> The customer insists that, in order to have the cabling "neat", > all cables should be "made-to-measure", i.e. cut and made on the spot, > without any excess loops. He even suggested this for power cords! > > My reaction was that this was not worth it: too much trouble and delay, > some cables might not work, they might want to move things, etc. > Am I making excuses to avoid doing work which is normal and expected, > or are my doubts justified ?
Alexios, As someone who really likes to have cabling neat and tidy, my opinion is that this can be accomplished by using various standard lengths of power and network cables without resorting to installation-time customizations. Customization on the fly may lead to network and power flakiness unless each cable and cord is tested at point of installation which will then lead to additional time/cost for the install. In my experience, a lot can be accomplished in terms of tidiness by using shorter cables and power cords without having to customize them to the exact inches required to go from one connection to another. The exact length of the cables and cords that's necessary to achieve this is predicated on where in the rack your power and network drops are. Most of my current $job systems have 3 foot power cords and network cables and that works fairly well due to where the switches and PDUs are located. At other $jobs there have been situations where longer or shorter cables and cords were more appropriate. Another thing to consider is whether these systems will ever need to be pulled out from the rack without disconnecting power or network. In my current environment, I do not allocate additional cord or cable length to facilitate pulling the system out from the rack. This is based on three assumptions. The first is that if the system really needs to be pulled out of the rack, it probably is in a state where power and network are no longer a big issue. The second is that I spec critical systems with dual power supplies so if I need to pull a box out without powering it down, I can always replace the power cords on the fly with longer cords. The third is that a 5-10 second network interruption to put a longer cable in place will probably not negatively affect performance. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but IMHO and IME your customer would be better off going with various standard lengths of cable and cord and a liberal application of Velcro One-Wrap Tape. Random plug for that product from Fastenation (http://www.fastenation.com/class.php?id=1&crumbs=145,269,1) -- have ordered from them many times and always been happy with the delivered product. I tend to go with 3/4" wide because that works well for network cabling and can still be used to tame recalcitrant power cords. HTH, M _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list Tech@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
