(More posts in this day to keep the Election 2020 out of my mind 🙂 Well, now that we’ve gotten two server cages done, while it works, it is an absolute mess in the rear. While it might be OK just to cable tie everything, there are of course lots of solutions to this that are neater. Here are some things to think about according to Cable Organizer and Rack Solutions. Or if you running a real data center then u get to worry about things like not tightly packing the cable bundles.
Dotz Cord Id. Get the right labeling tools so you can figure out what is connected to what. If you have a label maker, these plastic doodads so you can tell what is connected to what. Label both ends!
Color code your cables. it’s easy to find a host of colors for say a scheme where blue is out to the office. Red is between servers and yellow is to the outside.
Get a cable comb to keep wires from tangling and then zip tie the bundle together.
Then there is cable management hardware that come in four different types: horizontal, vertical, cable trays (for moving off rack), patch panels (if connections are dedicated and need to be moved around). Of these, the most important are the horizontal and vertical. Then if you are moving things around a lot, there are the patch panels.
Horizontal Cable Managerss. These are great for moving cables from left to right. The simplest are a set of D-rings that are across 1U or 2U. These are pretty cheap at $35 at Amazon for a 1U Startech where you just put the cables in and move them across
Vertical Cable Managers. There are two flavors, the first are the simple ones. If your rack has real slots, then you can just get a set of simple vertical cable management D rings for $10 each and then run them up the back. If you want something more elaborate, you can buy a vertical box that runs next to the rack, so this is from a vertical that connects via button hooks to the side or you can even lash it together. These are more expensive at $150.
