Warning: bad cable routing in a server rack can kill your whole Friday

I was at a client site in Portland last Tuesday when a bundle of Cat6 cables I had dressed too tight started causing intermittent drops on three critical machines. Turns out the zip ties were pinching the cables and breaking pairs inside the jacket, which I only found after swapping patch cables for an hour. Has anyone else had a seemingly neat cable job turn into a nightmare like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosew375d ago

I mean really this sounds more like a user error than a cable routing problem. You probably just got a bad batch of cables or maybe the cables were already damaged before you touched them. Cat6 is pretty tough stuff, it takes a lot to actually break the internal pairs just with zip ties unless you're cranking them down with a tool. Maybe try using velcro straps next time instead of blaming the neatness of the job. Honestly a clean rack is way easier to troubleshoot when something actually goes wrong. I've seen way more problems come from messy tangled rats nests than from neat bundles that were done right.

wright.drew5d ago

Bet you $20 @rosew37 is the guy who still uses twist-on coax connectors and calls it "good enough." Sure, Cat6 is tough but so is my will to live when I'm untangling a sweater of cables on a Friday at 5pm. I've seen clean bundles fail just as often as messy ones, usually because someone overtightened on a bundle running near a power line or bent it past the radius limit. But hey, keep defending your cablegami art project while the rest of us just want a rack that works without needing a magnifying glass to trace a bad link.