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When Data Center Cabling Becomes Art

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We always post pictures of the most horrendous cabling jobs known to man because they are funny to look at but what about the opposite? Some serious effort went into these:
 
That's pretty sexy cabling right there.

But imagine if they had to trace one cable or replace one.
/shudders.
 
That's basically how our datacenter looks like :) Nice and clean.
 
I always start off with my closets looking like that, then as things change it turns into a mess.

Same thing as my office. As long as I don't have to do any work, it stays clean in order; but as soon as I do anything, it becomes a mess.
 
Igg said:
That's pretty sexy cabling right there.

But imagine if they had to trace one cable or replace one.
/shudders.
Click to expand...

Thats what I was thinking too. If they had to replace a cable, they have to undo all those zip ties. But damn, that's some gorgeous cabling.
 
That's impressive.:cool:

One thing that always bugged me though...
What if they have to add/remove cables?
If this wasn't a semi-permanent installation, wouldn't it be wiser to use velcro ties, or are zip ties so cheap it doesn't matter?
 
That is how our looked at one point too, right before we had fix something, then all that shit being tethered like that gets to be a HUGE PITA.
 
Wonder if I could post pictures of the DC i work at?
 
with a little creativity some of those cable jobs could look resemble ♥♥♥♥♥♥ :eek:
 
yeah, it's a good job, but doing this as a living I have to say t's much easier replacing a cable when it's neat and tidy like this in the first place. Cable ties shouldn't bee too tight, so snip the end of the bad cable and pull it through. The new cable just runs along the rest with another cable tie... but I have to say, in the past 7 years doing this I don't think I've ever had to replace a cable because it went bad. Usually it's when the client wants something different afterwards, but still, it's not obsessive at all to put this much time into it. Saves time and headache later in my experience!
 
God_Of_Death said:
it's purty until something malfunctions. they should have gone with velcro.
Click to expand...

When it comes to fixed infrastructure cable, zipties are perfect as it wont move for years and when it does, it gets all torn out anyways. However, when it comes to short connects such as server patch cables, Velcro is godsend.
 
Pretty.:) I wonder what the datacenter at my work looks like... and if they're reading this message.:eek:
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
That's impressive.:cool:

One thing that always bugged me though...
What if they have to add/remove cables?
If this wasn't a semi-permanent installation, wouldn't it be wiser to use velcro ties, or are zip ties so cheap it doesn't matter?
Click to expand...

Most of those pictures are the backs of major patch panels...so that'd be pretty permanent. If the back of patch panels didn't look like that, smack that cabler.

what is difficult would be doing the same to servers that have networking, fiber SAN, KVM, and power. Those are tricky.

don't get me wrong, that is nice and orderly...but for patch panels, they should be.
 
Ockie said:
When it comes to fixed infrastructure cable, zipties are perfect as it wont move for years and when it does, it gets all torn out anyways. However, when it comes to short connects such as server patch cables, Velcro is godsend.
Click to expand...

I was gonna say the same thing, and then,.... you did. QFT. Our closets are an embarrassment to IT departments everywhere. Our worse closet is the one on the floor where our infrastructure works. I have only seen our closets zip-tied all pretty like that when they put in a new switch or a new closet period.
 
i wish my work looked like that, as it is i trip over the damn wires whenever i need to get to the adapter/cabling cabinet
 
The copper patch panels at our DC look like those. Too bad the cabling from the patch panels to the switches looks like a spaghetti induced cluserf*** of CAT6. Of course, that's to be expected when your switches have 384 ports. Don't get me started on the fiber.
 
Lamont Cranston said:
A lot of truth to that, we have a data center of about 100 drops and we use velcro straps to keep our drops looking nice and tidy.
Click to expand...

Velcro and multiple cable colors are a lifesaver when you have to trace a cable.
My racks look like a rainbow, but it's easy to track a cable down.
 
Zip ties on glass is a terrible idea, even if it's for semi-permanent or permanent infrastructure.

Anybody remember the link to the pics of that church somewhere (Spain, I think?) that was converted to a data center / server cluster? Now THOSE were amazing.
 
Nice job, looks nice and clean. I know from experiance that is not easy. But as nice as that looks. It's not practical for the application unless it's a temp job. They are bunched up to close for a wire probe the work should something go down.

I just hope it's not a mission critical patch work area. Being that I see phone cabling in there..... headach.
 
Beautiful job!
Why oh why would you use zip ties.
They should have used Velcro ties.
Nothing like having to cut 50+ zips and see your perfect budle bust open to replace a single cable. With Velcro you loosen it up a bit and pull your bad and run your new/good line then tighten it up again. Simple. No cutting or finger smashing or tools needed.
Running cable diag's on bundles in the hundreds to thousands and possibly having to replace cables I highly prefer using Velcro ties. I've lived and I've learned..
 
finalgt said:
Zip ties on glass is a terrible idea, even if it's for semi-permanent or permanent infrastructure.

Anybody remember the link to the pics of that church somewhere (Spain, I think?) that was converted to a data center / server cluster? Now THOSE were amazing.
Click to expand...

I don't see anywhere that they used zip ties on fiber optics? ... or I must be blind or something...
 
That is a heck of a lot of work right there.

But they forgot to put some drop loop slack in the line. Around here we get frost buildup on certain lines. As they go outside the building and are sometimes and cannotnot buried deep enough because of the water table.

A foot worth of cable slack in a U shape would also make it a lot more earthquake proof.
 
Great job, but not sure I would bound them like that, in case one needs replacing.

Also, while it looks good now, give it 6 months with some wanna-be manager type playing in it, and 5-6 'I know computers, I have one at home' types changing ports, and rewiring on their own. Then we will see..


Scratch that.. ONE MONTH
 
That's how data centers should look. Who wants to have to fight through spaghetti when equipment goes down and you have to replace it? If everything is neat and organized, you can swap out equipment quickly and see where all your cables are and where they need to go.
 
Quite impressive to look at.

Like others have already said... not practical if one cable needs to be replaced or moved.

What would be really impressive if is a picture of the same location 5 years from now were just as tidy after having to reroute dozens of cables. ;)
 
bbf said:
Like others have already said... not practical if one cable needs to be replaced or moved.
Click to expand...
Actually, it is fairly easy to remove/replace cables when they are organized like that. That's how the military runs all the wiring on the Apache helicopers and such. When a cable is found that's bad, you just pull it out between the zip ties. Normally in a network environment though, you don't run into the problem often because you test all your wires before you make the connection. If you have to run a new cable, you just shove it under the zip ties and pull it through one at a time. It is slightly tedious, but it isn't hard. Plus you are getting paid by the hour. ;)
 
I was also thinking about how difficult it would be to replace a cable when I realized: have you ever seen a cable fail? I mean the actual cable?
 
To replace a cable, you cut it out of the bug bundle, and add its replacement to a second bundle, which is just a small amount of cables tied along side to the main bundle.

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Or you do some emergency planning and ADD EXTRAS IN THE BUNDLE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
 
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