lol.

D'oh !

My words were 'I guess we're lucky to have a room to come back to?'. But similar effect!