Half height cabinet networking

[Outlaw85]

This is for a home cabinet which will have a small lab and some other odds and ends in.
At my old job, we had started mid rack networking for multiple reasons and it made sense. We still had top of rack networking in the older cabinets.

My question is what are you guys doing for smaller/custom cabinets/racks?


My thought is the same as the full height. shorter cables and possibly easier cable management.
top of rack would mean slightly longer cables and more difficult management but easier and possibly cleaner runs to a patch panel which is currently theoretical (i do own one, not installed).

 

[Outlaw85]

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look.

Sorry. I should have mentioned I already have the cabinet too. This was from when I initially set it up. I have since pulled the switch at the top and the top DL380. I have a 24port HP i'm going to install, i'd prefer a like model but also a 24port Netgear I may put in as well, or leave a gap for it. Also, I'm not sure on the storage. The MSAs are SAS. I was thinking of also putting them in the middle.

Couple ideas. with current hardware on hand.

I'd like to get rid of the MSAs but they are good for 'easy' shared storage for VMware. I'd like to get another cluster to setup Nutanix CE for learning as well.

 

[Mac2]

This is for a home cabinet which will have a small lab and some other odds and ends in.
At my old job, we had started mid rack networking for multiple reasons and it made sense. We still had top of rack networking in the older cabinets.

My question is what are you guys doing for smaller/custom cabinets/racks?


My thought is the same as the full height. shorter cables and possibly easier cable management.
top of rack would mean slightly longer cables and more difficult management but easier and possibly cleaner runs to a patch panel which is currently theoretical (i do own one, not installed).

one thing i would suggest to flip the switch arround so the ports are on the same side as they are on the servers, much easier and cleaner wireing. in datacenter enviroment this is not always possible as you may be constrained by the need for front to back heat flow.

 

[Outlaw85]

one thing i would suggest to flip the switch arround so the ports are on the same side as they are on the servers, much easier and cleaner wireing. in datacenter enviroment this is not always possible as you may be constrained by the need for front to back heat flow.

Thanks. and I have since done that. I have 2x 24port switches in the cabinet now that are layer 2/3 so i can mess with vlan's when I have time. It does make cabling easier but I need to get some proper depth servers for it so I can do real cable management.