[geeks] Data Center Braggage

Greg Evans geeks at sunhelp.org
Wed Sep 5 09:34:32 CDT 2001


	We have 3 E-10K's where I work.  Our Sun SSE is absolutely ANAL about cable 
labels.  I don't blame him.

-- 
/* Greg Evans, Bloomington, MN., USA - gje at parrotheaven.com */
-------------
"Beware when you do battle with monsters that you do not
 become one, and remember, when you stare long into the
 abyss, the abyss also stares into you" - F. Nietzsche

Peter L. Wargo [pwargo at basenji.com] wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, Amy wrote:
> 
> > > > I need to find the URL I had once of Netcom's old LA POP.  Worst looking
> > > > 'datacenter' I ever saw.  EVER.
> > >
> > > I remember that one... Gave me nightmares...
> > 
> > sphagetti, anyone? ;)
> 
> More like "Medusa's snakelike locks", for the way it paralyzed me in
> fear...  I used to use Netcom for an ISP...
> 
> (I am so anal-retentive about datacenters.  If I wasn't before, working
> for Sun has made me aware of just how annoying a rat's nest of unlabled
> cables can be.  Especially when it is the wee hours of the morning, and
> you are trying to puzzle out the SSP-to-E10K connection that was done 3
> years ago by "Bob", who left the company suddenly.  Of course, he never
> bothered to label the ethernet cables, 'cuz he knew where everything went.
> 
> Or, the truly nitemarish: "Hey!  Which one of these (240v, 30A) power
> cables is plugged into this AC outlet?  Is it on battery?"  POP!  Followed
> by the roar of 56 fans fading into a stunned silence.
> 
> "oops."
> 
> Speaking of power cables, the steller service at SGI comes to mind.  Like
> - "Oh, I'll just kick this cable out of my way."  POP!  Followed by the
> roar of a Challenge XL crossfading to my horrified scream as the entire
> Genome Sequence Database comes slamming to a halt in the middle of the
> day...
> 
> Ya know the best part?  It really takes almost *no* extra time to label
> the cables as you go.  Sun provides a label kit for the E10K just for this
> reason...  Just imagine a full-up system with 40 2-port FCAL cards, 10
> QFE's, and sundry other SCSI, power, ethernet, etc. cables.  Tha's
> something like 150+ cables coming off of ONE box...
> 
> (Actually, we did a mental excercise one day.  Assuming a 16-board domain
> with one FCAL adaptor for disk and all the other slots full of QFE's,
> (I can't imagine *why*) you'd have a system with 252 network cables, two
> fiber cables, and 4 main power cables.  The mind boggles.  
> 
> -Pete
> 
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