[AusNOG] "Best practice" - guidelines, standards etc?

[Joshua D'Alton]

Anyone else thinking of a TV show "the rack"? just like the block and all
the other reno shows, this would be about 'renovating' IT inf.. :D

Seriously though.. I know there are IT.. 'management' (not ICT) companies
out there that you can pay to come in and fix everything up, for a large
fee, but seems like you want more guidelines than consultancy?

In my experience well thought out ones don't really differ from racks you
see in large DCs, and ironically a lot of racks in large DCs are just as
hodge-podge as a home grown mini-DC.. so I'd say the best practices
applicable to large DC installations are 99% suited to medium sized IT
businesses and their DC room.

I could point you towards a previous employer who has the best 'rack'
(sometimes its not even a rack, just a table with IT gear on it, but he
still made it work) if you were interested in perhaps a small fee, or hell
I'll do the work myself if you don't get anything :)


On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 10:56 AM, Ross Wheeler <ausnog at rossw.net> wrote:

>
> Hi all.
>
> I've been asked to assist with the redesign of a medium-sized business's
> IT infrastructure and am looking for any actual standards or guidelines
> relevant to Australia. The current site is quite a mess, ad-hoc additions
> and changes over many years and multiple people in charge.
>
> Particular issues would include such things as OH&S requirements,
> best-practice for server/comms/cable racks, server room considerations
> against most risks etc.
>
> Photos of some "well thought out" installations and racks would be
> beneficial.
>
> To be clear, this is not a multi-million dollar datacentre. It's an entity
> of a couple of hundred staff with perhaps 2 or 3 racks of servers and comms
> gear, probably one additional enclosure for cable termination, patch etc.
>
> They want to depart from the old "spaghetti everywhere" environment to
> something more managable. Suspended floors and rack doors to simply cover
> the mess up (but leave the underlying problems) are not where they want to
> be. They're sick of downtime and network instability because the wrong
> cable has been unplugged, or in accessing one cable another has been
> dislodged. Of avoidable downtime because nobody can find or follow anything
> to fix or work around a problem, etc.
>
> Anyone got anything they can share?
>
> TIA,
> RossW
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