I’m actively involved in a few different greenfield network builds right now. While one is a new Data Center another is a new business office where we’ll have more than a few power users – including yours truly.
We’ve been using stackable switches, specifically Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5520s, for quite a few years now but it’s only been in the past 2-3 years that we realized we could make things much neater in the closet if we actually put the switches in between the patch panels and utilized 1′ patch cables. In this configuration you can easily accommodate a 2:1 or 1.5:1 or even 1:1 ratio between data jacks and switch ports. You can easily trace cables and you can leave space for future expansion or to help ease the burden of replacing a faulty/failed switch.
|
|
|
I’ve provided a few different example pictures here… and since I’m a big Clint Eastwood fan I’ve aptly named them the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. We no longer place servers in wiring closets, isn’t that why we have server rooms and data centers? You’ll be challenged to actually find the switch in the last picture (there’s a few behind that mass of cables).
Feel free to share your pictures.
Cheers!
Hoping to get onto the “Good” list with these pictures!
http://www.kevin-burke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/P7170864.jpg
http://www.kevin-burke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/P7170865.jpg
http://www.kevin-burke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/P7170866.jpg
Cheers
Kev.
Very nice pictures Kev!!!
yup…we embarked on a similar effort about 5 years ago and our many of our closets looked that nice and we realized all the benefits you list. now a lot of them look almost as ugly as they did before… so words of advice to anybody out there listening: you must MILITANTLY POLICE AND ENFORCE your closets, especially if they are shared real estate with relatively poor physical access controls. too many people running helpdesk tickets, performing desktop location moves-add-changes etc etc leads to connections from the bottom patch panel snaking up the front side to a switch port that happened to be open in the top switch. before you know it, you have a rat’s nest again and the hours of effort you put in are shot to hell.
I agree 100% with you Mike. We’ve refreshed a number of closets over the past few years only to return months later and find them in complete shambles.
Some of these were pretty impressive!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=r-9VZubB1uI
Cheers!