2.1.2 Cabling of the Racks

The following sections give an example of cabling guidelines. Details such as cabling are important to specify in your hardware plan to avoid any errors during installation. The following examples give typical information about cabling in a data center.

2.1.2.1 Power Cables

• Power distribution units (PDUs) and circuits are associated with the location of a rack, as shown i n 2.1 Rack Installation. Access to PDU cirtcuits should be under or adjacent to labeled floor tiles.

• Power is in a bar (vs power whip) with two rows, one for each PDU.

• Circuit sockets are on the same row as their associated PDU label. Circuit label is either above or below the actual circuit socket.

2.1.2.2 Patch Panel

• Copper harmonica patch panels are labeled under the floor.

• Convention to follow: RED is for network; BLACK is for console.

2.1.2.3 Fiber Connections

• Patch panels for fiber connections are located under the floor tiles and labeled on the ttile or on the patch panels themselves.

• Switch fiber patch panels are on right side of switch location. May need to reverse the fibers at the switch patch panels if you do not have connectivity.

• You will need to connect fiber from switch patch panel over to switches once ports are assigned.

2.1.2.4 Color Conventions

• No drooping cables or fiber. Cables of correct length need to be used in all racking.

• Outside corporate network is purple (most cables on the network rack will be purple because most of our servers are outside).

• Backup is yellow.

• Inside the corporate network is green.

• Network cables can be white or gray between server and below floor cable harmonica and need to be purple in the telecom rack, cat 5e plenum rated.

• Console cables need to be blue for both telecom rack and server to below floor cable harmonica, cat 5e plenum rated.

• All network, console, and fiber cables need to be labeled with cable length in the middle. Server name, Harmonica port, switch name and blade/port info on both ends of network and console connections. Fiber connections need from and to footprint locations, device names, and board/slot info on both ends.