Switch / comms room tidying project

[thimon]

Hi all. I've been given a switch / comms room to tidy as a project, something I haven't taken on before. It's a bit of a mess, with ports unlabeled and cables untidy. I'm thinking of ordering https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gain-Express-Network-Ethernet-Telephone/dp/B00MMYO4BI?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_13 to help trace devices around the school to ports. I do have the use of Cisco Prime. Any advice or recommendations before I start would be greatly appreciated!

 

[smarties11]

Crikey, haven't seen an RJ45 port splitter in use for years!

 

 

My advice would be to sack off the cable tidies currently in place and use 1U brush bars instead. Much nearer as all of the excess cable can be hidden.

[Rob_D]

that's not too bad. You can still see the patch panel.

 

The cable tracing kit is a good idea to get the ports labelled. When it comes to re-cabling, I'd keep the cable management bars but use shorter cables. Or if your pulling the whole thing apart then alternate patch-panels and switches. Sort of like this: https://www.itrw.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/server_spaghetti_3.jpg

[NetworkServices]

I'd lose those awful hook type cable management things. The brush ones look cleaner and you can stuff all excess cable out of sight.

[Rob_D]

I'd lose those awful hook type cable management things. The brush ones look cleaner and you can stuff all excess cable out of sight.

 

Doesn't that just move your cable spaghetti to the other side of the rack? Or do the brush modules have some sort of cable management at the back?

[NetworkServices]

Yes it moves it to the back. But at least you can't see it. Out of sight out of mind.

[caffrey]

I always use these on new cabs

 

https://www.kenable.co.uk/en/networking/cabinet-accessories/9641-1u-19-inch-data-comms-network-cabinet-cable-management-bar-with-vents-009641-5021196757658.html

[supportman]

I'd recomend using different colours for different cable types. We use grey here for normal port connections, green for wireless POE, red for switch uplinks and blue for telephones.

 

Short cables are a must as well.

 

Its amazing how simple it all looks once you sort it out.

 

EDIT: Oh and is that a cat5 cable splitter going into another cable splitter? Not a good idea....

[Davit2005]

Flood patching and using 1U cables is the way we have done our last 4 building projects. We have some older cabs with one cab full of switches and the one next to it patch panels absolute nightmare.

[thimon]

Thank you all for your help and recommendations! Definitely be looking to get rid of the cable splitters

[atcoates]

I'm slowly doing that at all my sites. We went for 20cm or 30cm excel grey for workstations and 30cm colour coded for devices. Each device type has their own colour etc. The short cables make it really easy to visually see everything.

[PotNoodleTech]

OMG @ passive CAT5 splitters. The devils contraption! I'd nuke the whole comms room from orbit and start from scratch! If they've fitted those splitters lord knows what other terrible things await you!!

[RichardZh]

You might still need to order some cable managers for a long term. You can try ID marker cable ties or D-ring cable managers.

[Chris_]

I always use these on new cabs

 

https://www.kenable.co.uk/en/networking/cabinet-accessories/9641-1u-19-inch-data-comms-network-cabinet-cable-management-bar-with-vents-009641-5021196757658.html

 

I used some of these when cleaning up our main server rack. Made it much neater!

 

[sted]

OMG @ passive CAT5 splitters. The devils contraption! I'd nuke the whole comms room from orbit and start from scratch! If they've fitted those splitters lord knows what other terrible things await you!!

they are ok as a temporary fix or if its just say 2 printers but i wouldnt want to use them for much else

[caffrey]

Here's one of mine with colour coding etc.

 

[Davit2005]

OMG @ passive CAT5 splitters. The devils contraption! I'd nuke the whole comms room from orbit and start from scratch! If they've fitted those splitters lord knows what other terrible things await you!!

 

Those and using cable ties around cables, don't get me started . Admitedly we use splitters as an absolute, absolute last resort if desperate.

[E_G_R2]

I've always found a combination of appropriate length cables and hook management better for tracing cables than stuffing them in one of those 'brush' devices. Also the hooked management offer support for your cables rather than them being dragged down in a mess of spaghetti (yes cables can over time loosen in the patch panel if they aren't supported properly)

[Strawdog]

A cable tester is definitely an essential piece of equipment to have in your tool kit, I also highly recommend using CDPR (https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdpr / http://www.networkcomputing.com/data-centers/using-cisco-discovery-protocol-reporter/1596188203) for tracing ports.