Server Room Blitz - Day 1

[sidewinder]

This is something Ive wanted to do for about a year as the layout of our server room has annoyed me ever since I joined the school.

 

Very small, very cramped, and not helped by both cabinets being opposite each other.

So today we (2 of us) started the task of emptying the server cabinet, moving it, getting an old desk out, and putting everything back tidily.

Not a difficult job, but a lot of hard work

 

So in case anyone is interested (unlikely!), some photos:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/before1Large.jpg

The room as it was looking in from the door (circa 2003 till this morning)

As you can see, the fixed desk made getting behind the rack pretty dificult, and out of shot there is another 42U cab opposite the server one, with about 2 foot gap

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/before3Large.jpg

The view behind the rack

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/emptyrack1Large.jpg

After an hour of removing all the servers (didnt take as long as I thought)

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/deskout1Large.jpg

Then we removed the desk, which must have been there as long as the school has. Thanks to the air con pipes, we needed some help from the caretakers jigsaw

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/deskout2Large.jpg

The empty room

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/rebuild2Large.jpg

Rack moved, and being filled in a sensible way (instead of the random way it has been before as servers have been replaced)

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/startofcablingLarge.jpg

And finally, a picture of it all back in. Now all that is left is to get all the cables tidy, something Im already having trouble with as I slightly overestimated the size of the patch cables we would need, as you can see.

I also havent worked out where to put back the Mac server and the Dell tower...hopefully they will fit down the side!

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/switchcabLarge.jpg

This is the other side of the room, which is also a mess. Although everything from the Cisco switch down is the councils equipment, not ours

[webman]

Nice one We did something similar and you're right - servers do take longer to remove and put back than you think!

[FN-GM]

im not keen on them curtains

[sidewinder]

Indeed webman, especially as they all seem to have different rail designs, some of which were a pain to figure out

Although it was a joy to be able to put back a server and have the rails all the way out, rather than having to bodge it as before due to a lack of space

 

FN - lol no Im not a big fan either. Will try and get some blinds installed

[FN-GM]

how big is your school?

[sidewinder]

Fairly big - about 1800 students including 6th form, and 200 odd staff

And its quite a sprawling site, we're in the main building but theres a further 16 switch cabinets around the school

[FN-GM]

i was just going to say there arnt many switches and network cables

[john]

Gosh you don't have many servers, looks at the 18 I have for my few children

[sidewinder]

Yeah we get by on not much!

No speed issues though, everything runs smoothly

To be honest though, apart from replacing the 2 5U servers with some smaller ones, theres no way to ever expand without a new server room

 

As for switches, there are only 2 in there + the core switch, but there are 2 more cabs in the main building alone. In other buildings we have more switches or multiple cabs

[FN-GM]

so if that was day 1, what are you doing on the 7th?

[Oops_my_bad]

so if that was day 1, what are you doing on the 7th?

Buying a decent set of curtains/blinds hopefully

[Joedetic]

A job for the home ecconomics classes maybe? LOL

[FN-GM]

so if that was day 1, what are you doing on the 7th?

Buying a decent set of curtains/blinds hopefully

 

Ha ha good one mate!

[maniac]

I like a nice tidy server room. Tidied ours out last easter, but it's looking a bit untidy again now as we've made several changes since.

 

Good job!

 

Mike.

[FN-GM]

as anything happened today sidewinder?

[mullet_man]

Gonna give our server/office a tidy before the end of the holidays its a mess at the moment.

 

Although got a hundred and one jobs that need doing before the start of the new term, so it might not get done :-(

[FN-GM]

I work with someone who loves everything nice and tidy so he does all that

[sidewinder]

Didn't make as much progress as I would have liked today as I spent a lot of it trying to install KVM, power and network cables tidily behind the servers.

 

Did start at about 3pm (which was a bit stupid) on the other cabinet

 

Before:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/IMG_1274Large.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/IMG_1273Large.jpg

 

During:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/IMG_1275Large.jpg

 

After:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/gregh7901/IMG_1278Large.jpg

 

Problem is it isnt going to be much tidier when all the patch cables are back in, but it was more about getting all the fibre patch panels together and moving the normal patch panels down as they were so stretched.

Simple job but took a long time because I had to be so careful not to damage any fibre - not only ours but we are a hub site for around 12 local primary schools - and whoever installed all that equipment has managed to do it as messily as ours, so it was all tangled together

 

Only worry is that one of the fibre panels to one of out buildings now has no light coming down it - didnt get a chance to check but I pray it was off before and I didnt notice - the power was turned off early in the day so Im hoping the UPS in that building just didnt turn back on. Im dreading checking tomorrow though

[FN-GM]

hve you ordered your new curtains yet? lol

[sidewinder]

lol no. I'm going to talk to the caretaker tomorrow about some blinds

Do you want the curtains if they come down?

[FN-GM]

oh yes i would love them lol they will look lovely in my kitchen, haha

[john]

You don't always see light down the fibre you know unless you are shining it down it, if you do watch out as its a Laser not an LED.

 

As for the fibre mess it sure was one, nicely tidied.

[srochford]

I *think* that if you have fibre running at 10Mbit then it uses visible light so you should be able to see light down the fibre but 100Mbit and above you won't see the light even if it is working.

 

We've just had some new fibre installed; the installer tells us that he's shone a light down it and can see it at the other end. I'm not sure that I'm happy with that as a test :-) (Not least because the cable is badly bent where it goes into the cabinet - I am now waiting for a proper test certificate showing loss for each fibre)

[sidewinder]

Ours runs at 1Gbit and we can always see light. Not always very strong but its visible.

And yes I know it probably doesnt do me any good looking at it, but its the easiest way to see if a link is up and whether its the link itself or the switch not working

 

That 'testing' method is the same as the cablers that have done all ours, so its no surprise we normally have had to get them back in to re-terminate some of it

 

Anyway when I came in this morning, the link to that building was up, so the power just must have been off there. Phew

[DMcCoy]

Hmm http://www.hpa.org.uk/radiation/faq/laser/laser9.htm

 

I still wouldn't look down them though. Much easier to plug it in to see if it works

 

My 10Gb is a class 1M. Shining a light down it is handy to know if it is in one piece! I get a nice fluke graph with all of mine though.