Learn Network Cable Management for Home Racks

hi this is Derek from TCI and in this video I'm going to show you how to properly organize your network rack the tools I will use in this video are my screwdriver my diagonal cutters my wire stripper my all-in-one crimping tool a cable comb some velcro rip tie and a whole box of these Cat6 jacks let's get started I've set up my rack here in the same position that I see it when most people tell me that they get a little lost they've got their rack on the wall and they've got their wires more or less run to the rack but at this phase this is where they get a little disorganized I'll begin by using my cable comb to braid this bundle about every 10 to 12 inches I will use some velcro to keep this in line this is a lot easier with a friend to help you but it's not that hard by yourself if you do not have a cable comb don't worry about it you can do this by hand it's just a little bit more effort but if you go slowly and untangle the wires as you go it's not a problem and you don't need this tool as I organize my wires I'm trying to Target the left side of my rack because that is where the patch panel will have Port 1. I find it's easier to use the left side if you're new to doing this kind of work if you've done a bunch of these racks you might have a different philosophy on how to organize these but I find for new users going from one two three from left to right all the way to 24 is the easiest way to learn once I've got my wires aligned more or less with the left side of the rack I roll a service loop the service loop is there in case I make a mistake I'll need to pull a little bit more length in order to fix the mistakes that I've made say if I've cut a wire too soon then I'm going to attach my patch panel and I always begin with the first panel at the very top of my rack my pattern is always patch paddle then cable manager then switch if I have more than 24 cables I'll then repeat that pattern I like to keep the switches close to the patch panel for reasons you'll see later in this video for the purposes of this video I'm keeping the service loop here inside the rack where it's easily visible and easy to reach however if you're in your own home and you don't like the look of this there's nothing wrong with rolling that Loop backwards and getting it into your ceiling where it's out of sight you can always pull the slack down once you know it's up there if you encounter a problem later once I've got the patch panel mounted I'll begin to thread my wires through each of the ports where they're intended to be terminated for First Time Rack Builders I really like to use the unloaded patch panels and the reason for this is that you can more easily control the length of the cables that you're trying to terminate in addition a lot of people struggle with a punch tool and positioning the rack the patch panel in such a way that they can actually do the terminations and still control the length they end up laying it face down or reversing it and then struggling with cable management it's much easier to deal with the unloaded method you also have the advantage of being able to replace broken Jacks if that should happen to you in the future if you break a pin you can just unload that particular port and replace it you also can color code your Jacks if you so wish in this video I'm going to be doing my Wi-Fi on 23 and 24 and I'm going to color code them orange so that I know which ones they are once I finish terminating I'm going to go to all my boxes of goodies that I'm going to put in this rack the first one I'm going to do is the cable manager I've got two here let me show you the small one this is a single 1u cable manager but I don't like to use this if I can avoid it but if you're tight on Space something like this is the way to go I have a little bit more room to work with so I'm going to switch to a 2u cable manager I like these because I can store screw bags grommets other leftover pieces from this build inside the cable manager where they'll be out of the way and I can get my entire hand into this in order to Loop my cables the reason I'm using the cable manager instead of short patch cords and skipping the cable manager altogether is because the ports on my patch panel do not necessarily line up with my switch if you have a specific switch that you like to use that you know lines up you could skip this thing entirely and just use six inch patch cords and go from port to port however in my case they don't line up so I'm going to use two foot patch cords so that I can always reach any port and I'm going to hide the slack or roll it down inside the cable manager which is really what its purpose is now that I've got my switch installed I'm going to look for a place to put my router most routers do not have rack gears so I'll be installing a shelf and I'll put all of my non-rackable items on that shelf I like to keep it as close to the switch as I possibly can so that the patch cords stay organized it's generally my preference to put the cable modem on the bottom of my rack cable modems use an RG6 connection and that cable is very stiff and difficult to manage having it on the bottom gives me plenty of room to manipulate this cable if you are using fiber or Cat6 as your internet connection you can put that on a shelf up a little closer to your switch if you like I'm going to install a power strip in my rack in order to alleviate the number of wires that I'm dealing with that fall out of the rack and go down towards the ground if I so choose I can install a UPS on the ground and that will power all of my devices in my rack as long as they're plugged into the power strip I'll choose the position of the power strip based around the height of my modem once all of my devices are installed in the rack that is the time that I begin to patch I don't patch in anything until I'm absolutely certain of its position it makes it easier to plan what I'm about to do most of your connections will go to your switch therefore I'll roll them up in groups of four splitting them between the fingers of the wrap where you split them is going to be your choice but I like to do two per finger in order to maximize the way that this looks sometimes aesthetically they just look hideous you'll have to make your own choices on what looks right sometimes it'll make more sense to put four in a single finger than go into two in the next one other times it'll make sense to skip them it'll depend a great deal on the finger layout of your cable manager generally speaking I'm looking for my cables to be straight up and down and vertical whenever the cover is after I've patched in my switch quartz I'm going to Uplink my router I keep the router close to the switch so that I can utilize the cable manager to hide that cable as well there's not much you can do about the cable modems Uplink wire do your best to Route it through the rear of the cable manager without showing any spaghetti mess okay here's the final product this is usually something that I shoot for in a small home network rack for a business or a data center or something larger I have a lot of things I would do differently and depending on what's going on in my home rack if I have a Synology multiple Wi-Fi points and other goodies that might make sense in the rack I might go a little bit bigger and add a couple more shelves overall I want you to pay attention mostly to taking care of that bundle of wires if you get that out of the way first the rest of the rack will stay clean and it's just a matter of personal preference if you pay close attention to your patch cords you're curious about any of the products I used in this video I've linked them in the description if you like the information I presented I hope you consider subscribing to my channel thanks again and I'll see you on the next one

Channel: TCI Productions

Views: 109,356

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Id: 8OUk7glTIUA

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2023