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

[Ken Wilson]

Tagging onto this - does the same go for your out-of-band equipment? 
(those that have it)

Cheers,
Ken

On 29/08/17 09:23, Nick Pratley wrote:
> 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
>
>
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> 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
>
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>
> 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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