Show Us Your Racks

Somnambulist said:
Yep we do that with deliveries for all 'that sort' of customer, although they tend to use fancy/grand sounding names rather than something comedic or non-descript. The highest stuff we have here requires SC clearance so I imagine it's a level below what it would be like somewhere requiring DV.
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I dont deal with anything like that now but did do in the past. I built a dedicated network for a large US customer who had a UK Govt contract and DC's in several parts of the country.

That said, I only know of 1 DC (in Yorkshire) that actually prevent you from using mobile phones due to cameras and you have to leave in a little locker in reception. Other DCs have banned phones before but that was due to cell signal apparently interferring with telco kit:rolleyes:
 
Our rack is a disaster waiting to happen - tried sorting it out once, but somehow it's got back into almost as bad as it used to be (although you can still withdraw the servers on their rails without having to unplug them first still!).

42U in a little air conditioned room (been here 7 years, took 5 years to persuade them to put that in!).

No pics, but we have:

APC 3000 XL with extra battery pack
Some ancient and decrepit IBM server which soldiers on as the backup DC and a few other bits. Keep trying to retire it but never get around to it.
HP DL380 G5 - ready to take over from the IBM when we get around to it.
HP DL380 G5 - terminal server box (at capacity - new second one on order)
HP DL380 G7 - main server, handles DC, DHCP, all the usual gubbins including file storage and exchange. I want to virtualise this box but again, getting around to it.
Dell R620 - pretty high spec this one, runs our database.
24 port netgear prosafe switch which trunks to dual 48 port elsewhere.
various NTE and router boxes that are supplied by the MPLS people. Forget what but nothing exciting, only for a 10mbps fibre connection.

It's not my job to look after it, but seems to be me that has to sort it. Just need the time to do it!!
 
I visited a DC a few months ago, there was no wireless for the entire building... it was a 10 minute walk from the entry gates of the building (secured) to the DC.

Even though the DC wasn't built and it was being racked we weren't allowed phones... we had to get special permission just to take our laptops in. Biometric security, escorted everywhere, all phones etc had to be left in a cabinet before entering the DC..

Hated it.
 
CCIE Lab rack:

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Rest of the lab is used for other things.

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Not in this photo is another 4500, a varying number of ISR G2s, GNS3 server and all the various console stuff used to access this lot.
 
Some of the more complicated aspects are more or less what I do for a living anyway. Where I'm going to struggle is doing the "simple"(simple in CCIE terms) stuff as well as becoming accurate at the speed you need to go at to complete the configuration section in under 4 hours to give you time to check your work.

For example I have a 35 router lab in GNS3 right now that's a model of something we are trying to do globally. It can't be done in less devices than that in the lab and its not even a tenth of the full scale. The problems we are trying to solve are as complex as anything I've seen in CCIE R&S so far.
 
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I have a 6500 that can do private VLANs, a 6500 awaiting a new SUP, a 3550 and 2x 2950s.

So far I've read about 80% of the SWITCH book from Cisco Press. Not done any labs or revisited anything that I've read yet...

Hope to get the 3 exams done by Xmas if possible. :)
 
mrbell1984 said:
Tidy that up man!
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While I am completely anal about my production racks, I couldn't be less arsed about the state of the cabling in here as (CCIE lab aside) the cabling is pretty much dynamic and it honestly doesn't add anything to keep it any tidier than it is.

Everything is cabled logically and the things that are bunched together have common paths and are bundled with Velcro so there is no need to do anything more than that really :)

The cable mess to the right has nothing to do with me, we've got an entire office for hooking stuff up and tearing it down (entire remote office setups are regularly created and destroyed).
 
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