boethius
34687
1214
36
Before we cleaned up our Corporate office's MDF
After we cleaned up the MDF. 300+ ports and several switches swapped and patches re-cabled. A full weekend of work.
daf4ever
Just wait 2 years again and it's back to picture 1
YouCapturedMe
"Jim, does it look like I give a shit. Just plug it in anywhere." Last guys probably.
wisdumbpotato
I'm in the business. I see this all the time.. just lazy
whitter86
Question, because I've never seen it done, wouldn't it be helpful to have some kind of marker on each cable to identify where it's going?
boethius
We've marked some cables that are important uplinks - routers, firewalls, access points - and will be color coding printers and scanners.
Erdan
YOU'RE DOING GOD'S WORK, OP.
boobcat
ok, update us in 6 months
boethius
No kidding. I've already had to go in and clean up about a dozen cables that were done sloppily after this. Turning into a cable nazi.
SmokieMcBongwater
I betcha I could reverse those photos in about an hour *looks at network closet door with evil grin*
MeisPip
sorrynotsorryimnotcanadian
I don't know how my internet works...thanks for making technology werk fur me.
bigglaze
Is that a catalyst 6509?
boethius
Yes. 6509E. And we retained 3 existing Cat 3750s in a Stackwise config as well. 6 or 7 old switches will be recycled.
bigglaze
Ohhhh yes... I've had my fair share of dealing with those... especially when they just blow up.. :) Nice cabling job tho!
southlanding
Love me some Cisco 6500's
DarkaImgur
THAT IS THE WORK OF A GOD!!
hopethisisarelevantname
Or, at least a team of pretty adept network technicians.
FutureHagraven
I legitimately have no idea what's going on in these posts but I have to upvote because they're so nice.
blarglebrle
are the cables color coded based on what they do/connect to?
boethius
Not really though we're going to order some more orange cables to indicate printers and scanners.
Anonynoose
Cut the blue wire!
boethius
Please, don't!
globetrodder
That 6500 looks to be end of life. Time for an upgrade.
boethius
It was all cat 3750, 3560, 2950s before so even an EOL 6509E is a massive improvement. It has a Sup 2T which is the latest and very fast.
globetrodder
Sup2is sweet!
TheTechnique
I've been doing this for 10 years and it still amazes me when I walk into an MDF of a company that has onsite IT and it looks like this.
thoushaltnotpass
Before - After - In two months
QuantumQuirks
What brand cables did you go with?
boethius
Tripp-Lite CAT6
QuantumQuirks
I just ordered all the replacement cables for my rack Friday. Went with Belden from Blue Jean Cables.
GodMonster
I started at a company about 6 months ago and will get to do this soon. They've accumulated about 3 years of rats nest wiring.
MrSuhSpence
@boethius Just curious, how much is the bill for you fixing this?
boethius
We're all salaried employees of the company. Guesstimate relative to avg. hourly * total hours worked maybe $2500.
MrSuhSpence
Well, now I'm glad my network at home has like 5 cables
usernamesmustbeatleastfourcharactersinlength
Where did all the yellow cables go?
boethius
Some were tossed but we retained most. We're expanding into space downstairs in the same building so may use some of them there.
Immagonefishing
As a guy with CCNA and corporate IT networking experience, that first image makes me quake in fear. The last warms my heart.
mfchl88
Immagonefishing
Good lord! That is a disaster waiting to happen.
Captain77
Been there done that. Left that, have not been happier.
boethius
Yea I've been in IT for 20+ years. Definitely not as fond of hardware as I once was but when I started that was all I wanted to do.
boobcat
what is this for?
boethius
Corporate office switch upgrade and long overdue general cable cleanup. Switch upgrade was also to prepare for a SAN move to corporate.
Uskaanax
Your Monday morning may have a few tickets involving network connectivity.
boethius
Oh it did. We had to connect about 20 ports we missed and changed about two dozen VLAN and trunk port assignments for wireless APs.
intenseasthecircus
I don't even care about your gender. Marry me.
LoudAngryJerk
I identify as an apache attack helicopter
JustLoremIpsumFacts
https://media2.giphy.com/media/wOfmYO0pFGpDa/200w.gif
Krympehl
I'm on my way to be in this line of work. Close enough?
Grubbins
True love
RegalJen
I hope it's an attack helicopter
SirFeatherbottom
Finally someone who speaks my language
spacerocks
I care. If that's a man, cool. If it's a woman, name your dowry.
boethius
Heh. 3 guys on the team who worked on this including myself. I'm married and the other 2 are spoken for :)
opcrystal
I would still have loud raunchy sex will all 3 of you
ImmediateHazard
Did you fire the person responsible for the original cabling?
Vincentz
Nah, he got eaten by dinosaurs
FinnishHymn
This result is probably due to the "broken window" paradigm. If not fixed when broken, more are likely to break as no one seems to care.
WayOfTheLethani
Generally in an environment like that, cabling is done over time by multiple techs. Unfortunately, not uncommon to turn out like the first.
lostlittletimeonthis
true, and also the bosses who are in a hurry and just tell you they need that connection working now!
boethius
You got it. The general sloppiness is from us engineers and the help desk both over the years. We're trying to remedy that now.
boethius
Been at the company 5 years and it's been that way the whole time. The original network engineer is long gone.
darthsithh
"engineer"
DiggerPlease
U should bring him back for an interview and wrap him in cables for a weekend
CyanideBreathMint
Was he blind?
apocalyptic0n3
Rehire them so you can fire them.
thatkiwiperson
Almost a BOFH!
boethius
Evil genius!
tehPhreakmang