What I did with my weekend

[thonl]

So, I finally got around to cleaning up my server room at work after things got out of hand when a bunch of new people moved into our building a while back.


Here is what I had to start with

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d169/thonl/before.jpg

And here is what it looked like when I was done, 12 hours later.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d169/thonl/after.jpg

[kevikev9]

Whoa. Good job.

[David_G17]

nice.

[Dandapani]

Very nice. Our network closet looks like your first picture. Can you explain your methodology a bit? Thanks! Nice work!

[epsylum]

^c

You definately earned your keep. MUCH better and more professional looking.

[thonl]

Well, it really involved more than the 12 hours it took to just re-cable everything.

The 2 switches in the center are Cisco Catalyst 5500's, each with 10 24-port 10/100 blades, and more or less serve the desktop's and labs in this building. It is roughly 40,000 square feet, and about 130 employees.

I started by trying to trace each cable, but from the first picture, it quickly became an excersize in futility... I'd still be tracing wires if I tried to do it that way....

I decided the better route would be to create a spreadsheet with every switch port listed, and then walk the building with a laptop with a wireless card in it. I telneted to each of the switches, set them in their most verbose logging mode to the console, and proceeded to unplug wvery jack in the building that was connected, and then reconnect it, and see which switch port logged the connection.

Doing it this way, I had 4 trouble reports that were attributable to the work, and those were because of mis-labeled data jacks...

[IndyGunFreak]

You deserve a raise :)...

Very well done

IGF

[DeadMansLife]

It must have taken 3 packs of cigarettes, 10 Valium, and a fifth of Scotch to keep from hanging yourself with all that cable.;G