Cable Management

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Soldato
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14 Oct 2003
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Probably the wrong area but here goes:

You start out with your server racks and you use cables made to length that reach back to your switches nicely and you route the other cables back (KVM, etc) but over time it becomes messy.

What do you all use for a cable management solution, or do you just not bother and live with it?
 
I tend to live with it, occasionally scheduling an outage to allow for tidying it up.

This is on reasonably small setups (probably at most no more than 20-30 ports patched at a given time - i unpatch unused ports).

I find things tend not to change too often so it's easy to keep on top of.
 
I find it helps to do a proper job of it whenever you add/replace hardware. It is so easy to just wack in a new cable and say "i'll sort that once I am doing XYZ". 3 months later it is still pigs ear! :D
 
SiriusB said:
I find it helps to do a proper job of it whenever you add/replace hardware. It is so easy to just wack in a new cable and say "i'll sort that once I am doing XYZ". 3 months later it is still pigs ear! :D
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This is exactly my view. So many times have I thrown a cable over the top of a rack because I can't be bothered to route it under the floor panels, telling myself "I'll do it properly the next time I raise the tiles". Of course, I tell myself this every time, and so it's not long before it's in a dispicable state. Taking the extra time to do it properly when you do the initial installation is the best method, in my opinion.
 
It's fairly simple, you start giving formal warnings to anybody who doesn't install things in a neat and tidy manner and pretty soon they take the extra five minutes to get a sensible cable length of the right colour and route it properly.

Draconian - maybe, but I can't stand messy datacenters, it's just a sign of laziness and there's no excuse.
 
I had to do something like this the other day. It took 15 minutes to trace 6 cables (wrongly the first time I might add) because all I could see was a messy swathe of blue. Keep it neat, keep it coded (however you do it) and save the time.

It doesn't take time to run it right

- Pea0n
 
bigredshark said:
It's fairly simple, you start giving formal warnings to anybody who doesn't install things in a neat and tidy manner and pretty soon they take the extra five minutes to get a sensible cable length of the right colour and route it properly.

Draconian - maybe, but I can't stand messy datacenters, it's just a sign of laziness and there's no excuse.
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It's also a sign a job is going to take 5 times longer if it is a mess! :mad:
 
I think one of the ISO27001 requirments is neat and managed patching.

I find that we dont change that much so once the intial install is done and done properly its fairly easy to keep it looking tidy.
 
Example: Cabinet to cabinet patching:

Solution: Links, patch panel in the back of each rack with cabling, then you can patch directly to switches, routers, servers etc. Cable management rings and bars to neatly present cables. Do a good job once! because several lazy attempts will only mess things up in the future.
 
J.B said:
I think one of the ISO27001 requirments is neat and managed patching.

I find that we dont change that much so once the intial install is done and done properly its fairly easy to keep it looking tidy.
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There's not a requirement specifically for it under 27001, but if you state it in your 'computer room policy' then you need to adhere to it for compliance.
 
bigredshark said:
It's fairly simple, you start giving formal warnings to anybody who doesn't install things in a neat and tidy manner and pretty soon they take the extra five minutes to get a sensible cable length of the right colour and route it properly.

Draconian - maybe, but I can't stand messy datacenters, it's just a sign of laziness and there's no excuse.
Click to expand...

This, plus a cattle prod. Anyone working in my DCs knows that I check the installs on a regular basis, and if any don't comply with the documented standards then it's a disciplinary offense. If they are short of the right length/colour of cables I will happily order them. To be honest, unless it fits the required standard I won't accept it into production.
 
Tend to keep our server rack tidy with everything labeled. I also diagram out the power cables to UPS so we know exactly what power goes to what UPS without having to go into the server room and look.
As with patch panels to switches, I try to keep them as tidy as possible as and when needed.
 
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We have 12 of these at this particular site, they look much the same whether they've been in service 3 months or three years. It's not too hard...

(and those little white bits on the end of the cables are printed labels detailing where exactly the other end plugs into...)
 
Ooooooo that makes me feel so good looking at that, I love a nice tidy patched cabinet, unlike mine :eek:

I'm a big big fan of neatpatch's solutions.
 
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