[AusNOG] Switch installation in data centre racks - front facing, or rear facing?

[Nick Pratley]

Hey James,

We do something similar and have found that if you mount the switches in the middle of the racks at the back – at least with the APC PDUs we use there is nothing in the way – tend to mount them where the screen is on the rails. Just enough room for 3 switches there.

Top switch for servers in the top half, middle switch for IPMI / drac and the bottom switch for the servers in the bottom half. It works quite well, the cabling is nice and neat and doesn’t get in the way of anything.

Regards,
Nick

On 29/8/17, 9:11 am, "AusNOG on behalf of Peter Tiggerdine" <ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net on behalf of ptiggerdine at gmail.com> wrote:

    Depends on the way the fans spins and what's best for thermal dynamics.
    
    Some of the Cisco, juniper and Brocade kit you can get fans that spin
    in either direction. if so then I tend to put ports in the cold isle
    and suck the air through the switch by preference. This is largely to
    carter for hot SFP's like QSFP's, XENpacks etc.. and the like. Also
    working in the cold isle tends to be easier.
    
    Cables passing through the racks isn't a bad thing as long as rack
    dimensions carter for it (yes Fuj I'm looking at you >:( ).
    
    Regards,
    
    Peter Tiggerdine
    
    GPG Fingerprint: 2A3F EA19 F6C2 93C1 411D 5AB2 D5A8 E8A8 0E74 6127
    
    
    On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 9:02 AM, James Cunningham <jjazza26 at gmail.com> wrote:
    > Hi Guys,
    >
    > This is an age old discussion that I have had with many people over the
    > years, but am keen to find out what other people think about installing
    > switches into data centre racks.
    >
    > Say for example you have 4 network switches to install into a rack (standard
    > 600mm rack), along with 20-30 1RU and 2RU servers.
    >
    > Would you install the switches facing forwards, or install the switches
    > facing backwards?
    >
    > The way I see it, there are various pros and cons of each approach:
    >
    > FORWARD FACING
    > PROS
    > Easy to install and remove the switch from the front of the rack, as power
    > cords are not in the way
    > Most switches expect this installation for air flow, but some switches do
    > have reversible fans.
    >
    > CONS
    > You must route the cables from the front of the rack, to the back of the
    > rack where the server network ports are, leading to cable clutter within the
    > rack.
    >
    > REAR FACING
    > PROS
    > Cable distance and cable mess going from the switches to the servers is alot
    > less.
    >
    > CONS
    > When it comes to removing the switch, it's very difficult with a fully
    > loaded rack, as the power cables tend to get in the way from the vertical
    > PDUs at the back.
    >
    > Has anyone else had some detailed thoughts about the best way to rack mount
    > data centre network switches?
    >
    > Thanks in advance.
    >
    > James
    >
    >
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