A DAY in the LIFE of the DATA CENTRE | FULL CUSTOMER "RACK & STACK" with ASH & JAMES!
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- čas přidán 14. 11. 2019
- Join Ash & James as they "rack & stack" a full rack for a customer at our data centre.
The full shebang (well, nearly): bolting the rails, racking the servers and switches, cabling... enjoy!
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Link to Cable Comb: cablesupply.com/cable-comb-ca... - Věda a technologie
I watched one video that was randomly suggested to me for this channel. I am now 3 hours deep on this channel and I regret nothing.
did that last week. went through all of them then I bought 3 servers.
Haha weak! Same here.
Same here, i work in a small DC and am hooked on this channel
@@MsFxtrdr I bought an entire datacenter just because of this video now I am poor and and have a useless datacenter . Jokeing
@@petermeisenstein3752ohh thank god you were joking, thought u were serious for a second😅
I work as a remote system administrator... Communicating with our server guys is a daily bread for me, but despite my job... I have never been, phyiscally, in a datacenter. And this line of videos is actually a great learning material for me to be able to picture how my colleagues work, what they do, how the general layoug of DC can look like etc... Thank you!
They're so confident in their crimping that they don't even need to test the cables before plugging them in. lol Good work fellas!
The cables bundling is neat and using velcro instead of zip ties is a great idea.
Not only a great idea, it's code for anything cat 6 and up, as the zip ties trend to squish the space between pairs in the cable, which increases crosstalk and reduces heat dispersion.
yes omg I switched to velcro recently and it improved my life so much xD
Anyone that uses cable ties should be shot. Especially anyone that doesn't flush cut them (looks at scars on arms)
Yes, I totally agree. Very neat and tidy, which makes any form of maintenance easy to carry out.
Nice job, you should just buy cables already in the lengths you need. Working in the US Postal Service data center we had cable in .5 foot increments up to 20 feet. You waste a lot of time terminating RJ-45's yourself.
This is probably how Linus thinks his server room looks
It's fun having watched many of Linus' to now see how a server room is supposed to look
This cable managment makes my day better :D
I'm apply for a job to work at a data center because your videos helped validated what I want to do! Thank you so much! Interview this week!
Once you've determined the first cable length, it makes more sense to go back to the office sit in a nice chair, put on some music and make the rest of the cables. On nice days, I even go outside and catch some sun while making cables. And leave a decent sized service loop!
That's pretty much exactly what I do, just sit at my desk with a box of cable and terminate and test. That feeling you get when the tester is like bink, bink, bink, bink, bink, bink, bink, bink. Feels so good. The worst is when it's the eighth wire and instead of bink it's bork! Ugh lol.
Wire management is fucking orgasmic. Nothing better than seeing some properly managed cables!!!!!!!!!!
Networking engineer's ASMR :)
Nice trip down the data centre alley..thanks
That cabling at the end is so calming.
Your comms cabinets fill me with joy. I've been to some clients whose cabinets...well....you know.
You cut the cables to the exact length to reach the server ports when racked. Presumably, you plan to tuck-in the power cables just as neatly. Looks beautiful, but...
How are you going to slide a server out on the rails now? Must the customer have a unit down, just because a redundant, hot-swap fan needs replacing?
You need some cable-management arms on the back to get the best of both worlds: no hanging, slack cables *and* on-line servers still able to slide out.
honestly ive used tons of different systems and I have yet to find one I like for copper, particularly in the type of racks in the video. In fact the only one I think works as intended are the big fibre managers. The rest are frustrating to deal with for repairs or decommissions.
Great job! One suggestion for you from my bag of tricks. Once you measure out the length from the loom to the server, cut a "reference" length of cable from the box the same length. Now you have a measuring stick so to speak to cut the other sever cables the exact same length exiting the loom. Then the install will then look very neat.
wow the final part is SO RELAXING!!!
Thank you so much for providing us such high quality and real time information.
Man, after all of that cable management, if you make a mistake on terminating a cable on the server side, you would have to pull out that cable from the bundle. But, your expertise is paying off. Hats off. Shows how well you actually perform your skillset.
Dude exactly. All that cable mgmt and then you terminate without testing? Yikes if a cable is improperly terminated.....no labeling either. Still a very cool video tho.
Omg that cable job is so neat
Looks amazing, you guys did a really good job with that...
Great channel.... I spend a few days in a month in a datacenter tending to my servers. Neat to see a channel dedicated to this. Wish more US providers had a channel like this. Thanks CZcams recommendations !!!
Good video guys i have racked and design data centers for 40 years i love it keeping things neat and airflow correct. i have walked into data centers that were a total mess. the cage clips there is also the tool you can use to clip in the clips save your fingers and yes it hurts when it slips. Data Centers is my passion.
I love the Internet. Thank you for making it.
They didn’t make it. They’re it’s bodyguards
Great work guys, nice and neat and well explained, looking forward to your next video.
Amazing work! James is a real PRO! Keep going!
Everything ins there is focus on the wires of the cables, you know the color and u can easy know lots of stuff about it.
nice manage.
I didn't see you test the patch cables. Not even a continuity test. That's confidence for you.
Very well explained.... did not over do...It was great.. I absolutely love this channel.
Congratulations on the quality of the video, the organization of the utp cables was awesome.
Cablegasm... once I will get my collogues to do so as well... dreaming is allowed 👌
excellent work
That was a great video. That helped me out at lot. My more experienced partner and I just got our New Data Center yesterday.
Beautiful cable management!
That is some beautiful cable management
I'm network engineer in Italy, I have sometime done this kind of job , well done guys!
Thank you for your service! I hope you are well paid! :)
not just professional but craftsmen. Very nice
Woow.. great cable management.. so neat and organized.
Exellent job. I have done this kind of job and it's not so easy these guys makes it look like. It's very time consuming, mainly the labelling of the patch cords.
Super interesting!!! Thanks for the video.
Very clean build, looks great!
Every crimped cable should be tested with a cable certifier.
Great tip! Agreed.
This! I was like wait you aren't going to do all the cable management and then test are you....oh no....
Thx guys super awesome!!!!
You have no idea how long i've been going through youtube trying to find a video like this.. finally ! Someone who gets to the point. Great vid !!!
you should look up fiberninja ;)
That's some very nice cable management there. Nice work!
I am doing similiar work but i cannot imagine something like crimping patch-cords on place and use it without any analysis or measurement by testing tools.
Welcome to paid-by-the-hour remote hands service. I agree though, you can buy patch cables from most decent places in approx. 4U increments. Also, you have to disconnect these wires to pull out the server and they had a ton of waste, with CAT6/7, that adds up quick. I'd leave at least the depth of the server in slack so you can pull it out, swap RAM etc
I personally like to keep power cords on one side and network on the other, it seems they went with all wiring on the same side. Do like the loom tool though, may want to invest in one of those.
@@GuruEvi he actually examined why he put network cable on same side as power. There will be fiber too and he wants fiber and coper separated.
You guys do an amazing job, such a credit to your company. I have managed larger DC's and wish I had you guys working for me..
I’m applying for an integration data center tech and tack and stack is one of the requirements. It’s been 20yrs since I’ve done this and this video was a wonderful refresher
Great content guys. Thank you
Now that is the proper way to route cables. I hate the spaghetti messes I've seen in some server situations
All I can think of is W/Orange, Orange, W/Green, Blue, W/blue, Green, W/Brown, Brown
Okay now do 568A. No cheating...
@@user-rr3fo6hy9qW/Green, Green, W/Orange, Blue, W/Blue, Orange, W/Brown, Brown
@@user-rr3fo6hy9q Haven't used 568A in 20 years.
Your videos are brilliant! Thanks for the hands on insights!
Props on the good work, I really like seeing how this is being done in a big Datacenter, being an IT for small companies that usually only have a server and couple of switches.
Underappreciated work that keeps the world turning... Good job... I hope the camera person swiped in as well, we need to stay compliant lads.
Thought the same thing. Security studies kicked in there
My last job several of us had access to the DC but if a group needed to go in one person would swipe and then we'd all go in. I guess if the cameras went down for some reason and there was an incident then I could see why it's important every single person swiped. Is that what you were getting at?
You didn’t allow for the rack being pulled out and still be connected to the switch... they can’t pull out and upgrade the rack while connected ;(
What’s the point on having the rails if you can’t pull them out without pulling out the Ethernet cables?
I think the rails are still there for ease of maintenance. I mean depending on the server type things that you can hot-plug like e.g. disks are often accessible from the front or back directly. All other parts you typically cannot maintain while the machine is online anyway. So you'd plug out electricity and ethernet and then start to replace/add components to the server. However you can still do this without completely taking the server out of the rack. Just pull it out the server on the rail, open the chassis and replace the parts.
During maintenances we often need to power down entire machine to open box and do whatever is needed. I liked their job leaving the cables as it is is much better for air flow and less visual noise
@@areyounow_2023 visual but not practical and if you need to shut down an entire production rack to work on 1 server you’re doing it wrong 100%.
@@CustomComputing I understand your pov
@@CustomComputing If you don't have redundancy so you can power down a device and do maintenance you are doing it wrong 100%. What happens when a device fails during production hours or you have to do troubleshooting/maintenance? Sure you can do it after hours but some customers work 24x7. So you better have redundancy.
Awesome job fellas.
Subscribed just like a thank you for your hard work guys !
Unsung heroes of today !
two questions:
don't you need to test those cables?
can you still pull out the servers from the front if the cables are run so neatly?
No they can't. They are going to have to unplug the server to pull it out. If a fan fails the server has to be unplugged, which is no big deal if you have high availability and replication... but its not ideal.
Clearly no cable testing being done before installation, nothing like trying to find a faulty cable later and having to pull apart that loom again 🙁 Do it properly the first time!
Rails with cable management arms are great for keeping the cables super neat and enabling the server to be slid out. A cable tester could have been used and not added much time, but been another report for the customer to see (a quality tester will be able to have a report per cable). Something like a fluke link runner (I use an AT2000) will do this while one end is plugged into a switch. Qualifying it for gig speed.
@@anthonypolsinelli1179 On the other hand cable management arms can impede airflow quite a lot. I'm currently in the process of removing all the arms from a 5-rack HPC. It's a pain, but in this case the arms are quite full (redundant power + redundant network + redundant Infiniband + IPMI = 7 cables per 1U), and the machines do really run several degrees cooler without them - which means they will run at higher clocks.
I'd recommend arms only for 2U+ servers.
they probably tested the cables off camera, thos it's weird they didn't mentioned it..
I work as an DC technician and what I've seen of your videos, you have quite a nice DC I'd must say, but I do have a question tough.
How do you connect your PDU's in the racks? Do you have your electric rails underneath the floor?
Well done with the cabling lads. =)
Thanks a lot Ash and James this is very good video. I subscribed the channel with bell. I never seen datacenter and first time I can see how they look like in real world. You guys are doing great work kudos and keep it up
I used to spend a good deal of time combining cables to look pretty. Then someone much higher up the food chain pointed out that this encouraged crosstalk and noise on the cables. Now I leave them tangled and use nylon sock to tidy up.
Looks amazing!! Just one little doubt... you don't check the crimped cables before connecting them??!?!?!
I didn't see a NetScout either...
You didn't leave slack to pull out the servers for servicing
Yeah that's what I noticed as well.
@@MrMrRubic it's pointless, costly extra cable lengths just to avoid unplugging a couple of cables in order to slide it fully out? Most don't bother with cable slack and concertina arms these days. You've got to power the thing down to do most maintenance tasks anyway so no need to keep the cables plugged in.
New fav channel. Interesting stuff!!
very nicely done cable management ❤❤
love that looming tool, I used to have to wire up cabinets by hand. However speaking as a server engineer wiring up this way means everything has to be unplugged if you want to pull the server out for any kind of servicing and testing means plugging in extra fly leads power leads etc... a real pain
yeah I've learned to always keep enough slack for that. Fiberninja is a really good channel to watch too :)
always keep a service loop less downtime
Gr8 vid, only one qualm if anything. The cables that are crimped, unless I missed it, didn't look like they were tested and certified as you made them by hand.
But a splendid approach.
Damn that level of cable management! I need this for my personal computer desk ngl
Love the video your cable routing is on point
Not leaving slack to pull the server out on it's rails bugs the hell out of me. When installing servers I build a whip with all the power and network cables in a mesh sleeve to the server coiled up so it retracts with the server being pulled out on it's rails.
I agree with you but I think in a Datacenter that doesn't apply really. First of all let's agree on the fact that a server in a DC has to have an uptime of 100% (except of course for the be weekly windows update or some patching that requires a reboot, or maybe a dedicated software that has some issues).
Then, if you don't have any connectivity and you need to have access to a serveur, you can go plug yourself on the back or if there's a KVM you can use it too.
So beside that, the only time you will pull those servers is in an EOF cycle.
Also, if you suggest a hardware issue, the "most common" issue is regarding the SSD/Hardrive having an issue or a raid controller having an issue, in those cases, no need to pull the server you can hot swap those)
Remember that those servers are top of the line servers (full RAM, bi processor, dual power supply etc).
I've honestly never seen a top of the line server have a critical hardware issue and it's even true in the recent years.
That's what I think, thanks for your comment.
@@Loutripe most common issue we have is having a "RAM Error" which can be remedied either by popping all the dimms out and pushing them back in, or if that doesn't work then replacing one. The other thing we find ourselves doing is changing pci-e cards for NIC upgrade or downgrade to 10GE or 100GE. Servers get repurposed a lot around here so the 100% uptime comes from migrating VMs around. But dealing with bare metal at the Colo really sucks if you can't slide the box out on it's rails.
personally i would zip tie the power cables to the server as possible, way too many accidents with power when doing repairs otherwise
Apparently nobody here has heard of redundancy. You should have that in place so even during production hours you can shut it down and do maintenance without disrupting end user experience.
this is funny, in my data center our management buys a ready made cables already of different length. In my opinion I don't think you really need to do that crimping anymore now a days, maybe if its your own lab at home like mine its fine.
Especially since they are using cat5. Alot of data centers use cat6 minimum with already made cables. Only did crimping in college and home use haha
Taking up way to much unnecessary time?
So for my little (~1000 node) network we buy pre patched too, but running exact length is by far cleaner. If we werent shutting down this network I would have insisted we cutover to manual and align with the rest of the company standards. The other issue I have with prefab is when the server guys run cables and they pick up a 20 ft instead of the 15 ft they needed. Especially with big builds space is at a premium. And decommissioning becomes a nightmare. But for small enterprises with a dozen servers than yea dont waste time patching. Just depends
Making the cables is going the extra-mile. I have to respect you for that.
soul crushing work
nicely done but i would have gone with premade cables, you can find every size you need and use some cable management arms. i can make cables with little to no errors but crimping 20+ of them just seems like a waste of time since premade aren't that expensive. also don't cut the cables exactly in size leave a bit of slack in case one fails and you need to re-crimp it. your way looks cleaner but you can't remove a server without unpluging it, maybe that's a concern down the road. and of course velcro is a must to use.
Wouldn't that cause inacurrencies in length though? Not to mention the economics of what is actually needed would be bad because a cable may be a tad longer then what's needed. Therefore a little money wasted?
@@travisnelson9104 cable arms are used to tidy up different length cables no big deal, it's used everywhere. yes premade will be more expensive but given the fact that you have to do a lot of crimping (fill a rack), the time needed usually costs more in the long run.
25-50 cm pre-made cables are cheaper than 2 rj45 connector...
As a fellow NOC Engineer, I genuinely enjoy these videos. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this channel.
Nice, clean work. Greetings from Germany. Admins United! ✊️
Thanks for the information. Very informative.
Im telcom so I really don't deal with much cta5 or 6 anymore. Its mostly all fiber. But ill tell ya something. Those cable combs (mine were made by PairGain) are such a nice tool even with fibers to keep it all clean and neat looking,. Nice Job.
I think that Cat6 is ok, but Cat5e not anymore. So i think that they are ok with it
@@eoeoeovideos 5e is ok for short runs, say from a PC to a wall jack, or for patch panel cables. Anything longer I'd use 6 or above.
Aren't the network cables too short? Can they still pull out the servers?
Very nice work.
Good cable management. Loved it. The servers I've seen are cable nightmares .
Thats what you get when you use in all these pre-term cables and service loops everyone else here is insisting is necessary. Giant pile of spaghetti mess.
Question: If you have to pull out the frame without disconnect the cable or you want to change a connector how you do that? You have to leave a service loop! Bundling cable is not that hard you just need some practice.
Harry potter came to setup a server for hogwarts...
Nice one, structured way of working
Great video, super helpful!
Crimping cable without running cable test, brave lads
Same sentiments lol and how will they be able to get an inventory of the port assignment from those wire without any signs/tagging
@@bonsky899 presumably from LLDP
@@donutchucka8275 Yeah, we just buy pre-made the tiny amount more mess because of not having perfect length cables is worth it
how can you use the hand-made cables directly without testing them first?
experience
no wast time hehe
Awesome video guys!
please keep making these video series. Its the only thing Im interested in on youtube and theres such a lack of content for network engineering stuff
I crimped hundreds of cables, in the wild.
But in a DC: in my opinion a no-go.
No quality assurance, even not a good idea with a Fluke tester, very expensive manual labor and you can redo your work when replacing the server in a couple of years for whatever reason.
So, my preference: a longer stock cable with a loop.
Agreed. I was very surprised they didnt at least put a tester on each cable. Anytime i make a cable, i always throw a tester on it.
@@Bob-TheTechGuy eee, managed switch shows you if its gbps duplex capable, or you just floodping or run test on each machine for some time. these guys look like they know what theyre doing. i also met shitload of out-of-box not working cables
This is insane to me. My last job we did all the cable runs, termination, and testing ourselves. We rarely hired vendors for cabling and never bought cable to the exact length. Terminating your own cable and testing it is a standard task for any network engineer. Plus it makes the cable management look way better. But hey to each their own I suppose.
God I never thought I would really love cable porn. Thanks guys your awsome!!! Also got a job because I watched your videos and knew a thing or two about DC
I really think this is a great video I want to get in the NOC as a job thought bites are difficult I am ready!
I am working on installing servers in a rack and your cabling technique will come in handy. Would love to see how you manage the power cables.
Would love to see how u deal with power cables
Never clicked on a notification so fast.
I wish I could share videos and photos from inside a facebook data center on how this is done, as well as all the fiber dressing. everything is pinstriped, and perfectly measured including the fiber cables.
nice jobs, guys : ) thanks for the videos
Very neat and clean install! Makes me want to start re-wiring and re-dressing the cables in my racks at work.
I did notice, however, that you didn’t leave enough cable in the back to completely slide the server completely forward on the rails while it’s in service. When I do a rack I always factor-in the need to change a fan or add/change an internal component at some point in its lifetime and wire it so I can pull it out while it’s still running. That’s one thing I like about Dell EMC-they actually have n arm that attaches to the back of the rail that’ll hold the cables and ensure that you can do that.
Just food for thought!! Again, very nice install!
Yeah, it looks nice, no doubt... but what's the point of mounting servers on rails when you only leave 7 cm of slack on the cables anyway? .... There's no problem in having more slack on the cables and be able to pull out the rails at the same time....
excatly what i thought haha, maybe the servers will only be slid out when everything is disconnected
That only makes since when you either have hotswap parts or have little to no redundancy. If you need to service the server, it's always better to do so turned off. That means having redundancy and migrate the cluster before you pull the server. Even with hotswap parts, bad things can happen while the server is running. We have a few hotswap servers at work but we've not done part swaps for over a decade now. We always service them turned off.
@@quilnux Yerp. About the only parts we will hotswap are power supplies and perhaps fan modules if they are accessible from the outside. Otherwise shut the machine down and work on it powered off.
@@quilnux Thank you! Apparently nobody in this thread except you two have heard about redundancy. Now if you're a smaller business and can't afford it I understand but this place doesn't seem to have that issue. That's why the cable labeling is so important so they can plug it all back in to the correct ports when they're done with maintenance.
I applied for a position data centre trainee and I think this is part of the job. Am I right? thanks. Great video
Ahahhh sneaky I like that wire loom trick you did with the plastic bit. I always wondered how some data centers got their cables to nice and tidy. Beautiful work guys. I cant wait for the next video!
Most of the time it's simply added effort. The cone makes it much easier.
Start at one end and work your way down. I was taught at like 18yrs old with power wires
well organised mate.