Oops_my_bad Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 Is there some sort of art to doing this? No matter what I try I just cant seem to wire a data cabinet in a nice neat way like you see when a company comes in and does it Assuming I am using 0.5m patch leads and 1u cable management bar + switch + copper patch panel How do you do it :?: :?:
Geoff Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 There are ways to keep wiring racks tidy but few do it. Some hints: Leave some space, it might be a nice feat of engineering to pack 2" diameter cable bundle in a 2" space but thats too tight. Want the next cable run to be in there neat then leave some space, at least 3 times what is going in up front. If you might expand, leave even more space. Smaller bundles logically grouped. Putting everything in one big bundle makes it harder to work with. There is picture tidy and practical tidy, you want the later. Pre-wire and provision all you can right up front to reduce add ons and mess grow. EVEN if it means potentially dead cable. Costs more in the short term but less that the long term. This eliminates the costs and needs to rip open the bundles every month for 10 years. Before hiring someone, see their work. Yes, the other guy is cheaper but doesn't put the cables in tidy... Specify in contracts (internal or external) that tidy inspections, not just functional specifications as need to be met before the job is considered done. Realise the proportion of tidyness in the rack is proportionate to the quality planning. In fact, to know how organized a place is, ask to see their rackspace. Add and use hooks along side the raceways just for new cable. When the hook gets full, bundle it off to the side. This is so your not forever rebundling cable. Consider a distributed model where all the cable is decentralized in smaller chunks with high speed uplinks. "One Big Switch" is often one big mess no one wants to touch. Get management support for policies on above. You may need to rectify an techie who just throws a cable over in a disorganized way, make them follow up and do it right.
bishopsgarthstockton Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 It just comes down to good planning. When i started here, it was a mess, and wasnt labled properly.
plexer Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 We had one installer before I started here that would use 3m patch leads for everything and the excess was wound around the back of the management panels and posts in the cab. Takes ages to trace a cable. Depends on how your uplinks etc.. are setup. You'd think a 24 port switch and a 24 port patch panel would be easy to make tidy. Ben
Guest Guest Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 It just comes down to good planning. When i started here, it was a mess, and wasnt labled properly. Labeled? Whats that? *Nothing* is labeled here, well thats not strictly true, we have a "brilliant" system of labeling things 1-30 and then when we run out of numbers, go back to 1 and round and round lmao My network diagram is in my head
Joedetic Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 The problem is...no matter how many times you tidy your data cabs. They are always going to end up messy becuase networks are ever changing to suit the situation. I spent a proportion of the easter holiday a couple of years ago with the head of ICT re-cabling the server room. The server cab didnt even have sides on it before we started...there were servers on the floor and cables strung accross the room etc. When we were done it looked so neat and tidy....then some idiot contractor drilled holes through the wall behind it and sprayed brick dust all over servers. MUCH anger.
bishopsgarthstockton Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 It just comes down to good planning. When i started here, it was a mess, and wasnt labled properly. Labeled? Whats that? *Nothing* is labeled here, well thats not strictly true, we have a "brilliant" system of labeling things 1-30 and then when we run out of numbers, go back to 1 and round and round lmao My network diagram is in my head roflmfao
localzuk Posted July 13, 2007 Posted July 13, 2007 In our data cabinets, our old supplier seemed to be addicted to 2m patch leads - no matter what the run length was. So, in a cab with a single 24 port panel and switch, the cable would wind all over the place. Add in the problem of labelling being useless (some are labelled, some are not and some are mislabelled) it takes a *long* time to trace a cable - thank god for the feature in HP switches to trace which MAC is on which port!! Personally I have not had a chance to tidy any cabinets yet, but I intend to next holiday (I don't have time this summer). This will involve lots of cable shortening and labelling...
contink Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 Ours are like this. Oooh purty... For myself I've recently upgraded a network cabinet and whilst it's not 100% there yet it's much nicer.. Organisation and planning seemed the be the key thing and as I had a colleague along with much more experience in this area I was happy to accept his wisdom.. I think we spent 5 hours just going through, labelling, checking and double checking all the cables before we actually did any rewiring and it paid off, making the actual rewiring and adding of a few new sockets a breeze..
Simcfc73 Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 Ours are like this. Hope the red one thats unplugged isn't important.
sparkeh Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 I too have inherited some terrible cabling. What is it with people using solely 2m cables and stuffing it down the back of the cabinet when 0.5m would be perfectly adequate and neat? The oddest thing (that still makes me laugh when I see it) is one cabinet that is HUGE and (for some reason) mounted halfway up the wall, with the patch panel at the very top and the switch at the very bottom which requires very long cables to connect the two. Apparently they were all put in at the same time but nobody thought to question it. Bloody annoying as I have to get a ladder to get to the patch panel!
sparkeh Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 Cant you just move the switch up to the top? Of course, but then I have to get the ladder to fiddle with both the switch and the patch panel
Joedetic Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 Oh yh lol. Cable loom not got any room to move? Sometimes they've got space so that they can be taken back down to the bottom of the cab...unless the cables come in at the top then you're stuffed LOL.
Grommit Posted July 14, 2007 Posted July 14, 2007 There are ways to keep wiring racks tidy but few do it. Some hints: Leave some space, it might be a nice feat of engineering to pack 2" diameter cable bundle in a 2" space but thats too tight. Want the next cable run to be in there neat then leave some space, at least 3 times what is going in up front. If you might expand, leave even more space. Smaller bundles logically grouped. Putting everything in one big bundle makes it harder to work with. There is picture tidy and practical tidy, you want the later. Pre-wire and provision all you can right up front to reduce add ons and mess grow. EVEN if it means potentially dead cable. Costs more in the short term but less that the long term. This eliminates the costs and needs to rip open the bundles every month for 10 years. Before hiring someone, see their work. Yes, the other guy is cheaper but doesn't put the cables in tidy... Specify in contracts (internal or external) that tidy inspections, not just functional specifications as need to be met before the job is considered done. Realise the proportion of tidyness in the rack is proportionate to the quality planning. In fact, to know how organized a place is, ask to see their rackspace. Add and use hooks along side the raceways just for new cable. When the hook gets full, bundle it off to the side. This is so your not forever rebundling cable. Consider a distributed model where all the cable is decentralized in smaller chunks with high speed uplinks. "One Big Switch" is often one big mess no one wants to touch. Get management support for policies on above. You may need to rectify an techie who just throws a cable over in a disorganized way, make them follow up and do it right. And after a couple of years work when cables fail and ports fail and switched fail etc etc you cabinet will look normal like the rest of ours...
RoyG Posted July 15, 2007 Posted July 15, 2007 In our data cabinets, our old supplier seemed to be addicted to 2m patch leads - no matter what the run length was. Snap! We only have one patch box in the school that I didn't wire myself. This was in a new class-room block, where it was decided (with no consultation!) that there should be 10 network points in each class-room - including the room that eventually became a computer room! This meant loads of unused sockets, all shouting, "please shove something in me!" You can guess the consequences. Eventually decided to take the patch leads out for the unused sockets. Nightmare!! 150 odd leads, all 2m, none labelled, with connections done entirely randomly. Aarrgghh!! Another example of, "it's only a school, it'll do!"?? RoyG P.S. Agree 100% with Geoff's checklist.
contink Posted July 15, 2007 Posted July 15, 2007 I opted to waste an evening creating a bunch of 50cm patch cables while watching the TV at home one evening... Takes a while to sort it all but there's a lot to be said for taking the time to replace long wiring like that nightmare above and do the labelling too.. Makes troubleshooting when stuff fails a lot easier.
webman Posted July 15, 2007 Posted July 15, 2007 Well aslong as your cabling isn't this bad you should be fine
starscream Posted July 16, 2007 Posted July 16, 2007 I find that sometimes if you have the patch panel above a switch you can send the cable betwen the patch panel and switch to go around the back of the switch and then up from the bottom of the switch and then into the switch. Gets rid of any excess. Also you can get some rack mountable cable tidy things that hold all the excess cable in a fairly neat fashion. I took these out though as I am forever needing access to the cables.
starscream Posted July 16, 2007 Posted July 16, 2007 I find that sometimes if you have the patch panel above a switch you can send the cable betwen the patch panel and switch to go around the back of the switch and then up from the bottom of the switch and then into the switch. Gets rid of any excess. Also you can get some rack mountable cable tidy things that hold all the excess cable in a fairly neat fashion. I took these out though as I am forever needing access to the cables.
russdev Posted July 16, 2007 Posted July 16, 2007 Well aslong as your cabling isn't this bad you should be fine Ok who snuck into my office then...
bishopsgarthstockton Posted July 16, 2007 Posted July 16, 2007 Well aslong as your cabling isn't this bad you should be fine Ok who snuck into my office then... If that was my office, i would set the lot on fire
Andrew_C Posted July 16, 2007 Posted July 16, 2007 All this gets to be even more "fun" when trying to install audio (that really needs keeping clear of mains), video and data in one rack. I have come to the conclusion that the back of a rack can be tidy or easy to work on. Not both. If the cables are tied into bundles and to bars, it is a swine to get the kit out of the rack for repairs without having the back and sides off too.
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