A Tidy, Maintainable Cabinet Wiring Methodology? 43
mawhin asks: "I've seen a couple of articles highlighting readers' favourite tidy/untidy cabling, and conversations along the lines of 'I always do my cabling *real* tidy' / 'yeah but how can you change stuff when everything is zip tied down'. 'Use velcro not zip ties' is obviously a good tip, but what I'd really like to know is how you all do it. My particular situation involves multiple racks of switches next to racks of patch panels. What methodology would you recommend for installation and ongoing change to ensure that stuff is tidy enough to be able to trace cable; isn't so tight the you can't re-patch without stripping big chunks of cabling out; and the arrangement doesn't inevitably deteriorate?"
chrome.... (Score:3, Informative)
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Of course, with electronics there is only one medium flowing, and if it gets out all you have is magic blue smoke. Well, OK, maybe also a fire and destruction of data.
Stage Hands Trick (Score:2)
I use a technique that professional stage hands use to keep their wiring neat and portable - tie line.
The usual technique is to use 18" cuts, tie a clove-hitch first, then finish with a bow knot like your shoes
My idea (Score:1)
Cable management (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cable management (Score:4, Interesting)
Label each side of any cable with a "wire run number" and document these religiously. If you have someone else doing the work for you, check out ranges of wire numbers to them.
We use numbers with a two-letter series and then 4 digits.
For your initial install, put AA0001 at position 1, and work upwards. While obviously, this won't be the case for everything, for larger bundles, its easier to deal with.
Finally, label the patch points clearly. ADC makes great designations strips with plastic windows.
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Use less cabling (Score:2)
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There are ways to keep wiring racks tidy (Score:5, Informative)
There are ways to keep wiring racks tidy but few do it.
Some hints:
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This is a great point I'd like to emphasize.
In most cases you're talking about activating/deactivating a LAN jack to a switch since most router/switch to switch connections should be fairly static.
Entropy says: (Score:4, Interesting)
There is no magic bullet arrangement of cables and velcro that is immune to entropy.
Mod parent up! (Score:3, Insightful)
I do this because the other people I work with will string a cable across the room at neck height or ankle height. They don't care. Their tolerance for sloppiness is far higher than mine.
Even though they are happier when they have to trace a problem just after I've finished cleaning up. They're not willing to put in the effort to keep it clean. And there's really no way you can make someone be neat (without firing him).
Panel to Switch Tip (Score:4, Insightful)
Ever notice that most switches group their ports in 4 or 6 to a group? What I do in these cases is bundle my patch cables in that same number between the panel and switch. makes it much easier to trace one when you can locate the small bundle, then isolate the specific cable. I usually just used the same twist ties that the patch cables came packaged in, but you could also use velcro. I was just being frugal. In most cases, I tied the bundles together in at least 3 points along the length of the bundle, assuming they're all going to the same panel and switch. Kept the bundles neat. I typically routed the small bundles using cable management panels on the racks that came equipped for it (all of them, after I started specifying).
It's not photo-pretty, but it is practical, very easy to modify at need. Some of those photo racks I'd be afraid to mess with for fear of having to try to return it to that state!
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if you get that many colors of cable it's even easier, 5 colors and five to a bundle mean you just need to trace the bundle
That's a good idea, however we had already color coded by function, so it would not have worked in my case.
Intelligent Rack Layout (Score:2)
Row 1 Sixteen port telephone switch with only fourteen ports allocated (room for expansion)
Row 2 Thirty two port patch panel
Row 3 Sixteen port network switch with only fourteen ports allocated (room for expansion)
Repeat layout as many times as needed down the rack. This will mean that you can use quarter metre patch cords and keep the layout nice and neat.
Ed Almos
Space, and guides. (Score:2)
I used to work on software for multi-node clusters, and we were constantly reconfiguring the networking between a rack of switches, a rack of patch panels, and many, many racks of 1U servers. The key was leaving space between the patch panels and between the switches and using horizontal cable guides to keep the wires neat. Something like these [iscdfw.com].
For vertical runs I typically used ve
Maintenance needed (Score:2)
Other than that, colored cables, markings at both ends of each cable and generous space.
D-I-Y == Do It Yourself && Patience (Score:1)
The look on the local networking guru's face was priceless. Missing cables and the network was working great.
His documentation was all in his head!
Numbers at each end (Score:4, Insightful)
Buy the patch cables that are serialized at each end.
Buy THE CORRECT LENGTH patch cables.
Use Velcro, never zip ties.
Always leave room for expansion.
Color code. We use green exclusively for telecom (TDM, and VOIP), Blue for standard jacks, etc. NEVER violate color coding, even though it is incredibly tempting to do so.
some day (Score:1)
it will work much like an rj45 or rj11 where simply pressing the lock clip will allow for it to open.
ideally, they'd be (re)sizable, re-usbale, and some what cost effective. Even at ~$5 per pack of 100 or so, doing a large installation, that adds up on a material budget with the normal ziptie of today. small, but still a number.
Re:some day (Score:4, Informative)
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Keeping Your Racks Neat Takes Work (Score:2, Insightful)
In my data center, temporary cables are bright red (other network functions are also color-coded), and the policy is that each temporary cable has a service tag (little paper-and-string one) on it with the initials of the person who installed it, the date they installed it, the date they expect to remove it, and the number of the bugzilla bug that's associated with it.
Related policy is that any non-red, non-bundled cable gets re
get re-usable cable ties (Score:1)
Get color coded cables, get unique colors for internal network, DMZ, public interfaces, phone lines.
Get the right length cables. Buy them online from a reputable source before building out rack rather than buying off the shelf at the last minute.
Route power cables to one side of cabinet (unless you have redundant power supplies).
If you are using a power strip in the rack get a v
Tracing cables... (Score:2)
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This thread is useless... (Score:2)
Not anymore... (Score:3, Informative)
From a Network Wiring Mess to Wiring Nirvana
http://techrepublic.com.com/2300-10879_11-5896894
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(Note that in keeping with Internet custom, I am posting porn in response to a "useless without pics" comment. Specifically bondage, although "messy racks" are also mentioned.)
A few quick ideas (Score:2)
2) leave 100% for growth. Cable is cheap. Bigger holes are cheap.
3) Label everything. Colour codes are very helpful as well as a peice of paper on each end of every cable. SAN, Telco, WAN, LAN, Servers, erc.. all should be coulour coded. so far as labels (group)-(cable) i.e. 3-2 == group/bundle 3, cable 2
4) dont let anyone you dont trust to touch it. it sounds like an asshole thing to do but it will s