Massive Cable Messes

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Here’s a collection of photos of some of the worst cable messes ever seen. The site itself is loading really slow right now so I snagged a few of my favorites to show you guys:

Spaghetti Cabling that would make a fully-grown sys admin cry, or… Cable management is for wimps. Most network and system administrators like a nice tidy cabled cabinet of servers and network equipment. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.
Click to expand...
 
Man just thinking of sorting out those cables made my stomach turn.
 
I enjoyed the all green mess. If the others weren't bad enough.... trying to trace a cable in that mess when they're all the same color... it makes me sad.
 
OMG :eek::eek:, That possibly makes My cabling setup(among others I'm sure), Look positively neat and straight. ;) :D
 
Makes the minor cable mess I have to deal with look tame by comparison. Think 9 foot racks with nothing but patch panels.
 
myisei4.jpg


:D
 
Wow I look at those pictures and can't help but wish I had pictures from my old company EPS. You went in their network room and where do I even begin. First off the builder decided to install a transformer in the room so it quickly turned it into an oven with the door closed. To combat this they installed an AC unit cool the room, down side was the AC unit drained into an open waste line above the server room. That same waste line was serviced by a slop sink in a janitors closet on the second floor and they had been washing spackle down the sink which clodded the line and cause our ever ruuning AC unit to pour water through the ceicling onto the racks of equipment below. Amazingly nothing shorted out my they were all covered in water. Mean while the racks looked like many of the wiring diagrams shown on that site.
 
I just ate spaghetti for lunch so looking at those pics made me want more :p

Where's the meatball sauce ?

 
I seen worst but this is bad..

looks like poor planning and bad design.

Also I bet no one person is responsible for it.

thats what happens when u give any one access to cabling

I have cleaned up issues like this
 
Computer rooms and networking equipment aren't the only things that look like spaghetti. Modular analog synthesizers used for electronic music can also look rather crazy.
 
Seriously, how could these companies even manage all that crap with how unorganized it is? What if they had to pull a server or switch? They wouldn't know what the heck went where. This is how it should look..

DSCN1895.jpg

^--internets

DSCN1917.jpg

^--rack power & grounds, and fiber overhead
 
I've seen some rooms like those. Hell wish I had a pic of the server room when I worked at retail. They used mac filtering on every jack and generaly refused to move mac address' around. You would move a computer and they would tell you to just move the wire in the server closet. Yea a few years of this went a long way.
 
w1retap said:
Seriously, how could these companies even manage all that crap with how unorganized it is? What if they had to pull a server or switch? They wouldn't know what the heck went where. This is how it should look..
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Looks pretty good other then the wire ties. Generally you don't use wire ties like that on network cables. Should use those velcro wraps.
 
swatbat said:
Looks pretty good other then the wire ties. Generally you don't use wire ties like that on network cables. Should use those velcro wraps.
Click to expand...

If you look closely at the picture, you will notice that it's the back 1/2 of panel that runs from the panel to the office/building. Those wires are permanent and should be affixed with wire ties. On the other side of the panel, he should be using CAT5 patch cords with Velcro ties.
 
w1retap said:
Seriously, how could these companies even manage all that crap with how unorganized it is? What if they had to pull a server or switch? They wouldn't know what the heck went where. This is how it should look..

DSCN1895.jpg

^--internets

DSCN1917.jpg

^--rack power & grounds, and fiber overhead
Click to expand...

How about you show us the other side of those patch panels? That's obviously the back side. On one side you have the installers cutting every cable to length and punching it down. On the other you have techs using pre-built, fixed length cables patching stuff together. That's where the soup comes from. Always pissed me off, once the customer goes live, your options to fix the cabling issues become very limited.

Also, they should be labeled.
 
I guess that brings us to the obvious question: what happens when something fails?

Imagine trying to track down a broken switch in that mess.
 
Decibel said:
How about you show us the other side of those patch panels? That's obviously the back side. On one side you have the installers cutting every cable to length and punching it down. On the other you have techs using pre-built, fixed length cables patching stuff together. That's where the soup comes from. Always pissed me off, once the customer goes live, your options to fix the cabling issues become very limited.

Also, they should be labeled.
Click to expand...
From the front side, they go to this, all still bundled together. It is a private and military shared data center, not a joe schmo stick it together overnight web hosting service. :p
 
w1retap said:
From the front side, they go to this, all still bundled together. It is a private and military shared data center, not a joe schmo stick it together overnight web hosting service. :p
Click to expand...

Heh... It's the big guys that usually have the worst wiring. I used to spend time inside of one of the biggest transport nodes in the country... Absolutely horrid. One of the previous brilliant decisions had been to just cut the connectors off and run a new cable.

I kind of understand... Taking the time to pull the cable would have taken away from valuable Quake time and there is that slight chance that you can damage a surrounding cable. DAMN it was bad. I spent more time pulling unused cable out of that mess...

That site was truly bizarre. Who decides to build a major node on the twelfth floor? We had three floors and a great view of downtown, with massive bundles of fiber and copper running all the way and all the way back down.
 
Decibel said:
That site was truly bizarre. Who decides to build a major node on the twelfth floor? We had three floors and a great view of downtown, with massive bundles of fiber and copper running all the way and all the way back down.
Click to expand...
lol, when I was down in Boca Raton, FL for a job, they had their fiber and everything coming into this little door at street level in the same room with all the water main stuff. I mean, it was just like you step off the road next to a dumpster and there was their server room. LOL. Also, when it rained hard, the room got about 1'' of water on the floor, so I can just imagine during a hurricane.
 
Whenever I see rooms like this, a part of me dies and I vomit in my mouth, just a little bit. :(
 
I worked for McDonnel Douglas in Huntington Beach, CA in the late 80's. I wish they would have let me take pictures.

There were several raised floor "labs" that housed VAX, Cyber, and IBM servers. The floor was plenum rated but was full to the gills with cabling (mostly 25-pin serial cables for terminals and computer to computer communications). It was so full that in some areas, you couldn't get the floor panels back in place properly.
 
dR.Jester said:
myisei4.jpg


:D
Click to expand...

I think this is the only one that outdoes the wiring mess I have. However, I only have three computers, three monitors, a router, a 4.1 setup and a 5.1 setup so they outdo me in sheer numbers. However, my mess and clutter is even worse. Since I moved a second desk next to the first it doesn't look as bad since a lot of the clutter is now covered. :D

 
w1retap said:
DSCN1891.jpg
Click to expand...

-1 for Foundry switches :p

Just a couple of Nit Picks on this:

1) None of the cables are labeled - what do you do if a blade fails and you need to change it in a hurry?
2) The power cords shouldn't run across the switch, they should come out the other side closer to the actual power supplies. Although it does look like you don't have anything on that side to run them out of you could just run them down into the floor on that side.
3) Are those twist ties with metal in them holding the cables together?
4) Can you even get Blade 6 or 7 out if they failed?

Not bad, but could use some improvement.
 
Spacy9 said:
-1 for Foundry switches :p

Just a couple of Nit Picks on this:

1) None of the cables are labeled - what do you do if a blade fails and you need to change it in a hurry?
2) The power cords shouldn't run across the switch, they should come out the other side closer to the actual power supplies. Although it does look like you don't have anything on that side to run them out of you could just run them down into the floor on that side.
3) Are those twist ties with metal in them holding the cables together?
4) Can you even get Blade 6 or 7 out if they failed?

Not bad, but could use some improvement.
Click to expand...
Foundry is pretty good, and we've had luck with that switch. It does the job just fine for the application it is used in.

1) All the cables are labeled with a fine tipped sharpie near the end of the connector. You just can't see it in the pics.
2) They are fine where they're at. They go in between everything and around to the back because that is where the remotely controlled switched power comes from. The power cable that is shielded does not put out more EMI than the PSU itself that is located right next to the switch.
3) Yes, they are twist ties. They don't hurt anything. They're rubber coated, but regardless it doesn't matter because there are no adverse effects from using them. Some people exaggerate and over-react when it comes to this type thing, but it is really unnecessary. There are no EMI issues.
4) Yes, everything is easily accessible and can be swapped out. The professionals are very experienced in what they are doing that perform the maintenance and upkeep.
 
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