On Tue, 21 Sep 2010, Positively Optimistic wrote:
Do any of our fellow nanog members have experience with cable management on
6509/6513 cisco switches? We're upgrading infrastructure in some of our
facilities,.. and until it came to cable management, the switches seemed to
be a great idea... 8 48port blades.. pose a challenge.. or a problem..
The biggest things with 6500s, or any high-density configuration for that
matter, are:
1. Using racks/cabinets that have ample space for your vertical and
horizontal cabling. If you don't have this, things can get ugly in a
hurry. Make sure the kit you choose has plenty of wire management
channel space left over even after the racks are fully populated. Having
to tear overstuffed wire management channels apart to back-pull a bad cable
or jumper at 3 AM is no fun.
2. Emphasizing the importance of following established cabling standards
to the people who will be touching this equipment. Having visual aids,
i.e. "Here are some pictures of the quality of work we expect", usually go
a lot farther to drive this point home than handing someone a 20-page
cabling standards document with no pictures.
3. Dont forget about your inter-rack/overhead wiring channels/trays. I've
seen a few places that had things neatly dressed in the racks, but the
overhead channels were a complete mess... assumingly because they were
hidden from view :). If your overhead distribution has separate
channels/lanes for power/copper/fiber, even better.
4. Labeling and documentation.
5. See 4.
jms
