Sunday Morning at work and I am in the process of shutting down the entire computer system and network. These opportunities don’t happen too often these days so physical changes to the infrastructure tend to have to wait until moments like these (although they invariably involve me needing to be at the office). Whilst I wait for the last remaining servers to install their updates and shutdown I have a few moments to reflect on the existing network infrastructure setup.

Like possibly many networks, our network was installed many years ago and had to be up and running quickly when the business started and needed to get producing things. Much of the technology which powers the infrastructure has almost completely changed over the last 10 years. Prior to that time wireless was a specialist technology primarily used for creating bridge links between buildings, users rarely connected to the network remotely as they had to use unreliable modems or ISDN connections, and network infrastructure was considered fast if it operated at 100 Mbps. These days we need to provide always-on, near instant access, and a broad range of network coverage in order to provide facilities to the user base. Many users now have potentially broader (and faster) Internet connections than at our head office so keeping up with demand and ensuring every authorised user has an equal bite of the apple constantly keeps me on my toes. Security is also a much wider and key topic than it has ever been in the past.

Our computer room is tiny. Teeny tiny in fact and it now just about houses two 42U cabinets with air conditioning units and all the other bits and pieces that makes a network work. A small computer room means space is at a premium so popping into the computer to make a quick change becomes a long drawn out planned affair which requires being extra careful – accidentally flipping a switch here or pulling a cable their is not unheard of in this environment so visits to the computer room are limited. Budgets are always tight so justifying infrastructure changes is a much harder job than convincing someone we need to spend money on things they can see and touch.

One of the big changes over the last year has been to separate the servers from the wiring cabinet – keeping them in the same cabinet creates a number of difficulties as the wiring cabinet is largely related to user activities such as their thin clients, and the VoIP telephony system so mixing the two adds a layer of complexity that I could really do without. Now we have our new cabinet in the room and the servers in place things should become a lot simpler to manage, especially as the number of physical servers has reduced thanks to virtual server technology.

Some things can make life much easier, things such as KVM switches, labelling up both ends of cables so they are easy to identify, colour coding cables, and labelling up AC adaptors make finding things really simple. Using hook and eye based cable wraps rather than traditional cable ties also allows you to get quicker access to the infrastructure. Also, preplanning the UPS environment also helps greatly. Many of these things have needed to be retro fitted in our computer room as the computer room has evolved over the years and I imagine in 10 years time it will be almost completely different to how it is now.

Everything is shutdown now and the room is quiet, expect a low hum from the air conditioning units.

Related

• Computer Room Regeneration
• Re-Racking out the computer room
• Computer Room Regeneration – Considering the floor
• Server Room: Assembling the Rack Components
• Server Room: Assembling the Rack components part 3