19. Ethernet Gear - more

A rack like this is really well-suited to adding a lot of heavy things, such as a rack mount server and a rack mount UPS; using guides and a little creative engineering, it will be possible to make it work by supporting the backs of these units so as to not put serious stress on the rack itself.

Rear of rack

The dressing out of the cabling itself was a lot of work. Once the cables were terminated into the back of the patch panels, Doug spent several hours working with the cable and patch cable to get a very organized appearance. While this doesn't improve the performance of the network, it makes everything look more attractive, an improvement over what many people throw together. It is obvious just by looking at the strategy Doug used that he has a lot of experience. Notice how the power cables run down one side and all of the incoming Ethernet come in the other side.

The finished rack

Here is a look at the rack with everything dressed out and ready to go. The wiring has a nice, neat appearance which is as good as many data centers that I have seen. It does take a lot of time to make it look this nice, but the reality is that it is far worth it to have it look this way rather than having cables running every which direction.