• Assigning switchports to VLANs in chunks just doesn’t work. This seems like a great idea. You can put client A on port 1 through 12 and client B on ports 13 through 24. Then client A winds up with 13 servers, and B only has 3, so your whole scheme is in pieces on the floor. It’s just easier to plug servers into the next available port and forget physically organizing the ports. The switches don’t care if the ports are in order by VLAN. Just keep it simple.
• Color-coding cables only works for a while. Let’s cable web servers with green cables and application boxes with blue cables and the database servers with pink and the mail servers with aubergine. I promise you, though, that you will run out of cables of one color or another and wind up having a database server in green. Then you’ll have something else wrong. It won’t be long before the color standard only applies on paper.
• Labeling switchports by name only works if you buy servers all the time. If you’re in an environment where servers change roles and names, I guarantee you that your ports are mislabeled. The only time that labeling really works is if you’re lucky enough to work for a company with enough money to buy new stuff for every project. I’ve actually resorted to labeling ports with serial numbers instead of names since those won’t change.
• Complicated naming schemes don’t work. They may sound cool, but simpler names are almost always better. Name your router “r1″ or something.  Don’t try “rtr001prod1″ or something as ludicrous. I once made up this awesome naming scheme, and it worked until the business took on other projects that didn’t fall into the standard, so I was screwed. Save yourself some problems and keep it simple.

Aaron Conaway

I like to lean my head to the left, hit it with the palm of my right hand, and document what knowledge falls out.

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Your data center will look better if you make your own cables. If you buy a bunch of 10-footers and 50-footers and need to run 12 feet, what happens? You’re stuck running a 50-footer to the next rack. Do that a few times and you’ve got one of these. If you make your own, you can have custom lengths just the right length that look like this.

Being able to make your own Ethernet cables also lets you customize your cables. You can make straight-through cables for connecting to a switch, crossovers for creating uplinks, rollovers for making Cisco console cables, or null modem cables for connecting modems to serial ports. I haven’t made any other cables, but I’m sure there are dozens more types out there.

So, save money, clean up the data center, and make whatever you need. I won’t go into how to make them, but here’s a list of some places to show you how.

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• A pretty good video
• Some technical stuff on pinouts
• Some pretty detailed instructions on making a crossover
• A DIY kit from Amazon

Aaron Conaway

I like to lean my head to the left, hit it with the palm of my right hand, and document what knowledge falls out.

Website - More Posts