Having different color cable can be useful for certain setups. For example, PoE devices, VoIP. I have done along with another color for IPMI. Different stokes for different folks.
I would have brought one of those nice Aperture LED light panels and mounted it on a desktop or floor based tripod. They give off a ton of light and are very very portable
enjoyed the tips. However the white background, white room and light shirts all created a video where it's really hard to see the actual rack and what is going on in there. So I really struggled to see the most important details. But the audio explanation was really good. Thank you.
This is GREAT content with excellent presentation and audio quality BUT...there is a better way. Cable management uses valuable rack space and the problem with cable management with long cables and beautiful cable management is that as soon as one change is required, people screw up the whole bunch. After years of dealing with this mess I figured out that using 6in and 1ft cables and stacking patch panels and switches eliminated these problems saving me 50% of rack space and eliminating velcro and cable management. We implemented this approach in 50+ IDFs across a large hospital complex and it has saved us hundreds of hours tracing cables and redoing our work.
Did you use two switches instead of one for a configuration reason like PoE and the other non-PoE? I was thinking you could use one 48 port and two 24 port patch panels, one above and below the switch then just connect with .5 ft. patch cables. No need for wire management and would allow you to fit more devices. Then again this being a customer site I know the reality is you cannot always do exactly what you want.
I used to travel Australia for a national electrical appliance retailer upgrading their comms/server racks in each store. At each location I went to, I had the before shot and by the time I had finished, they had the after shot. Upon returning to most stores between 12-18 months later, I came face to face with the before shot again.
Thank you very much , i thought i'am only one seeing that shitty cable management in most network/servers racks but you shine some light to it. We need to talk a lot more about it.
Good video, while you did touch on it, the only thing i think you missed is the importance of running the cables to the side. If they are allowed to droop over other devices and not to the side then if a device fails, you might have to take the entire network down since the cables are blocking your ability to remove the failed device.
On patch cable length, I've always found that more important that _actual length_ is _consistency of length_ . If you only need 1 meter patches but there are already some 1.5 meter patches in the rack, I would just use 1.5 meters as well. It just ends up much less messy looking when everything is the same length even if it's technically not the "proper" length. All within reason of course.
cables coming into the back could be supported on laceing bars. incoming cables and patch panel should be labeled. create spread sheet to document what goes where. correct length patch cords can reduce the need for wire mgmt. Modular patch panels are the only type we install.
The thing is, what is the function of a patch panel? If you want to patch port 1 of the patch to port 1 of the switch and 2 to 2, 3 to 3 etc. just get rid of the patch panel, mount your switches backwards (ports to the back) and patch each cable directly into the switch, right? Wrong, bad practice. The idea of a patch panel is to patch and patch through. I can logically move Janet’s PC from accounting to administration by simply patching to a different switch port or switch. Or I can take LAN 2.3.2 situated on the second floor, 3rd office, second connector from left and patch it into any other switch in my system without doing anything other than taking a patch cable out of one switch port and putting into another. So, my feeling is make sure you can re-patch easily rather than make things look nice, replace defect cables quickly rather than have it look nice and document, document, and document some more. Now this is just one approach. Another theory says use V-LANs and document, document and document some more… and leave everything patched as it was! Old school meets new I guess. I feel people still need to learn both. Sorry for the rant, especially because I really enjoyed the video.
It could use some more light, it's actually pretty difficult to see what you're doing, and I would really love it if you could upload it in 1080p, or better yet 2160p ;-)
Oh no! What a missed chance! I love your videos, Jeremy, but in this case... I think the ESSENCE of cable management is cable length, because with the right length, you barely need to waste Us for those additional cable management slot-ins. It would've been so great if you could have pointed out on when it makes sense to go short, and when it makes sense to let more slack in there... There is A LOT between "tension on the plugs" and what you used in your rack! =) Also, why would you put the patch panels on the top and the switches below, if you could just put a patch panel and a switch underneath, repeat, and have them directly matched port-wise? If you do that with... let's say 15cm or 20cm cables you can see in a blink of an eye on what exact port on the patch panel is connected to what port on the switch, and if you go as far as to use a keystone patchpanel, you could even... if you want to re-arrange things... move the corresponding ports on both ends, patch panel AND switch (And all that without having to dive the cable you're looking for out of a perfectly valcroed bundle of cables to the right or left of your devices, which also wastes time imho). There might be 1000 reasons why my suggestion above is complete and utter nonsense, but with the experience that you have and with the amount of racks and installations that you have seen, I think you could have put in a lot more content about different strategies for different scenarios and their pros and cons, even without actually showing them (maybe with some example pictures). Maybe that is something for a future video, although you already covered this topic here?! =D Stay safe!
Ok, the old rule applies, I should have watched the video till the end in the first place, and not write a comment after 8:30min =) However, that rose even more questions! Why would you stick to one colour only and just one more for the WAN cable? I would at all times colour-code a setup, e.g. WAN = red, LAN = black, WiFi-APs = green, Cameras = blue, 10G ports = Pink so you have a clear picture of what you are looking at. Just to have it look neat? Also I still don't get it, why you would waste 4U(!!!) in such a small rack for cable management slot-ins that give you zero advantage. If you just left them away and used 15cm (~6 inches) cables you wouldn't have tension, it would look even more organized, you could have colour-coding without messing up the overall impression, and last but definitely not least, you would not have to push 28 cables each into such a cable duckt thingy for absolute no additional benefit. That is a waste of expensive copper there! =) If you cabled them in directly, you could have just guided the cables for servers inside the rack to the side rails as the only cables there and you would immediately see from where to where they are going, and NOT stuff them to the back, drive them around somewhere where you cannot see and easily reach them and then come back to the front where it is zero intuitive what cable that is and where it is going, if you don't have your documentation at hand. If I learned one thing on my end of things (and I definitely do not have your knowledge, experience and expertise), that is: A good documentation is good, but a setup that explains itself and renders documentation obsolete to a level of "good that it exists, but I never need it" is just the way to go forward. I would really eagerly want to know why this approach seemed to be never an option to you. There must be a catch that I don't know about yet =D
@@JimSurles Like anything I would say it is heavily dependent on the particulars of the use-case, but on the whole my customers seem to love it. A few def balked at the price of entry (and said no to it), but the ones that went with it usually tell me they're glad they did. I usually only recommend it to customers that have parts of their infrastructure that are either very dynamic (say test-lab) or partially dynamic (say IDF), as to me that is where it becomes a +ROI. Hope this helps!
Thank you very much for the explanation , its amazing. Jeremy can I ask you something? If someone is far from where Cisco center is to pass exams, what he can do to pass or do his exams? Please I need your help in this matter.
Hey Jeremy. Great video man and love your content. Any reason you didn’t opt for the slim 28-gauge patch cables? Makes for much easier cable management so you don’t end up with that fat wod of cables 😂
Hey, Jeremy. Great videos. But you're a little theoretical on this one. Order in the cables is important. Unfortunately, we don't have any customers who are willing to pay for a solution like yours. You must have spent two hours on that video case to keep it tidy. It always has to be fast, so Welcro's great. Always keep the cables visible. In this point we do it differently, so nowhere through the back, unless it must be. Which is probably also good, leave one or two U space between the switches. Looking forward to more videos of you.
I had the same problem (switch with ports only on the right), i used a different strategy. I've installed the bottom switch upside down, thi wasy the ports are on the left XD
Nice! I installed few of CPI Qube-iT wall mount cabinets in my company for sites that we dont need rack mount. It can fit Patch Panel, 2911 router, 3650 switch, Tripp lite UPS and Panduit Horiz cable management. I always use Panduit for Horiz cable management and CPI for Vertical. You can also install optional dual fan kit for cooling.
Great video, awesome series. After watching the video I felt like sharing pictures of my home network, I had my son show me how to tweet and he showed me how to tag you on it ( if that’s what you call it)
Wouldn’t a real PRO have BOTH, 1ft and 2ft patch cords to make it as perfect as possible?? I did this too as a side job and bought 6in, 1, 2, 3 ft patch cords and in a few colors just for this.
Having different color cable can be useful for certain setups. For example, PoE devices, VoIP. I have done along with another color for IPMI. Different stokes for different folks.
It’s a little hard to see all the awesomeness you’re doing with all those matte black devises and cables. Suggest shining a light inside the rack.
I would have brought one of those nice Aperture LED light panels and mounted it on a desktop or floor based tripod. They give off a ton of light and are very very portable
Hey Jeremy great video! Just wondering if you’re gonna cover fiber optic cabling as well.
enjoyed the tips. However the white background, white room and light shirts all created a video where it's really hard to see the actual rack and what is going on in there. So I really struggled to see the most important details. But the audio explanation was really good. Thank you.
Hahaha Sweet! No dull moment. I just love this handy guy. Hello J. Thanks man
This is GREAT content with excellent presentation and audio quality BUT...there is a better way. Cable management uses valuable rack space and the problem with cable management with long cables and beautiful cable management is that as soon as one change is required, people screw up the whole bunch. After years of dealing with this mess I figured out that using 6in and 1ft cables and stacking patch panels and switches eliminated these problems saving me 50% of rack space and eliminating velcro and cable management. We implemented this approach in 50+ IDFs across a large hospital complex and it has saved us hundreds of hours tracing cables and redoing our work.
Did AI just stumble across what appears to be Network Chuck but actually informative? Bravo
Did you use two switches instead of one for a configuration reason like PoE and the other non-PoE? I was thinking you could use one 48 port and two 24 port patch panels, one above and below the switch then just connect with .5 ft. patch cables. No need for wire management and would allow you to fit more devices. Then again this being a customer site I know the reality is you cannot always do exactly what you want.
I used to travel Australia for a national electrical appliance retailer upgrading their comms/server racks in each store.
At each location I went to, I had the before shot and by the time I had finished, they had the after shot.
Upon returning to most stores between 12-18 months later, I came face to face with the before shot again.
Watching before and after cable management is soothing to my soul.
Thank you very much , i thought i'am only one seeing that shitty cable management in most network/servers racks but you shine some light to it. We need to talk a lot more about it.
Good video, while you did touch on it, the only thing i think you missed is the importance of running the cables to the side. If they are allowed to droop over other devices and not to the side then if a device fails, you might have to take the entire network down since the cables are blocking your ability to remove the failed device.
Flip one of your switches upside down. Get the ports on the left side on one of them and the right on the other.
This information is gold! Thanks! Would you do a video on network diagrams?
Yes - that will be coming soon :-)
Keeping IT Simple Thanks! Can’t wait.
On patch cable length, I've always found that more important that _actual length_ is _consistency of length_ .
If you only need 1 meter patches but there are already some 1.5 meter patches in the rack, I would just use 1.5 meters as well. It just ends up much less messy looking when everything is the same length even if it's technically not the "proper" length. All within reason of course.
Hi Jeremy. Where could I purchase a network rack like the one you show on this video? Would it be possible to create a link for it please?
Really great explanations, better than anything else I ever found. Shame the video isn’t as clear as the explanation
great audio thank you !!!!!
cables coming into the back could be supported on laceing bars. incoming cables and patch panel should be labeled. create spread sheet to document what goes where. correct length patch cords can reduce the need for wire mgmt. Modular patch panels are the only type we install.
Haha somebody took my powertool but I am not bitter... that made my day
The thing is, what is the function of a patch panel? If you want to patch port 1 of the patch to port 1 of the switch and 2 to 2, 3 to 3 etc. just get rid of the patch panel, mount your switches backwards (ports to the back) and patch each cable directly into the switch, right? Wrong, bad practice. The idea of a patch panel is to patch and patch through. I can logically move Janet’s PC from accounting to administration by simply patching to a different switch port or switch. Or I can take LAN 2.3.2 situated on the second floor, 3rd office, second connector from left and patch it into any other switch in my system without doing anything other than taking a patch cable out of one switch port and putting into another. So, my feeling is make sure you can re-patch easily rather than make things look nice, replace defect cables quickly rather than have it look nice and document, document, and document some more. Now this is just one approach. Another theory says use V-LANs and document, document and document some more… and leave everything patched as it was! Old school meets new I guess. I feel people still need to learn both. Sorry for the rant, especially because I really enjoyed the video.
I had to reread to get what you were saying
@@Teenzcyberiz But you got it ;-) ?
It could use some more light, it's actually pretty difficult to see what you're doing, and I would really love it if you could upload it in 1080p, or better yet 2160p ;-)
If i have 24 ports patch panels but a 48 port switch can i do this :
Patch panel / cable manager / switch / cable manager / patch panel
?
Oh no! What a missed chance! I love your videos, Jeremy, but in this case... I think the ESSENCE of cable management is cable length, because with the right length, you barely need to waste Us for those additional cable management slot-ins. It would've been so great if you could have pointed out on when it makes sense to go short, and when it makes sense to let more slack in there... There is A LOT between "tension on the plugs" and what you used in your rack! =)
Also, why would you put the patch panels on the top and the switches below, if you could just put a patch panel and a switch underneath, repeat, and have them directly matched port-wise? If you do that with... let's say 15cm or 20cm cables you can see in a blink of an eye on what exact port on the patch panel is connected to what port on the switch, and if you go as far as to use a keystone patchpanel, you could even... if you want to re-arrange things... move the corresponding ports on both ends, patch panel AND switch (And all that without having to dive the cable you're looking for out of a perfectly valcroed bundle of cables to the right or left of your devices, which also wastes time imho).
There might be 1000 reasons why my suggestion above is complete and utter nonsense, but with the experience that you have and with the amount of racks and installations that you have seen, I think you could have put in a lot more content about different strategies for different scenarios and their pros and cons, even without actually showing them (maybe with some example pictures).
Maybe that is something for a future video, although you already covered this topic here?! =D
Stay safe!
Ok, the old rule applies, I should have watched the video till the end in the first place, and not write a comment after 8:30min =)
However, that rose even more questions! Why would you stick to one colour only and just one more for the WAN cable? I would at all times colour-code a setup, e.g. WAN = red, LAN = black, WiFi-APs = green, Cameras = blue, 10G ports = Pink so you have a clear picture of what you are looking at. Just to have it look neat?
Also I still don't get it, why you would waste 4U(!!!) in such a small rack for cable management slot-ins that give you zero advantage. If you just left them away and used 15cm (~6 inches) cables you wouldn't have tension, it would look even more organized, you could have colour-coding without messing up the overall impression, and last but definitely not least, you would not have to push 28 cables each into such a cable duckt thingy for absolute no additional benefit. That is a waste of expensive copper there! =)
If you cabled them in directly, you could have just guided the cables for servers inside the rack to the side rails as the only cables there and you would immediately see from where to where they are going, and NOT stuff them to the back, drive them around somewhere where you cannot see and easily reach them and then come back to the front where it is zero intuitive what cable that is and where it is going, if you don't have your documentation at hand.
If I learned one thing on my end of things (and I definitely do not have your knowledge, experience and expertise), that is: A good documentation is good, but a setup that explains itself and renders documentation obsolete to a level of "good that it exists, but I never need it" is just the way to go forward.
I would really eagerly want to know why this approach seemed to be never an option to you. There must be a catch that I don't know about yet =D
Amazing! Waiting for the next episode. Thanks Jeremy!
Thoughtful, thanks. Better light would have helped, though.
Could you not have just flipped the switch upside down, to bring the ports to the other side? I also love Patchbox- saves a lot of time.
How do you like the patchbox? worth the cost?
@@JimSurles Like anything I would say it is heavily dependent on the particulars of the use-case, but on the whole my customers seem to love it. A few def balked at the price of entry (and said no to it), but the ones that went with it usually tell me they're glad they did. I usually only recommend it to customers that have parts of their infrastructure that are either very dynamic (say test-lab) or partially dynamic (say IDF), as to me that is where it becomes a +ROI. Hope this helps!
Glad to see some Panduit Love! You should eventually talk about tool less modular patch panels! keep up the great series!
Why am I smiling while watching this video? haha
Great video!!! Thank you for sharing it!!
A video about how to document a network and how to configure ports and Internet connections
Thank you very much for the explanation , its amazing. Jeremy can I ask you something? If someone is far from where Cisco center is to pass exams, what he can do to pass or do his exams? Please I need your help in this matter.
Hey Jeremy. Great video man and love your content. Any reason you didn’t opt for the slim 28-gauge patch cables? Makes for much easier cable management so you don’t end up with that fat wod of cables 😂
Hey, Jeremy. Great videos.
But you're a little theoretical on this one. Order in the cables is important. Unfortunately, we don't have any customers who are willing to pay for a solution like yours. You must have spent two hours on that video case to keep it tidy.
It always has to be fast, so Welcro's great. Always keep the cables visible. In this point we do it differently, so nowhere through the back, unless it must be. Which is probably also good, leave one or two U space between the switches.
Looking forward to more videos of you.
I had the same problem (switch with ports only on the right), i used a different strategy. I've installed the bottom switch upside down, thi wasy the ports are on the left XD
This was immediately what I thought lol.
Thank you for this video
Nice! I installed few of CPI Qube-iT wall mount cabinets in my company for sites that we dont need rack mount. It can fit Patch Panel, 2911 router, 3650 switch, Tripp lite UPS and Panduit Horiz cable management. I always use Panduit for Horiz cable management and CPI for Vertical. You can also install optional dual fan kit for cooling.
What brand of Rack is that your using?
Can you show me cable management for a chassis with 8 blades? :)
thank you very much..
:)
Great video, awesome series. After watching the video I felt like sharing pictures of my home network, I had my son show me how to tweet and he showed me how to tag you on it ( if that’s what you call it)
Got it! And a great looking network it is :-)
Just install one of the switches upside down. Mic drop...
love from india ❤️
Wouldn’t a real PRO have BOTH, 1ft and 2ft patch cords to make it as perfect as possible??
I did this too as a side job and bought 6in, 1, 2, 3 ft patch cords and in a few colors just for this.
hi jeremy, try neatpatch
Use 6” patch cables and you won’t need those 1u and 2u cable managers 😂
To the right, to the right, to the left, to the left
Gee I wonder why so many racks are a total mess? Maybe because perfection involves coming in at 5am and redoing your work 3 times
Just get on with it already!
ReWork!!!!
Everything is black … we’ll take your word for it that you did a good job : )
I like your videos, I'm envious of how you speak. I sound so retarded in comparison.
dude, there is no light inside to see