It's more time consuming than it looks...

[slim]

So I spent most of Saturday in the local DC, putting things into racks... The first batch of equipment for a new little project







Couldn't really work out how to neatly manage the power cables, certainly no neater than in the picture. Any suggestions?

I've not left any big coils of cable around the place, but still not 100% sure on whether they can be run tied together in parallel like that without any ramifications. We left them running for about half a day, and there seemed to be no increase in temperature.. I've kept power as far away from the UTP cables as I could in such a confined space.

Doesn't seem to be too much info (that I can find!) on cable management for power cables.

Of course I forgot to take photos of the front of the rack after all the patching and cable trays were finished...

[4lan]

Originally Posted by slim

So I spent most of Saturday in the local DC, putting things into racks...
<snip>
Of course I forgot to take photos of the front of the rack after all the patching and cable trays were finished...

howdy slim,

you must have had a fun saturday, whats the project and the devices if you don't mind me asking? I can identify the cisco switches and HP servers etc.

As for the cable-management the pictures you have all look fine to me, without arms or trays for it becomes problematic so I see no glaring issue with your technique (;-D) I just hope you've velcro'd to the max.. during my first escapades fitting out cabinets I had a penchant for 'cable-ties', going back to refit or replace stuff was quite annoying at times.. I was in fact at one point accused by my colleagues as having some sort of obsession with them!

Anyways, looks great and I'm sure the front looks awesome too.. Tidy cabling/racks etc. really makes me happy. Thanks for the early morning lift l-D

4lan

[slim]

Originally Posted by 4lan

howdy slim,

you must have had a fun saturday, whats the project and the devices if you don't mind me asking? I can identify the cisco switches and HP servers etc.

As for the cable-management the pictures you have all look fine to me, without arms or trays for it becomes problematic so I see no glaring issue with your technique (;-D) I just hope you've velcro'd to the max.. during my first escapades fitting out cabinets I had a penchant for 'cable-ties', going back to refit or replace stuff was quite annoying at times.. I was in fact at one point accused by my colleagues as having some sort of obsession with them!

Anyways, looks great and I'm sure the front looks awesome too.. Tidy cabling/racks etc. really makes me happy. Thanks for the early morning lift l-D

4lan

Cheers

Building a little network with a mate to help provide voice/data to some of our mutual clients.
Yep, a few HP servers, an old small Cisco for OOB management a few E1 telcobridge boxes, Juniper switches and routers.

No cable ties were used, instead we opted for masses of velcro. My mate is the one that insisted upon this; he thought the use of scissors and sharp objects around production lines was a no no. I thought it was a bloody good point

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Originally Posted by slim

So I spent most of Saturday in the local DC, putting things into racks... The first batch of equipment for a new little project







Couldn't really work out how to neatly manage the power cables, certainly no neater than in the picture. Any suggestions?

I've not left any big coils of cable around the place, but still not 100% sure on whether they can be run tied together in parallel like that without any ramifications. We left them running for about half a day, and there seemed to be no increase in temperature.. I've kept power as far away from the UTP cables as I could in such a confined space.

Doesn't seem to be too much info (that I can find!) on cable management for power cables.

Of course I forgot to take photos of the front of the rack after all the patching and cable trays were finished...

I can think of a number of solutions for cable management:

1. Twist ties around at regular intervals
2. Loom tube or spiral binding (jaycar electronics has these)
3. Cable conduits (or even large ID flexible tube)
4. "Dune tube" (jaycar)
5. Cable ties at regular intervals

Also if you find interference due to power cables being too close to UTP data cables then you can wrap aluminium foil around the UTP cables (make sure none of the cable is exposed) and see if that works. The metallic foil should act as a shield. (can't remember what sort of cables - or whether Cat 5/6 has shielding) - it would be surprising if there was no shielding though already in the cables themselves.