Cable Management: Some Tips From Your Own Experience

In any computing center of any company there is a mass of wires. They are everywhere and everywhere, and if you do not see them, then this does not mean that they are not there. They just hid them well. In this case, not always with the cables work as required. But they connect everything with everything, and damage to a pair of cables in the data center can lead to a partial or complete stop of its work.

Yes, and without damage is full of situations where the wrong cable management leads to sad consequences, or simply adversely affects the overall efficiency of the data center. We, KingServers , have been working with network equipment for many years. And during this time, formed a number of rules for working with cables. They are not a revelation, we just use them. Perhaps someone these tips will be useful.

Marking is holy

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If you do not label the cables, or do it wrong, then nothing good will come of it. Even if the wires are 3-4, and then there may be a problem without marking. And if there are hundreds and thousands? In this case, if the person who was responsible for cable management is leaving, then the beginner can figure it out for months.

We advise not just labeling cables, but using special heat shrinkable materials. To work with them there are many different tools. You can learn to work with them very quickly - there are no problems here.



The label for marking is usually made of flexible plastic. The label is fastened with the help of heating - for this, a special device is needed. It is best to work with circular heat shrinkable labels.

There are many advantages of heat shrinkable materials for labeling cables. This is practical, and durability, and resistance to external influences. Plus, cables marked in this way look aesthetically pleasing. All this is much better than scotch and markers - the latter method is suitable for homegrown small data centers, but not for large data centers, where a small problem can lead to millions in losses.



We also recommend using color coded markings for individual cable groups or for individual cables. True, the use of color markings must obey a certain logic, random work with color does not fit. It is necessary to determine in advance what color should be used in each specific case, and to use this color in the future.

Accuracy of measurements

Here the proverb “Measure seven times, one cut” fits best. The fact is that if you do everything by eye, then the created infrastructure will work in much the same way. Plus, if you work with cables without careful measurements, frequent mistakes are possible. In this case, a large amount of waste is created, but the cables are very expensive. Therefore, the work on the eye can be one of the inconspicuous holes, where money flows from the company's budget, for example, the data center operator.

If you make a mistake and the cable is shorter than necessary, you will have to prepare a new one. If, fearing to make a mistake, the engineer leaves a solid margin - it hits the pocket of the enterprise. And okay, if the wires are not very much. And if, as mentioned above, there are thousands of them, and that reserve is left everywhere? It takes a lot of money.

In general, you need to measure the wires carefully, so that later it would not be painfully painful.

Saving

It should be economical, it is. But greed is no longer our option. The fact is that there are two extremes. Some DCs purchase super-quality cables with almost gold foil as a screen. Manufacturers, chasing the money client, invent a lot, describing their product. For an example, you don’t need to go far, for example, a 3-meter ethernet cable is sold for $ 2194. True, this product is not for data centers, but for lovers of “warm tube sound”, but we are sure there is something similar for data centers. And because customers are, such cables
are buying.

There is another extreme - they are cheap cables that are bought, looking only at the price. In this case, problems are possible, and very large. Unreliable connections, poor connectivity - all this joy can provide cheap cables. Initially, you can think that you save time and money, but this is not at all the case. With the increase in substandard elements in your network infrastructure, problems will increase like an avalanche.

Checks and tests

Even if you need to do something very quickly (you haven’t canceled avrahls, right?), You cannot work without checking what has been done. If a test (from the same Star Pass kit) shows that there is a problem with the cable, it is better to check the connection several times. If after several attempts to correct the situation, the problem remains, discard the cable. And, of course, you should use only high-quality cable testers. One small tester failure - and big problems for you and the entire data center are provided.

Conduit

It should be more than is currently required. You never know what and how will be added in a few months or a year, and if the conduit is made exactly the size you need now, then all this will have to be rebuilt. It is better to think everything in advance, so that you do not get upset and do not spend the extra money.

In addition, the design is worth considering where the equipment will be, to which you want to pull the cables. Otherwise, you can arrange everything, and then it turns out that it is simply impossible to stretch cables somewhere. Or you can, but this is such a problem that it is easier to change the project than to suffer with the laying of cables.

And be sure to keep in mind the idea of ​​a possible expansion of the data center. Maybe it’s worthwhile to provide additional conduits, outlets, etc. right away?

Separation of Cat5 and Wiring

Power cables, wiring, Cat5 cables need to be separated. This seems obvious, but not always the obvious is realized. Many companies simply lay everything together, tying cables of various types into one bundle. And this, of course, affects the operation of network cables. Guidance, interference - all this can be a great way to interfere, or even cause glitches, the cause of which then will have to be searched for for a very long time.

Wiring, power cables, and Cat5 need to be separated at all costs.

Do not let the cables get hot

This is another problem - you need to cool not only servers and other equipment. Do not heat cables. They can also heat up, and if there are a lot of them, it can lead to a catastrophe. Design your data center so that everything is cool.



And of course, the "noodles" can not be tolerated. In this case, the problems will definitely be at some stage. No labeling and everything else will help if cable management is not given enough attention.

In general, most of the tips are obvious. But once again recall all this does not interfere, especially since we ourselves always use it as a reminder. There are other points in cable management that I would like to talk about, but about this next time.