Tracking all of the cabling inside your data center…that sounds like fun, right? Yeah, right, you’re thinking.
I get it.
The truth is: IT documentation always seems to take a back seat until something happens (like an outage, or data center planning, and/or capacity planning).
Why is it important to see how many ports are used; how many are reserved for future use, and know how many are free? How does knowing how the cables are connected help you?
As you may already know (and all too well), poor cable management can lead to several inefficiencies that directly affect the bottom line: slower troubleshooting because circuits cannot be properly traced, stranded ports and subcomponents due to partial decommissioning of fiber connectivity!
Inefficiencies happen — especially when you’re trying to manage an evolving ecosystem like a data center. Consider what can happen when you decommission a device:
- Are some of the cables connected to one piece of equipment but not connected to another device?
- If you decommission a device, when your team’s unplugging all of the cables in the ports, did they make sure to disconnect the port from your switch or patch panel?
Cabling inside your data center can stem anywhere from your fiber cable and its strands, copper, cable tray management and power cables.
Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions, like our software netTerrain DCIM, can help you tackle untangling your spaghetti mess. A lot of folks think DCIM solely focuses on managing power and equipment inside the racks —and yes it does, but some solutions also encompass your cabling.
If managing your cabling would help make life easier at your organization. put that down on your DCIM wish-list when you’re talking with potential DCIM vendors.
As DCIM solutions are all quite different (so we can only discuss our software netTerrain DCIM), but, with netTerrain, your cables can be viewed at any level, including: port, card, device backplane, rack, and floor plan. netTerrain tracks fibers from the switch to the patch panel – and any hop in between!
With netTerrain’ s circuit layout record feature, you can even view the end-to-end connectivity view of each fiber strand or copper cable. Fiber strands can be associated with fiber trunks and conduits; cables can be routed in a precise fashion and at any level.
Example of a Circuit Layout Record in netTerrain DCIM
With netTerrain’s cabling management features, which are included out-of-the-box, organizations can:
- Document network cabling from port to patch panel, from patch panel to device
- Matching cable type and network connector when configuring connections
- Track of cable pathways through multiple hops
- Track power cabling from source, public utility or generator, to/from ATS, UPS, PDU, RPP, breaker, and power strip
- Show device connectivity from ports to ports
- Create work orders tasks to properly document changes to the data center or connect netTerrain through an existing services desk, like ServiceNow CMDB
With netTerrain, you can even document the cables outside of your your data centers such as your telecom closets, office floor space to show phones, printers, workstations, wall jacks, and even the outside plant (OSP), tracing and tracking fiber end-to-end.
Having an effective cable management system is a very important aspect when looking into a DCIM solution to solve your organization’s data center headaches. Even if it’s not something you necessarily feel you need right now, if you think you may need the ability to manage your data center’s cabling in the future, you probably don’t want to purchase a DCIM tool that won’t give you that ability when you need it.
If you think you need DCIM that offers cabling management, here’s our shameless self-promotion: netTerrain includes robust cabling management features and is one of the reasons some of our customers choose netTerrain as their DCIM solution. If you’d like to test-drive netTerrain for free, or have questions, click here to get started.