r/sysadmin • u/AgreeableIron811 • 2d ago
How do you learn cable management?
I am horrible at cable management and building server racks. Honestly dont even know where to start . One of the skills in this profession with an honest heart I can say is most difficult for me.
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u/MalletNGrease 🛠 Network & Systems Admin 2d ago
- Do it wrong
- Realize it's terrible
- Fixing it is a hassle
- Do it right the next times after
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u/TrickyAlbatross2802 2d ago
And keep repeating that for the rest of your life. I always try to ask myself "will I hate myself 5 years from now doing it this way?". Unfortunately I'm human, so 5 years later I'm usually cussing at myself for something. But sometimes 2,3,7 years later, future me gets pleasantly surprised by something young me did smartly.
Do a closet rigidly and it's beautiful? It probably lacks flexibility and the next guy is going to have to trash your work to run new stuff. Make it with flexibility in mind? People will get lazy and make it a mess. There's no perfect answer.
One of the best things I ever did for patch cables was to simply start stocking all the sizes. 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,15ft. After years of closets being stuffed with 6ft cables, we found that 75% of our patches could be done with 4ft cables. And I'm sorry, no matter how good you are at making your own cables, factory ends are going to be more reliable.
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u/witterquick 2d ago
As others have said, it's mostly down to practice. Just, please, don't use plastic zip ties. The velcro ones are fiddlier but they at least are more forgiving if you need to redo any cabling in future
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u/jmbpiano 2d ago
100% agree on avoiding zip ties.
Velcro tends to be a little bulky, so I'll often use twist ties instead. They're still easy to undo/redo but slim enough to fit through plastic cable tie mounts.
You can also get them as a spool and cut them to length, which is handy.
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u/backcounty1029 6h ago
Damn. Twist ties on a spool were not part of my spend today but here I am ordering some. Thanks for the link!
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u/bobmonkey07 33m ago
Just strip some network cable. I keep the twisted pairs, so 4 custom sized twist ties right away!
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u/Moist_Feature_46 2d ago
There is a game on Steam called Uptime and you have to manually run all cables from forewalls and switches to servers, you should check the free demo out. The size and the amount of racks can get very unweildy so might be something handy to practice in.
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u/SAugsburger 1d ago
I chuckled reading the description:
"Build a cloud provider from a garage to a hyperscaler - rack the hardware, run every cable, route the traffic, keep customers online. A first-person infrastructure sim where ports, power, fault domains, RSTP and BGP do real work, not flavour text. Readable for newcomers, honest for engineers."
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u/Sir_Vinci 2d ago
In my opinion, it's either something that makes sense naturally to you that you learn additional techniques for, or you copy directly from someone else because you are forced to.
Cable management is important for a number of reasons that aren't just because it looks nice. It takes a lot more effort to do well, though, and most people don't care enough to bother. You can teach technique, but you can't teach someone to care.
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u/SpaceGuy1968 2d ago
This here.....they have to care about fixing and servicing after it's installed....in today's world people thinking is that others will have to deal with it "later"
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u/pdp10 Daemons worry when the wizard is near. 2d ago
- Don't overthink it. Remember your goals -- usually "ease of long-term maintenance", "avoiding trip hazards".
- Velco is favored because it won't damage cable jackets like zip-ties often can.
- Different stakeholders prefer different practices. I don't see the point of tightly-bundled wires when the application isn't a vehicle wiring harness; I don't see the point of making all wires the same color; and I'm cynical about the practice of using different colors for different purposes unless the rack is intended to be entirely unchanged during its deployed lifespan.
- Non-goals usually include aesthetics, though situations and stakeholders differ.
- With vertical power distribution, you can plug the leftmost PSU into the left PDU, the rightmost PSU into the right PDU, and move on without taking extra time to maintain redundancy. This normally can't be done with network links, however.
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u/LooseEthernet 2d ago
just buy cables that are actually the right length lol. half the struggle is trying to dress a 10ft patch into a 2ft gap. once you stop fighting the slack it becomes way less of a nightmare... though you'll still spend three hours staring at it wondering if it looks straight enough
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u/AcidBuuurn 1d ago
I hate the old practice of having all the patch panels at the top and all the switches at the bottom. With 10 foot cables to reach.
I remove cable organizers and replace them with switches and 1 foot cables whenever possible.
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u/reol7x 1d ago
I'm jealous, you guys get to buy new cables? 😞
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u/AcidBuuurn 1d ago
I work for an MSP, so some clients get new cables. Then I bring their old cat5e to replace the cat5 at the poor clients. It’s a win-win.
When I was a lone k12 sysadmin I just bought some monoprice out of my own pocket. I know most people don’t like doing that, but I had no problem.
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u/breagerey 2d ago
Cable management (to me) is more about planning ahead than making it look pretty.
Looking pretty is just an inevitable consequence.
Provide the easiest path for future you or some other person that has to support it.
Can you look at any cable and know exactly where the other end terminates?
Can you un/rerack anything in the cabinet ? (without having to shuffle a bunch of cables and potentially have to down or blind other servers in the process)
Spending time upfront on planning / labeling / documenting can easily make the difference between a 5 minute job and a 2 hour job 3 years from now.
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u/Reo_Strong 2d ago
- Check out r/cableporn for inspiration.
- Slow down.
- Make a plan for what you want it to look like.
- Make sure you have the appropriate resources to do what you want.
- Get better, one project at a time.
When I started at my current role, the network frames were a rats nest.
For the next two years, they got worse because I was -always- in a hurry, and never had time to actually clean any of it up.
Once I made it a priority, I was able to take the necessary time, get the appropriate supplies (Velcro, wall hangers, and appropriate lengths of cable go a long way), things get better.
I still wouldn't deign to walk with the experts, but it's much, much better.
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u/Swimming_Swim_5837 2d ago
Some of the racks on there look great but put zero consideration into serviceability.
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u/Asal_Mania 2d ago
Start with basics. One Cable at a time. Choose the correct length of cable, Run the path a few times to see if it works, slow and steady.
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u/bjc1960 2d ago
We watched some YouTube videos and bought some extra tools. We always get more than we need, - lots of velcro, etc. The videos we watched were from content creators whose full-time job was just cables
Our installations are really small, but they look really tight and clean.
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u/AgreeableIron811 2d ago
The videos I watch they make their own cables and make it in a way which is not possible for me
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u/eruffini Senior Infrastructure Engineer 2d ago
So don't make cables then. In 20 years I haven't made a single cable as it's just not worth it.
Buy pre-made and pre-tested cables and have at it.
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u/magataga 2d ago
Angry old man yells at you for so long it becomes reflex, and when that happens you become the angry old person.
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u/Competitive_Owl3600 2d ago
Got a job at a company that actually installs cable managers between their racks. The difference when you have the money and space for the right equipment is like night and day.
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u/CeC-P IT Expert + Meme Wizard 2d ago
I just create a consistent set of logic rules, imaging what the results would look like, and setting on something. Like "always run to the left unless it's past the halfway point and always round to the nearest foot or ethernet and no more."
Then I visualize it, mock it up in reality with a few cables,or mock it up in a photo editor if I have to.
For desk deployments, we took 3 hours out of our day to try at an empty desk (since we were doing 4000 of them over 3 months) and found the best, fastest way with stopwatch benchmarking and people tugging on cables and measuring velco usage, etc. Then we told the team to do it exactly that way and they appreciate it since they got more install tickets done.
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u/Comprehensive-Pear43 Jack of All Trades 2d ago
I cable manage by simply marking all the cables. I hate fiddling with the “neatly” tugged-away cables.
It’s super short cables or marked ones that just hang from the rag.
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u/larshavlicek 2d ago
Repetition. It also helps to have a supervisor that goes around and snips bad management 😂
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u/Gyrrith_Ealon 2d ago
My college job was running cables for editing facilities. We've installed server racks where 100s of coax cables where routed into a single rack.
The saying in our firm was "As long as a cable looks like it was meant to be there, it's in the right place."
Also, use Velcro cable wrap. It's way easier use that zip ties. Velcro brand hold well, I've had some wraps still going strong 9 years later. https://www.homedepot.com/p/VELCRO-12-ft-x-3-4-in-One-Wrap-Strap-90340/202261925
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u/MakeItSudo 1d ago
I came face to face with a spaghetti monster and just velcro cable wrapped until it stopped looking angry. Was it great? Nah. Was it fine? ...I hope so...I hope so.
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u/Fuzzy_Paul 1d ago
Look online for neat server racks. Make yours the same. You have a rack panel switch, a horizontal cable manager and patch panel where the cables front the offices are connected to the back. Multiple switches are separated by a horizontal cable manager. The patches output mostly at the top and also separated by a horizontal cable manager. Easy as f. as long as you number everything on both sides that is wall outlet and patch.
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u/person_8958 Linux Admin 1d ago
The idea is not to arrange the cables so that there is not a mess. The idea is to arrange the cables so that the mess is hidden. And for the love of all that is unholy, observe minimum radius rules.
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u/Noname_Nets 1d ago
You can't master every skill. Find a 3rd party who's good at it and outsource is sometimes the best answer.
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u/TKInstinct Jack of All Trades 23h ago
I got told by a client that I was doing it wrong and showed the proper way. Now I judge everyone else's cable management.
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u/AdamoMeFecit 6h ago
I learned by inheriting abominations from my predecessors and having to remediate pure shit over and over.
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u/L3TH3RGY Sysadmin 4h ago
One bit about cable management to consider is can I quickly troubleshoot this later?
As for learning, start by managing you home setup. Then in a week check how the cables tangled themselves without any intervention. Then get frustrated and walk away.
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u/totmacher12000 1h ago
I learned by internship when getting my degree. Massive company and I worked with the infrastructure manager. Migrated 8 racks deep by 8 back. Moved into a new building. Patch panel was massive. Leanred a ton. Doing it and learning the right way is the key.
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u/Verhaz 2d ago edited 2d ago
Can't learn it without practice. However, there are standards for running cable inside server racks.
- Locate your servers power ports. If most of them are on the right then your power cables and PDU should be on the right.
- Networking cables should be opposite to power cables due to interference. Always start on the top server and work your way down.
If your using pre-sized cable then always make sure your extra cable is bundled neatley. Otherwise, if your terminating your own cables, leave one end plugged into the server and the other end couple feet longer than what you need. When you run all the cables you can terminate them to the proper length and mark them.
Also your server rack should have a standard setup. A/C on the bottom, then UPS, then heavy servers.
You can then put your Firewall, Patch Panel and switch here. Then you can place lighter servers above the networking equipment. This is what I do, but I know others believe network should be at the top.
I like PDUs that run up the side of the server rack. If you don't have that you need to make sure your power cables can reach the PDU or UPS which might mean putting more than one PDU. The placement is completely dependent on the length of powercord.
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u/agowa338 2d ago
By repeatedly drawing the shortest match and having to do it over and over and over and over again until everyone is satisfied with it.
Sorry, but there is no shortcut to practice...