Cabling gone bad (or sympathy for Ted Stevens)

Cabling gone bad (or sympathy for Ted Stevens) 

I wanted to address a growing concern I find when using Facebook, LinkedIn, or at Competencsolutions. While I'm a huge supporter of Networking students building home labs I am always concerned by the number of cabling nightmares that get posted even by seasoned students on their way to a networking career. Messy cables are the signature of a deployment up against a deadline and the deadline usually won.

I will not be posting any of the examples that have motivated my post to protect the innocent. It is worth noting other network admins cannot help but cringe at the sight of a rack that looks as if it vomited blue, red, and yellow Cat5e cabling. May it is because it is this first foundation of a tight physical layer that so many new to the field feel as if it is of little consequence. Or maybe they just don't know better. But there is something truly inspiring and beautiful about the symmetry found in a solid cable deployment.

Here then are three tips I feel will get you started in the right direction:

Measure twice, cut once; or don't cut at all.

Pretty but can you guess the error made here? Read below....

If you are running a drop to a patch panel for example it is important not to leave cables dangling and devices hanging. Figure out what you need and group the end of the cables together before you cut/tip them. Another strategy I personally employ is to purchase the cabling in bulk at standard lengths of 3,5,7, or 10 feet for labs with a lot of interconnections. Using a formula to judge length of 1.75" per RU between devices plus an additional 36" to cover looping out and back in. Round up to the nearest precut length. The advantage is deploying standard and consistent cables with a far lower rate of failure.

Keep colors consistent.

Many times the beauty and simplicity of a deployment are sacrificed to the convenience of just grabbing whatever cable around is long enough to get up and running. Don't give in! Cut/Buy enough cable to keep the colors meaningful. Running all the same color may sometimes be just as bad as using dozens of colors. Either it means something or it doesn't. Green for endpoints, Gray for core links, Orange for console, or whatever makes sense to you but stick with it. A follow up is to keep extra lengths of those colors handy for repairs and growth.

Wrap it up velcro style.

Turns out that Ted Stevens wasn't completely wrong; the interconnections while not quite tubes they do suffer when you kink the cable. Certainly fiber will easy damage if the cable takes a sharp 90 degree angle. The same problem will plague UTP copper and the culprit is usually the zip tie. Seems harmless enough when loose but who can resist the cool noise they make when you tighten, tighten, tighten them up. Remove the temptation and switch to velcro. They are cheap, tidy looking, and come with their own equally entertaining noise.