(c) Phil Packer

From Rack to Wreck

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Kudos to Paul Sweetland for the inspiration

We've all seen beautifully loomed and cabled installations in people's brochures and websites, but when it comes to one's own installations somehow it never seems to work out like that - there's always a number of 'washing-lines' that appear to end up being strung across between racks or across the front of switches.

Giving people the right tools

So, why do people do these awful things in data centres or apparatus rooms? My personal opinion is that it's one of two or three reasons

Data Centre support team

Ideally one should have a dedicated data centre support team who provide smart hands and all cabling work within a data-centre rather than just getting whoever happens to be around to do any required patching.

I believe that Sky do this, and their data centres/computer rooms that I've seen have always looked immaculate even after having been in operation for a while!

Employ good wirepersons at least for the initial build

When I first left school, many (many) years ago and went to sign on at the Job Centre, the person who interviewed me said "so what can you do?" and I replied "well I can do basic electronics and I can do a bit of wiring", so they put me down as "Wireman" and that's how I got my first tech job (but that's a story for another blog post!). When we have a wiring requirement we would always bring in a specialist wiring team and we'd strongly recommend you do the same!

Use intermediate patching panels rather than patching direct to switches

If you break out connections into your switches onto separate patch panels you will at least keep the front of your switches clear and clean and make life easier when diagnosing issues; in fact you can intersperse 'source' patching and 'destination' patching on the same patch wall (aka Master Distribution Frame for those with a broadcast frame of mind!) to keep all the cable management in the same place.

Use Software

Finally, please, please, please use some sort of software to keep track of your patching. Have a cable numbering system and use it all the time. Even a spreadsheet is better than nothing. There are open-source patch management packages out there which do the job very well and can also help manage your IP address schema.

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