Servers and switches in a single rack

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sovking

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Jun 2, 2011
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Hello guys,
in my lab I have a rack with depth of 1000mm, with front and back fully accessible, but I cannot access sides because is between a wall and another rack.

I put servers in this rack, sliding out on front side and the UPS on bottom.
Currently I put the switches on the back side, fixed (not sliding), so the cables usually create an "U" between the switches and the servers.
If I need to make some maintenance, I detach power and big cables (like QSFP) from the servers: I don't need to detach UTP because they are long enough.
I admit, it's not the cleanest solution of organizing them.

So here and here I'm asking you what is your favourite way of organize server and if you have any suggestions.

Thanks!
 
Fritz

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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Currently my switches are at the top of my rack. I now realize this is a bad idea and I'm about to move them to the bottom. This is a major operation and I cringe just thinking about it. But it's got to be done.
 
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sovking

Member
Jun 2, 2011
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Fritz, why do you think is a bad idea ?
Are your switches front-facing (ports on same side of servers) or with ports on backside, like mine ?
 
Fritz

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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sovking said:
Fritz, why do you think is a bad idea ?
Are your switches front-facing (ports on same side of servers) or with ports on backside, like mine ?
Click to expand...
The switches are at the back of the rack and the cabling hangs down in front of the back of the servers. because of the shear bulk of the cabling I haven't found a solution I'm satisfied with.
 
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sovking

Member
Jun 2, 2011
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So looking at this solution, switches can stay fixed on the back side of the rack, on bottom or on top ot in the middle. Cables pass on the sides of the rack. The servers' I/O panels are on the same side of the switch: just is needed to think about the sliding, that could be easier when cable management arms are available.
Is this correct ?
 
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sovking

Member
Jun 2, 2011
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@i386: also in my case I have few cm from side and being the side closed it's not easy to handle these cables.

It's worth notice that every 2U, I have 2 power cables, 2 QSFP+ cables, 3 to 5 SFTP/UTP cables, and in some case also a couple of SFP+ cables depending on the server, because I mostly use 2U servers.

If I use 1U servers it's worse because I will have still 2 power cables, at least 3 UTP cables and a couple of QSFP+/SFP+ cables.

So the planning is important to avid mess of cables.
 
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