Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
Cabling As Art
royal.pingdom.com — The most beautifully cabled servers.
jakv5- 2881 diggs
- digg it
- ivoices, on 01/25/2008, -5/+61Beautiful.
- wiifm69, on 01/25/2008, -0/+32god bless cable ties
- aliengoods, on 01/25/2008, -0/+63God bless racks
(the ones used for cables are great too) - limpits, on 01/25/2008, -3/+1Sorry but some of those have way too many cable ties. Once you get to a certain point it is just overkill and it causes more of a hassle for you when you have to change the cabling.
Looks nice, but some of those are failures in my book.
- aliengoods, on 01/25/2008, -0/+63God bless racks
- quomen, on 01/25/2008, -2/+16Sorry for the hijack but just in case it's down for people.
(this is the non-blog spam gallery)
http://nw1.gmotion.us/gallery/albums.php - Spuy767, on 01/25/2008, -5/+5YOu should see some of the servers I used to wire. We would run appications that were extremely latency intensive, so each cable needed to be exactly the same length. When it was done, al of the loops would look rather inspiring.
- brownspank, on 01/26/2008, -0/+1You should provide pictures to avoid getting dugg down.
- blackmage439, on 01/25/2008, -1/+14I promised myself I wouldn't cry...
On the other hand, it may look nice, but just try and replace a bad cable with a setup like that. Trust me, what may appear to be chaos in a disastrously unorganized telcom closet is actually the easiest to deal with. It's much more difficult to bring order back to chaos once you unbundle those wires...- diggduggjoe, on 01/25/2008, -1/+5I practically creamed myself. Those pure lines are beautiful. However, like every virgin, it will have its cherry popped and eventually become messier. Hopefully, may the cables be true and alterations few.
I remember the worse installation I ever saw. It was a school done by the principal. He just strung long cables and had them drop out of the ceiling where he removed the ceiling tile. They just fell to the floor and ran up to the hubs on the floor near the sever. Yes, they had hubs and they had more than three hops so many systems were barely working, if at all.
The guy we had come in from our top notch cabling company literally gasped. He had to hold back the laughter. It was great after the upgrade, but I would hate to see it today, over ten years later.
- diggduggjoe, on 01/25/2008, -1/+5I practically creamed myself. Those pure lines are beautiful. However, like every virgin, it will have its cherry popped and eventually become messier. Hopefully, may the cables be true and alterations few.
- jakethecake, on 01/25/2008, -1/+3"quomen"; that's not a mirror, it's just a gallery from one of the companies featured.
- jlmillstein, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1only on digg...
- wiifm69, on 01/25/2008, -0/+32god bless cable ties
- Annesgreat, on 01/25/2008, -0/+85Wow, I'm a cable organization amateur, but now I see what the future could hold...
- socalrob, on 01/25/2008, -0/+29It's all about the velcro cable holders rather than the traditional Nylon Zip Ties. I saw a few of the setups used them in those pics. It's much easier to replace cables with those. I learned that working for a month in a San Francisco law office doing IT work. They were wiring up a new office, and as new people came in they had to add new IP phones and computers etc... Velcro... an old invention helping the future become clutter free.
- Spuy767, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2I used to run a single strand of wire rope along the path that the wires needed to take, then I'd glue a Cord-Lox velcro tie to the wire rope.
- ayeroxor, on 01/25/2008, -1/+3Wish I could digg you up 20 times! Velcro tape is THE BEST!!!!!
- NinjaBoy, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2Agreed. I ***** HATE zip ties
- socalrob, on 01/25/2008, -0/+29It's all about the velcro cable holders rather than the traditional Nylon Zip Ties. I saw a few of the setups used them in those pics. It's much easier to replace cables with those. I learned that working for a month in a San Francisco law office doing IT work. They were wiring up a new office, and as new people came in they had to add new IP phones and computers etc... Velcro... an old invention helping the future become clutter free.
- mister711, on 01/25/2008, -3/+199It will get messed up in a few weeks. Always does.
- darkcthulhu, on 01/25/2008, -0/+10Yeah when they have to remove one cable.
- woohhaa, on 01/25/2008, -0/+12Yea the first time someone adds a cable and says "Eh I'll organize them later."
- serkia, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2thats why you plan this doens't just show someone's ability to put cables together, it also shows that they can plan out the structure of the servers
- Fernandou, on 01/25/2008, -3/+65Neat
- Dokument, on 01/25/2008, -2/+22I see what you did there.
- Dokument, on 01/25/2008, -0/+39OCD geek art. My favorite : )
- cphelps, on 01/25/2008, -1/+6If they were truly OCD they would have used cable ties that were the same color as the cable.
Amateurs /s
- cphelps, on 01/25/2008, -1/+6If they were truly OCD they would have used cable ties that were the same color as the cable.
- JDOG, on 01/25/2008, -2/+174Putting the meow back in CAT5.
- negative3, on 01/25/2008, -10/+3No seriously. I tried to straighten out a mess once but it was too hard. Stan ended up doing it. He didn't even know anything about computers, but he was old and gay.
- Error601, on 01/25/2008, -0/+48I've done all kinds of pretty cabling installing systems. And then a year later you have to swap out hardware and it all gets screwed up.
- skyroket, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1Agreed. You can make the finest cable management setup in the world, and you'll be cursing yourself because of it later.
- Lenny, on 01/25/2008, -0/+6Inspiring.
- Falldog, on 01/25/2008, -0/+9You know, if customers would take the time to actually cable this cleanly, then maintain that for the life of the hardware, my life would be so much easier.
- quomen, on 01/25/2008, -4/+39Anyone remember this?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3245199407 ...- jtorkbob, on 01/25/2008, -0/+6Interesting, hadn't heard of it. Seems it has since dropped to #47.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_X_%28computing ... - Spuy767, on 01/25/2008, -0/+4That was the original model. They updated it a little later to 1200 XServes.
- computergod, on 01/25/2008, -0/+610 Teraflops got you top 3 back then eh?
The current highest is 596 TFlops.
http://www.top500.org/list/2007/11/100
Used to make more efficient nuclear weapons.- Nth3nSum, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5Looks like Virginia tech is now listed as 108th instead of 3rd in 2003 ...talk about shrinkage for your e-pnis
- bxblox, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1At that cost though they could make it better... assuming they have a football field size warehouse to store all those G5's of course
- Nth3nSum, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5Looks like Virginia tech is now listed as 108th instead of 3rd in 2003 ...talk about shrinkage for your e-pnis
- duke, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3What did he say was used to connect them? N3 Band?? Entry Band?
I replayed several times, but I could not understand his accent.- HalFTW, on 01/25/2008, -0/+10InfiniBand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InfiniBand
- gak001, on 01/25/2008, -0/+14A Mac Fanboy's wet dream.
- BasicShape, on 01/25/2008, -1/+2I came twice
- frenchi, on 01/25/2008, -0/+12That indian guy has a mullet.
- phre3k187, on 01/25/2008, -1/+8YOU KICK MY DOG
- dcbebop, on 01/26/2008, -0/+2Worked on it. What a task. Course I didn't get to do cabling, I removed G5's from boxes, installed cards and verified they booted. I'm sure I contributed a bunch :)
But hey, I got a tshirt: "My other computer is an 1100-node G5 cluster"
- jtorkbob, on 01/25/2008, -0/+6Interesting, hadn't heard of it. Seems it has since dropped to #47.
- doublsh0t, on 01/25/2008, -1/+10they're the Michaelangelos of nerds
- mooseontheloose, on 01/25/2008, -1/+53I guess this would be Jackson Pollock: http://tinyurl.com/2yax8u (no rickroll)
- Vorin, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3more like Edvard Munch
That's nightmarish - ChokingVictims, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3I clicked it its ok, but when you say no rickroll I get suspicious
- Vorin, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3more like Edvard Munch
- ienjoythebeach, on 01/25/2008, -4/+1neat?
- icemanoffire, on 01/25/2008, -3/+2can they do the Mona Lisa
- msaleem, on 01/25/2008, -3/+6This is great. I've seen so many messes that this is a refreshing change. Beautifully done.
- DarkSamus, on 01/25/2008, -8/+2who told you you could make a comment?
go spew your ***** on stumble
- DarkSamus, on 01/25/2008, -8/+2who told you you could make a comment?
- chrisbosh123, on 01/25/2008, -1/+6This one actually looks like a spinal cord... awesome!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2316/2216487046_b7c ...- ElectroBot, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3You mean your rib cage.
- 10goto10, on 01/25/2008, -2/+23This is like Japanese rope bondage, except with servers instead of women. I think I have myself a new fetish.
- SaxxonPike, on 01/25/2008, -0/+4The orange-cable one almost looks like it WANTS to be a desktop picture.
- cococooky, on 01/25/2008, -0/+40When I worked for the government as an apprentice electrician, I was asked to wire up a fiber optic sign (they hang over freeways here in Australia) I had come from the traffic signal division, where we worked with Phillips and AWA Traffic Controllers that were always neat like the photos you see here. So I wired up this sign all neat and organized - as it should be.
It took me about 4 days, whereas the other apprentice did 2 in that time - and they both looked like birds nests. My supervisor told me I would never make it as a contractor, but it was my sign that was photographed and showcased.
I am now a successful contractor, so he was dead wrong about that.- chingy1788, on 01/25/2008, -1/+7My friend works as an electrical engineer for Energy Australia, I look into his computer system, its just a mess of cables...
- slapded, on 01/25/2008, -2/+3im a fan of birds nests
- chingy1788, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2not only cable management looks good inside a case but it allows good airflow
- TnTBass, on 01/25/2008, -0/+4Take the time to do it right the first time saves countless hours in the future fixing issues arising from half-assing your work.
Want to come in and re-cable the servers/network rats nest I walked into when I started my job? - UnstableMind, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2Exactly, as an engineer at a large hospital, the guys I worked with were all half-assed and didn't give a damn. I'm the only one who ever ordered the cable management stuff to go along w/cabinets. I dreaded when they racked servers, If I had time, I'd go behind them and redo it all, pissed 'em off all the time, but I had to support the ***** and I sure as hell wasn't going to spend half an hour finding what switch it was plugged into. Only downside is, once you replaced or moved a box, that cable ***** had to be completely re-done. We went from Dell to IBM on some servers and the power (and KVM) was opposite, so that screwed some ***** up and I took flak for it. I told 'em to ***** off though.
- chingy1788, on 01/25/2008, -1/+7My friend works as an electrical engineer for Energy Australia, I look into his computer system, its just a mess of cables...
- DonJohnTom, on 01/25/2008, -5/+2its so...........neat
- Berkana, on 01/25/2008, -1/+21This one looks cooler: the Barcelona Super Computing Center:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/heavy-metal/marenostrum ... - Emused, on 01/25/2008, -0/+15I guess you would classify my punch down closet as abstract art.
- cannonballtrane, on 01/25/2008, -9/+5Bah, that's nothing. I personally lay the Mona Lisa of all cables every morning before going to work....
- unabonger, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1down :(
- BDOUG, on 01/25/2008, -1/+2Server go bye bye :(
- wolfzombie, on 01/25/2008, -5/+2Animal go bye bye!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKWDe72VN78
- wolfzombie, on 01/25/2008, -5/+2Animal go bye bye!
- acatzr800, on 01/25/2008, -3/+62Zip ties are a bad idea. Besides being one-use, you run the risk of squeezing the life out of the cables if they're too tight and when it comes time to clip them, its easy to get a cable in the process. Velcro cable ties ftw
- K4Lic0, on 01/25/2008, -0/+13Very true. I work in pro audio and rebuilt a system a few months ago. The previous person used zip ties for all the cabling. The worst is when you have to replace ONE cable and the rest are fine.
- Morticae, on 01/25/2008, -3/+1a) These racks are probably not going anywhere for a long long time.
b) Whoever installed these knew that, knew what they were doing, and certainly knew not to over-tighten the zip ties. These things are not as sensitive as everyone seems to think... you have to really over-torque it to pinch a cable off like that.
- Morticae, on 01/25/2008, -3/+1a) These racks are probably not going anywhere for a long long time.
- HalFTW, on 01/25/2008, -2/+6Many zip ties can be unfastened and reused. Just use something small and pointy to lift the locking tooth thing away from the grooved side of the tie and it will pull right off.
- cphelps, on 01/25/2008, -0/+11Velcro is still easier :)
- K4Lic0, on 01/25/2008, -0/+13Very true. I work in pro audio and rebuilt a system a few months ago. The previous person used zip ties for all the cabling. The worst is when you have to replace ONE cable and the rest are fine.
- masonreloaded, on 01/25/2008, -0/+9Duggmirror caught it: http://duggmirror.com/design/Cabling_As_Art/
- columb, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3Mirror: (google cache)
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:jyq7JRYSJJIJ: ... - kicken18, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1Got to be electronic patch panels, since those baby's just are not moving
- cardyology, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2Oh the organization! The neatness! The symmetry!
So aesthetically pleasing! - kbull, on 01/25/2008, -0/+4A thing of beauty and the way things should look if you do it correctly from the start. Still, I'd like to see the front side of those patch panels, because I guarantee they are nowhere near as organized!
- Jewbacca311, on 01/25/2008, -1/+6Meh... not enough tentacle pr0niness for my liking
- tian2992, on 01/25/2008, -0/+4OMFG, those cables are raping the servers!
- kurfu, on 01/25/2008, -0/+7Those are pretty.... but... what happens when one needs to make a change for some reason? (defective port, troubleshooting, whatever...) There is zero slack in any of those cables.
- drgruney, on 01/25/2008, -1/+1Then you replace a cable... it's not hard when they are organized and kept orderly.
- marcusone, on 01/25/2008, -5/+0I bet some of these data centers have issues with packet loss... too many cables tightly bundled can create a large enough magnetic field to interfere with transmission. or so I have heard ;) Perhaps I just like this story since I don't have the patiences (or need) to be that neat :)
- ChaosProfessor, on 01/25/2008, -2/+3if they cared they would use plenum that would stop that
- radioshack7, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3Plenum does nothing different from CAT5 to stop EMI. The jacket material is different, other than that, the are identical.
- kurfu, on 01/25/2008, -0/+7The whole point of "cat-5" cable is to limit this crosstalk by induction that you are referring to. Inside the sleeve are 4 pairs of wires, each pair is tightly twisted together to dampen the magnetic field created by the flow of current through the wire, this limiting signal induced into neighboring wires.
- ChaosProfessor, on 01/25/2008, -2/+3if they cared they would use plenum that would stop that
- Torx, on 01/25/2008, -0/+20an investment of plastic ties (color matching), and velcro ties can go a long way.
there should be a class for cable management in any IT curriculum. - Punisher2K, on 01/25/2008, -11/+1Does it make it run faster? If not, meh.
- dac74, on 01/25/2008, -1/+3ummm - not really the point....but okay, what ever.
- arcanesmile, on 01/25/2008, -12/+2keeping ***** organized =/= art.
kthnxfailbye. - bentman78, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3I work in a data center. This is artwork...I've worked in some pretty messy ones.
- techwrekfix, on 01/25/2008, -0/+8I need to go now. I have a lot of work to do in my data center. A lot of work.
- borez, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2 hope you used re-usable cable ties lads?
- lsatkins, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2The best is the old school telco guys that still use the wax wire when working with cables. I always thought it looked cool the way they would loop and tie knots in it.
- kurfu, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2It's not "wire," it's wax-coated string... It leaves your hands feeling pretty nasty after you use it...
- diggsmitty, on 01/25/2008, -0/+0I suspect that wax string is a hustle to keep former AT&T union guys employed. It looks great until you need to replace a cable, or move servers around.
- NetJoe, on 01/26/2008, -0/+3aircraft still use that, they pretty much ignore vibration.
- reddikilowatt, on 01/27/2008, -0/+3nasa actually has well defined standards for wire lacing and cable construction.
http://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20books/lin ...
- reddikilowatt, on 01/27/2008, -0/+3nasa actually has well defined standards for wire lacing and cable construction.
- kurfu, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2It's not "wire," it's wax-coated string... It leaves your hands feeling pretty nasty after you use it...
- HazmansDadda, on 01/25/2008, -1/+1I am stunned. Our IT guys are pigs man
- MrViklund, on 01/25/2008, -1/+1Wonderful.
The problems starts when you have to change equipments and cables :/- reddikilowatt, on 01/27/2008, -0/+2Sometimes it starts when some idiot orders prefab jumpers, all the same length. This is also the same guy who underestimates the time needed to install, leading to all-nighters.
- arisemedia, on 01/25/2008, -1/+1Always good to see a method to the madness...
- dropbox, on 01/25/2008, -1/+0At least some people can accomplish that.
- cado100, on 01/25/2008, -2/+0Pull ties are bad for network cables. Can cause data loss.
- cado100, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1All twisted pair cable is manufactured as “loose-fill”,
meaning there has to be a slight air space inside the sheathing.
This reduces mutual capacitance, which reduces data packet
error rates.
- cado100, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1All twisted pair cable is manufactured as “loose-fill”,
- MusicMagi, on 01/25/2008, -8/+1Organized? Yes. Art? I don't think so.
- MoneyShot, on 01/25/2008, -0/+3To be fair, these cables are run to patch panels, not to actual hardware. It's easy to keep that stuff looking good since it rarely (if ever) changes. I would have liked to seen the other side of the panels--would have been more telling.
- Neocrazy, on 01/25/2008, -1/+1I was just going to make the same comment. These are all shots of the back side of the patch panel. I bet if there were shots of the other side of the panel, it would be a totally different story. As people have stated, Zip ties are a big no-no even though they may not change often enough.
- martinherrera, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2That's where panduit comes in. but, the real nice stuff is the raised floor with no overhead cables, it's beautiful
- Brassbud, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1HAHAHAHAHA. I work at 2 data centers, both are raised floor. The older DC (~30,000 sq ft) is done with all cabling under the floor. It is a nightmare. If you could see the setuation under some floor tiles, you'd cry...big, wet tears. By comparison, the newer, larger DC only has power and A/C under the floor and so far is a dream by comparison.
- cplusplus, on 01/25/2008, -1/+3It looks like most of these cables are just bringing Ethernet to the servers. You'd think
Ethernet would be built into cabinets - like a bus - or something by now.
Its not like a big surprise that the serves need to be on a LAN.- sam991, on 01/25/2008, -0/+1Then when it fails you lose an entire cabinet rather than just a single switch.
- rizla420, on 01/25/2008, -0/+15I worked in a mid sized DC that was about 28,000 sq. ft and cabling is always a nightmare. First off zip ties should never be used in server racks because of the possibility of having to swap cables out or run extra cables for new network connectivity. Velcro is the best bet. Zip ties work in the main distribution areas from where your cats sit to the patch panel distribution panels, thats where they're most effective becuase you dont have a lot of change that happens in your patch distribution area.
Lastly looking at the pics where the servers were cabled and zip tied together with hardly any slack is stupid. I didnt see any cable management arms which allow for the servers to be service a lot easier. It looks pretty but is not functional. I hated installing cable management arms on the older servers. Specifically Sun boxes had the worst designed cable management arms. All the new servers out today HP's, IBMS, SUN have very easy to implement cable management arms. I'd suggest whoever is in the DC biz that installs servers to use the cable management arms and run your cables to the lenght of those. General rule of thumb is to give yourself an extra 3ft of cabling to accommodate the arm.- CryptiniteDemon, on 01/25/2008, -0/+4The man knows what he's talking about. I do small multimedia installations and even those get messy as hell after the first time you have to replace something. Everyone always makes them pretty but never thinks about how easy it is to modify. Unless they use Velcro, in the end it's gonna look like *****.
- chrisdag, on 01/25/2008, -1/+2Honestly I think it was your use of the word "stupid" that set me off so apologies for that ... You've made the classic mistake of thinking that the entire world operates under the same conditions and use cases as you currently operate. This apparently gives you the ability to label the work of others as "stupid".
In *my* world you would be branded as a clueless newbie if you even brought up the topic of cable management arms inside racks. Some of the pictures shown in the original article are single-purpose scientific computing clusters. These systems deploy hundreds (or thousands) of servers at a time. There is *no* troubleshooting or maintenance done with these racks and cable management arms are a waste of space and weight. If the racks themselves are not treated as fully replaceable units then the individual components certainly are -- if a server is misbehaving nobody comes to the rack and fiddles with it, they simply replace it with new hardware. The "old" hardware is either fully diagnosed on a benchtop or is advanced shipped back to the server vendor. - rizla420, on 01/25/2008, -0/+5I guess i did over state my position not taking your case into consideration, but I guess what i'm referring to is your standard ISP, Hosting providers, general business datacenters (I worked at a financial company in their dc). The environment is very mixed and systems are always coming in and out, things break you dont throw the box out, you replace the parts becuase we had extensive SLA with the vendors. With that kind of an environment, hardwiring everything is hardly ideal.
- blake711, on 01/25/2008, -0/+2I was wondering when someone was going to notice the missing cable management. Even if you choose not to use them the zip ties are MEGA PIA. I work in a 160,000 foot Data center and I curse ever installer that puts zip ties in racks.
- reddikilowatt, on 01/27/2008, -0/+1PIA= pain in the arm, followed by bleeding. I've had people ask me if I got a cat after wearing short sleeves once.
-
Show 51 - 90 of 90 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by
