October 11, 2005
Restack, 2nd floor
On the second floor, since I do not have routers or servers, the plan is a lot simpler. I've mounted the new Foundry switches in the nearly empty rack with the fiber patch panel. You will notice it is a lot cleaner than the first floor.
After the LAN is alive I will cut over the workstations on the first floor, freeing up piles of long patch cables. As well as allowing me to remove the old switches and the temporary rack that is making the first floor so ugly. The long patch cords will then be brought upstairs and used to cut the second floor workstations to the new switches. This will make the upstairs ugly, with many dozens of long patch cables draped between the racks.
Once cut, I'll remove the old Cisco switches from the patch rack, clearing space for the new Foundry's. Then, some weekend when the customer is not around, I'll physically move the new switches into the patch rack and replace the long cords with the short one, making it neat enough for inspection by Joe Baca.
Note: There is a requirement for a minimum length for patch cables. This requirement is from switch to device and includes the floor cable. There is no real requirement for a minimum length for the patch cables in my patch racks. Having the vast majority of patch cables 9-12 inches in length makes troubleshooting a far easier task.
Posted by at October 11, 2005 02:40 PM