Ok, I realise that this topic is the least favourable among the masses. I personally hate cabling! I have learned to accept that until wireless power, I will have to worry about it.
Now I will be the first to admit that I am very...anal retentive...when it comes to how things look in my cabinets. I like things in very neat order. How my datacenter looks reflects on how well I my datacenter.
My biggest cabling nightmare right now, is the fact that KVM over IP is becoming more popular. These administration time savers are becoming a cabling killer. I am working a "clean-up" for a customer right now and they use the dell KVM over IP system on ALL of their systems. Dell has not yet cought on to the fact that the actual cable does not need to be so long before it gets to the cat5 cable.
This post does have the intention of asking a question, not just venting. My question to everyone is:
Does any one use these little Dell KVM over IP systems? If so, who has found a way to manage the KVM "Dongles" or "SIPs"? If you have pictures you could show me, I would greatly appreciate it!
Here is a picture I took today that shows one of my methods for managing these dongles. You will notice the rack next to it has more of these dongles before they are managed. The way I decided to manage the cables works decently but it still looks kind of odd to me.
PS. I am not responsible for any cabling in that picture other than the 13 dells that look like they have been managed a little bit. My job with this customer is to clean-up the rest of it!
Everything gets labeled. It is easier for me to install cables in 1 big bundle and then tone each cable out. I also line up my switch ports with my servers. The reason you dont see labels there is because someone took the cable labeler up to canada with them on an install.
Do you use Dell SIPs for KVM Over IP? Do you have issues with managing the cables?
A while ago, working with the shoebox-shaped Crystal rack-mount servers, I wished that someone would make an ISA "video card" that was actually an embedded Xwindows client, with ethernet out. It would also have a short pair of PS/2 cables to string to the keyboard/mouse ports. You'd connect to it from an X server over ethernet, and the PC would think it was just a generic VGA card.
It's basically what we have now with KVM over IP, except that the dongle is external. What is needed is to build it into the PC, with just an ethernet jack out. It could even be built into the ethernet chipset, so that you could enable KVM behavior in the BIOS on port 1 or port 2 (and set KVM IP/mask/gateway).
A while ago, working with the shoebox-shaped Crystal rack-mount servers, I wished that someone would make an ISA "video card" that was actually an embedded Xwindows client, with ethernet out. It would also have a short pair of PS/2 cables to string to the keyboard/mouse ports. You'd connect to it from an X server over ethernet, and the PC would think it was just a generic VGA card.
It's basically what we have now with KVM over IP, except that the dongle is external. What is needed is to build it into the PC, with just an ethernet jack out. It could even be built into the ethernet chipset, so that you could enable KVM behavior in the BIOS on port 1 or port 2 (and set KVM IP/mask/gateway).
Dell has something Similar to this dubbed the DRAC (Dell remote access card) I like this solution because it can also be used to power cycle the server and what not through your browser. HP has a version as well called a Lights out manager (I think). My problem with these is that they are java based and refresh rates for console management is sometimes choppy. It is basically an extra network port on the back of the server.