Cable labeling strategy?

[TeeJayHoward]

Great news as a sysadmin. My boss just ordered two cable label makers. No longer will I need to un-velcro a dozen different strips to find out what connects where! He's asking if there's an industry standard for labeling cables. I'm not aware of one. If one does exist, could someone point me to it? If not... How do you guys label your cables?

(About 1000 servers, 3-4 cables per server)

edit: Should mention, I'm talking about the cables that go from the patch panel/switch to the servers.

 

[diizzy]

Since servers will change and panels and cables probably wont, go for PanelXPortYConnectionTypeZ?
You might want to type of cable/connection such as management or something like that perhaps?
You might want shorten the descriptions but you get the point...
//Danne

 

[evilsofa]

I just use a can of Pam spray-on grease every time I finish a wiring job. This way, I can tell which cable is which by feel - the thicker the layers of grease and dust, the longer it's been since I wired that cable.

 

[jjeff1]

Some companies have standards, but nothing else.

We generally use different color cables for different networks; out of band management (ILO, DRAC, etc...) is yellow. Normal data is black, iSCSI network is blue, etc...

If you move servers around a lot, you might just label each cable with identical ends; otherwise a simple SERVERNAME-# where # is the cable number in that server, that should do it.

 

[NotSoSimple]

We are just starting to get into labeling our cables. I am re-doing a server room of ours in another location and I am determined to label everything. However we do use color coded cables (60% of the time) similar to how jjeff1 does.

 

[TeeJayHoward]

I just fired off an email to my boss with the following recommendation:

VVV.WW.XXX:YY.ZZZZZZ
VVV    = Rack
WW     = Rack position (By top of unit).
XXX    = Port on the server.
YY     = Port on the patch panel or switch. 
ZZZZZZ = Patch panel or switch identifier.

Example: Our imaginary server, LONGNAMEDSERVER, is a DL380 occupying units 29 and 28 in rack A01. It has one cable - plugged into an vertically-aligned NIC, in the top port. The other end of this cable goes into port 19 on the patch panel labeled “N07/03”. This cable would be labeled as follows:

A01.29.E1T:19.N07/03

It makes the cables reusable. Server names aren't a limiting factor, given limited label area. Tracing would be very easy. Giving three letters for the NIC field allows for things like "KVM" or "iLO", as well as stating which port in which card. (E2R = Card two, right port, etc...). Could anyone see downsides to it?

edit: I wonder if I shouldn't just ignore Network's existing identifiers, since they could change. Maybe instead of ZZZZZZ, I should have ZZ.AAA, for rack unit and rack?

 

[Deleted member 16178]

This is a waste of time and simply satisfies a checkbox for an audit or regulatory requirement.

The next thing they will want you to do is "recertify" that the cables are actually labeled properly. Good luck with that!

Best reasonable solution is what was previously mentioned--colored cables and properly-labeled patch panels.

 

[emf]

Colour coded cables, and numbering things properly like the above poster pointed out. Unless you want to have to peel labels off every time you move stuff around, it's pointless to lable something when you can just match the number on the port to the patch panel.

Much more important is internal labeling of stuff...

 

[mwarps]

I label each end of it with where the other end is, if it's a patch.

Colored cables are a good start (hot pink iscsi and purple vmhost management!)

How you want to label it is up to you..

rack.u.port:port.patch or :port.wallplate, etc.