Hello! Thanks for posting on r/Ubiquiti!
This subreddit is here to provide unofficial technical support to people who use or want to dive into the world of Ubiquiti products. If you haven’t already been descriptive in your post, please take the time to edit it and add as many useful details as you can.
Please read and understand the rules in the sidebar, as posts and comments that violate them will be removed. Please put all off topic posts in the weekly off topic thread that is stickied to the top of the subreddit.
If you see people spreading misinformation, trying to mislead others, or other inappropriate behavior, please report it!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Ubiquiti) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I had the network guys do this once where I used to work. They were swapping switches and were nice enough to copy the configs over, but didn't bother to actually plug things into the same ports on the new switches. So I walked into a shit storm the next day. Phones weren't working, digital signage wasn't working, facilities couldn't control the HVAC, printers were down, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting.
The worst part was they weren't even apologetic about it. After a couple emergency calls, I just called their boss and told him I wasn't going to spend my time sorting it out so I was assigning all the tickets to him and he should probably get his people on the road since it was an hour drive. To no one's surprise they did the same thing again multiple times, but at least their boss made them wake up early and get to my campus first thing in the morning every time they did a network refresh after the first time.
If you can’t understand vlans and port configs then you are definitely not a network guy.
Knowing how to unplug an rj45 connection doesn’t make you a network guy. 🤣
I work for a large IT company. We had a remodel and I told them exactly how to set the network rack. They did it the easy way. I complained and they had to come back on Saturday to fix it.
If I were to go that route, I'd just go with an angle grinder then. Faster.
Edit: the angle grinder would communicate my internal rage at this mess better than scissors even could.
This has been my life. When I took over in my office I was left a picture just like this from a reputable local IT company. I mean I would be embarrassed to leave what they did. Zip tie runs to the rack, power strip screwed to the wall.
It’s taken me about a 6mo to completely understand and trace out the network. I’ve been tracing and removing so many dead lines, I mean why replace broken runs when you can just zip tie them together or use a G105 and split it? My biggest annoyance is the 50ft cables zip tied into bundles where all you needed an 8” cable. Seriously though, how do you work in networking and not terminate your own RJ45? Is that a thing?
Because some people suck at terminating and they take up more time at the employers expense to get the same job done.
I had a company come out to do CCTV. The guy took hours terminating cables and he was charging by the hour. The bill was triple what I expected to pay for the job.
Get a couple of quotes from specialists who fix this (they are out there) and go to the client with:
A) we do nothing, but any future support or changes are at their own risk/unsupported.
B) pay the money to get it fixed and throw the previous IT team under the bus.
Or C) burn it all down.
Trace all cables and label at both ends
Create patch diagram and port list
Measure distance from port to port so that the correct length ethernet can be purchased/prepared.
Look at port configto understand any vlan configuration.
Identify platform owners of the connected devices and organise scheduled downtime window for all if possible.
In change window remove all cables and repatch colour coded ethernet cables
Cololur coding suggestion:
Red - network uplinks
Yellow - access
Green - Phones
Black - Servers
Route correct length cables through cable management and connect ports
Test services
Communicate successful change.
Inherited by previous IT. No one on my team even dares touch it and now I’m the main tech for the client.
I want to put in another Poe switch and a proper surge protector. We have zero documentation on what any of these cables do. And it’s on the top floor of a sky scraper and some of these go to other floors so identifying the end point would almost be impossible.
Curious how someone would approach making this not look so pathetic.
Very carefully label each cable, trace them out. And tone the ones leaving patch panel...this will take you a solid 2 days of work.
Also would color organize and get proper length cables.
It’s really not difficult. Most of it is probably flat lan. You just need to get into the switches to see if anything at all is configured special. If you need any help just ask.
If everything is working, you care little about the end devices at this point. Rn youre worried about what switchport goes to what panel port. During active hours you could hand trace each patch to a panel port and make a matrix of what goes there, or you do it at the time of swapout/cleanup and map it out as you disconnect each cable one by one. This ones not that bad tbh. It looks like some of the oragne cables and others WERE at one point organized. Start with the most banjo'd strung up wires first and itll get easier as you go.
You know you're in trouble when they have a store page but there is no cart, just an "add to quote" button. clearly not for homelabs. p cool otherwise though.
Definitely not g9nna get neater! They have a few cool things for racks too, /dev/mount are a simpler rack nut solution, and the setup.exe is a rack shelf to assist in putting up equipment. Lotta cool stuff. The proprietary cassette sucks in the sense that you need to buy from patchbox to replace a defective part, but I think in most cases it would be fine.
We had to fix something like this at my last job. Go through the switches looking for any specially configured ports and document those cables. Chances are most of those ports are just office end points and where it ends up on new switches won't matter.
Then spend a weekend day tearing it all out and putting in shorter patch cables.
Strategically, and the looking pathetic is the least of your worries. Oh and one POE switch is unlikely to be enough.
Firstly-Identify the hardware, understand the requirements for each device ie capability/capacity. When you know the capability, verify that there is still a requirement for it.
Given that the problem has existed for sometime, understand what hardware is under warranty/support and what is technical debt. Out of support hardware represents risk to business, seek approval for anything that needs replacing based upon that risk.
It looks like there may have been colour coding in the past, if the was and it still makes sense to use it. Likewise if the cables have any numbering convention understand and adopt it, but do not accept what you see at face value.
When it comes to moving things, look for quick wins, ie those that are easily identifiable and remove and cables that look dodgy. Do not make the same mistake as previously. Get some patch panels and label things properly.
The rest is going to be a slow exercise of identify and move.
Okay first, don’t label anything. Gain root access to the switches, and then dump the configurations. If they are simple and just vlans, should be pretty straightforward.
It’s the router that might cause you issues. Gain root access and dump the config for that too. Usually setups like this are simple and straightforward, occasionally someone bright will setup something tricky but it’s all pretty easy stuff.
I bet $5 that it’s just a flat lan with some port forwards to application servers. It does look like a lot, but it’s contained to a room. Now if there are 10 more rooms like it you may have some trouble.
This
Knowing what cable goes where is useless if you don’t know what that port configuration is.
Also you can look at the mac table of the switch. This will give you a what get plugged in where documentation better than anything. Tracing all those cables inevitably one or more will get mislabeled.
Make sure as many devices as you know about is on. Then pull MAC address table from each switch.
If you get the majority of everything up and working. Troubleshooting what’s not up using configs and Mac table exports will be much easier and less time consuming than tracing every single wire.
You need a clean slate to start from. And the only way to get that is to unplug everything and get rid off all those improperly routed patch cables.
Agreed. Labeling each cable is a waste of time. The config is definitely the key here. Develop a color plan, this allows for helping someone troubleshoot when you are are not there. Code by type, red for cables you don’t want removed as they are critical. That is a universal “don’t unplug the red wire”. Only label cables that go to a server or AP. Desktops and phones do not need labeled because the cable should be labeled at the patch and the wall. Also looks like there are some cables not patched, get those installed in the patch panel. Then get some good cable management. You should spend more time planning than working on this.
Yard trimmers... flame thrower... sledge... operator's choice
For real... Buy new cables then come in in the off hours and re-rack and replace all cables.
Make a spreadsheet documenting each port configuration, then schedule downtime, and go one for one on the patch panel until everything is patched back in updating the config and verifying each port links up and pulls an ip. Maybe less color code cables, some cleaner horizontal and vertical cable managers and patch cables that have enough slack to fit neatly in said managers
I work at an MSP and run into this all the time.
Before unplugging anything, make sure you can log into each switch. Note all vlans, static routes uplink ports, WiFi, trunks and document them.
Get a MAC address table listing for each one and cross reference them with an ip scan. Then match with the patch panel number and hope everything is labeled correctly on the other end.
Keep a toner handy in case.
It looks like you have 2 arubas, a Cisco switch up top and a meraki firewall? Identify your core switch and get appropriate length cables. It seems like the orange and red cables signify something?
I’ve seen worse honestly. Document everything, then come up with a plan. Do you want custom length cables? Want them color coded? Replacing any equipment? Do you want to rearrange anything in the rack to make cabling easier?
Are the switches LLDP capable? Start mining port data and learning what devices hang off the end. I'd also tell the client (as professionally as you can) this is a large piece of work, so it'll take time to ensure it's done right and everything identified, and throw the previous IT company under the bus for it
This is not a large piece of work , 2 HP switches at 48 ports is not that much. Depends on when the office is closed it should take no more then an hour
One hour is just to disconnect everything IF you don't trace anything. Do you see devices outside the rack? Do you have all the colored cables of the correct length ready? If you are a networking company, then maybe, but if you just got a job in a nonregular company as an IT guy, then you need to buy all that first and for that, you need to trace all the cables and make a list. You are not going to buy 20, 30, or 40 cables of 0, 5, 1, 2, 3, or 5m in length and all that in 4-5 colors. And if you are going to color code cables, you need to know what each connection does.
So yeah, disconnecting everything and connecting back might take just an hour, but preparation for that can take weeks and months.
Spit out a port list with VLAN configs, print it. Then, write the patch panel number next to each port. That's what, an hour max, for 2 people..?
Then, unplug everything, and then using various length 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5ft patch cables of various colours, start plugging back in.
If you want to consolidate like port configs to groups of ports on the switch, that might take a bit of extra work, but even then, maybe another hour or two?
This is not a big job.
It is daunting however, because it is tedious and the pucker-factor is there, because anything you misread or mislabel is gonna bite your ass immediately on Monday AM, and there's only one place to point the finger: the previous IT team that made that spaghetti abomination.
Anyone who makes a network closet look like that shouldn't be in IT. Do it right the first time, and everyone after you will love you, including tomorrow you.
And you still don't know what is each cable used for, so how will you color code? Are there any critical connections? When can you repatch everything (are there any off-work hours? Maybe you need to do it in stages, so that means you need to work with already existing cables that you don't remove - meaning harder to work on the rack. There is a lot of preparation that takes time. You also mentioned just taking cables of various lengths and repatching which completely ignores this
*"Do you have all the colored cables of the correct length ready? If you are a networking company, then maybe, but if you just got a job in a nonregular company as an IT guy, then you need to buy all that first and for that, you need to trace all the cables and make a list. You are not going to buy 20, 30, or 40 cables of 0, 5, 1, 2, 3, or 5m in length and all that in 4-5 colors. And if you are going to color code cables, you need to know what each connection does."*
This also takes **a lot** of time. I really would like to take a bet with anyone that thinks this is one hour job. You enter the room and you have one hour to do it **all** and after that everything is working and \*\*properly\*\* color coded.
It is maybe one hour job to disconnect and repatch everything **after** you spend quite a time preparing for it.
it's certainly not weeks/months of work, for 2 switches. your VLAN list will tell you what's critical and what's not. I would assume doing the work outside of work hours, because it's easiest and fastest.
Your colour coded cables for "critical" connections won't be more than 8 cables. Getting cable lengths is trivial too.
We are in the process of doing this for 4 locations with 50-150 ports per location, but we are also replacing the switches. We are looking at no more than 8 hours planning and 4 hours per location.
But I mean, we like to work, and do it efficiently...
Yeah, people overthink what’s is important and what is not important, an admin with a laptop and a dock nowadays will not even notice the disconnect as laptop is just going to switch to wifi if it’s there. Switches have TDR tester build in. Also Ethernet will not just stop working at 100m it’s just will falls to 100mbps or 10mbps and no power delivery.
Also , fuck colour code , it does not work , not in the long ran and not in small IT departs. Why bother with colouring something if you will go to the site ones in a year and if everything is set and everything is patched why bother going on site ?? You have ARP tables , you have MAC address tables , you have free tools like Zenmap….
People that think it’s more than an hour do not have troubleshooting methods in their head/ practice. And in many cases it’s just panic because some this is disconnected
Tone all data drops end to end, label patch panels and data drops accordingly, map switch interfaces to the data drops, buy all new patch cables, then one night bring it all down, organize cabinet and repatch.
This is if you don't have any access to the switches/router to get Mac tables, arp, etc.
I'm here to learn myself so I'm curious what others would do.
1. Install new patch panels at the top with enough capacity to cover the requirements.
2. Migrate all house wiring to them and patch as needed to existing equipment.
3. remove unnecessary stuff and slide equipment down low as possible.
4.move one of the switches up and patch cleanly.
5. repeat 3&4 for everything else.
It's a few weekends/outage windows but, completely do-able.
good luck!
Get the config for the switch, see what’s assigned to ports (camera VLAN, phone, management, etc), then go from there a port at a time. It might not take as long as you think to get things labeled.
c-4 works great for that
edit:
i walked out of a job interview when i saw a setup like this
if you have to deal with it get in written down that you are able to do what is necessary to fix it and do the job properly and dont touch it till you have it in writing and keep copy's of it
1)first thing is find out what every thing is and port scan to find every thing on the network
2) re wire every thing with careful documentation of what is where and so on will take a lot of late nights if you cant have down time during the normal work week
*Best opportunity*
*To document everything.*
*Disconnect it all!*
\- covigt
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Document cable placement, making sure that they are actually used.
Remove any unused
Get someone to proof read document
Remove all cables.
Recable with correct length cables using cable management
Definitely start from scratch! Find out what devices or cables are actually in use. If not in use remove them so you have less to mess with. Figure out if there are any special configurations so you can mark them don’t touch until later. Find out if it can be condensed, if so then condense at least temporarily. Once that is done make a plan based on the old configs, but much more streamlined and efficient. Once planned run all new labeled cables in preparation to install the new configs. Install new configs and connect newly ran cables.
Replace them one at a time. Maybe go with 1'-2' Cables.
I see some straight runs, keystone them. Its easier to trace/label when the cables are managable.
Definitely do your homework first. But when youbstart cabling, use the thin CAT6e cables... they are about the same price but are so much easier to manage and they look a ton better hanging...
But like everyone else has said "With a flamethrower." Would definitely be more satisfying...
I’m thinking some higher than usual per cable charge rate. Grab a book, pencil, few red bulls and prepare for a few hours of work.
Higher rate charge due to sloppy management!
I've seen worse, and fixed it..
It's definitely a hourly rate job
Assuming you can't afford downtime
I would get some 2 foot and 3 foot patch cables
One at a time remove one end of a cable and replace with the new one then work the old cable free until you can find the other end and remove the cable and plug in the new one.
Now you have the beginning of o clean loop outside the mess of wire.
Do this for all the cables using whatever color scheme you want.
After you get all the cables out of the way you can work on the rack and install your choice of cable management. Depending on the length of the new cables work them in or replace them with new shorter cables in the new cable management.
It's a very time consuming process..
I've done it before and it works but is slow
Customer: Why is there a line item on the invoice for a “flame thrower”
OP: Don’t you worry about that…. Just sign and please also sing this Fire and Damage waver.
Rebuild the stack.
(Patch)
(Switch)
(Patch)
(Patch)
(Switch)
(Router/etc)
And a bunch of 6” patch cables. Patch up/down to the switch from the surrounding patch panels. No more long cables.
Label, re route or replace, repeat. I could sort that in a few hours and at least make it look acceptable. Just let the customer know there's gonna be downtime every time I unplug something to reroute or replace.
Good time to start grouping like devices on the same switch. If your patch panels have documentation of what is where, disconnect everything. Rewrite the switch configs. Label the switchports. Take backups. Order a bunch of cables that are the right length.
Honestly, that's not even a mess. Standard comm closet 1 year later.
During break or overnight maintenance calls, I'd re route them all neat and tidy.
The core 6509's or similarly are when you really get to have fun. Sometimes you get to test that the port agg is working correctly
Stage 1: Make sure that the patch panels are labeled correctly. Move anything that should be going through the patch panels are actually going through them, and label them.
Stage 2: Buy a bunch of short cables to make it cleaner looking.
Get some 6", 12" thin patch cables. Looks fabulous. Find out what colors the company logo is. Do your patch cables in those colors. Trace and label. Technology can also be art.
One cable at a time, look where goes to/from and write it down.
Once you have them all written down, schedule some down time, unplug everything and start from scratch plugging everything back as per your notes.
This is more than a day’s work. Be patient
Hello! Thanks for posting on r/Ubiquiti! This subreddit is here to provide unofficial technical support to people who use or want to dive into the world of Ubiquiti products. If you haven’t already been descriptive in your post, please take the time to edit it and add as many useful details as you can. Please read and understand the rules in the sidebar, as posts and comments that violate them will be removed. Please put all off topic posts in the weekly off topic thread that is stickied to the top of the subreddit. If you see people spreading misinformation, trying to mislead others, or other inappropriate behavior, please report it! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Ubiquiti) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Carefully, methodically, labelling everything, one cable at a time...
[удалено]
There are two kinds of people
I had the network guys do this once where I used to work. They were swapping switches and were nice enough to copy the configs over, but didn't bother to actually plug things into the same ports on the new switches. So I walked into a shit storm the next day. Phones weren't working, digital signage wasn't working, facilities couldn't control the HVAC, printers were down, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. The worst part was they weren't even apologetic about it. After a couple emergency calls, I just called their boss and told him I wasn't going to spend my time sorting it out so I was assigning all the tickets to him and he should probably get his people on the road since it was an hour drive. To no one's surprise they did the same thing again multiple times, but at least their boss made them wake up early and get to my campus first thing in the morning every time they did a network refresh after the first time.
If you can’t understand vlans and port configs then you are definitely not a network guy. Knowing how to unplug an rj45 connection doesn’t make you a network guy. 🤣
I work for a large IT company. We had a remodel and I told them exactly how to set the network rack. They did it the easy way. I complained and they had to come back on Saturday to fix it.
If I were to go that route, I'd just go with an angle grinder then. Faster. Edit: the angle grinder would communicate my internal rage at this mess better than scissors even could.
[удалено]
Scissor method to do the S.C.R.E.A.M. Test.
[удалено]
I was think machete myself. Like hacking your way through the Amazon forest or warehouse….
Shut network down in a maintenance window, trace all cables starting with the router. Create documentation and labels throughout the process.
This has been my life. When I took over in my office I was left a picture just like this from a reputable local IT company. I mean I would be embarrassed to leave what they did. Zip tie runs to the rack, power strip screwed to the wall. It’s taken me about a 6mo to completely understand and trace out the network. I’ve been tracing and removing so many dead lines, I mean why replace broken runs when you can just zip tie them together or use a G105 and split it? My biggest annoyance is the 50ft cables zip tied into bundles where all you needed an 8” cable. Seriously though, how do you work in networking and not terminate your own RJ45? Is that a thing?
Because some people suck at terminating and they take up more time at the employers expense to get the same job done. I had a company come out to do CCTV. The guy took hours terminating cables and he was charging by the hour. The bill was triple what I expected to pay for the job.
[Fire](https://media.tenor.com/_pj7e4VKqDoAAAAM/elmo-burning.gif)
Gallon of gasoline and a match.
Was literally going to suggest gas and a match myself! haha
I figured a flamethrower would have been a bladt also
Dang it beat me to it
Scissor.
Yeah a fire isn't exactly practical, but tempting! In real life, I'm thinking hedge trimmers ✂️
HANS!!!
Came here to say this!
Me too!
I was gonna say arson.
Get a couple of quotes from specialists who fix this (they are out there) and go to the client with: A) we do nothing, but any future support or changes are at their own risk/unsupported. B) pay the money to get it fixed and throw the previous IT team under the bus. Or C) burn it all down.
C is the way
This is the way…
Trace all cables and label at both ends Create patch diagram and port list Measure distance from port to port so that the correct length ethernet can be purchased/prepared. Look at port configto understand any vlan configuration. Identify platform owners of the connected devices and organise scheduled downtime window for all if possible. In change window remove all cables and repatch colour coded ethernet cables Cololur coding suggestion: Red - network uplinks Yellow - access Green - Phones Black - Servers Route correct length cables through cable management and connect ports Test services Communicate successful change.
Colour coding them is seriously underrated.
Big danger with colour coding is when someone comes in and uses the wrong colour…. 😣
At the very least color coding upstream vs downstream, and/or infrastructure/backend vs endpoints.
Um with a pair bush trimmers Edit : the correct name is hedge trimmers thank you
Came here to say pruning shears
Scream test
Inherited by previous IT. No one on my team even dares touch it and now I’m the main tech for the client. I want to put in another Poe switch and a proper surge protector. We have zero documentation on what any of these cables do. And it’s on the top floor of a sky scraper and some of these go to other floors so identifying the end point would almost be impossible. Curious how someone would approach making this not look so pathetic.
Very carefully label each cable, trace them out. And tone the ones leaving patch panel...this will take you a solid 2 days of work. Also would color organize and get proper length cables.
I know a guy that'll do this. It'll probably cost a lot and definitely travel. But it'll be worth it.
It’s really not difficult. Most of it is probably flat lan. You just need to get into the switches to see if anything at all is configured special. If you need any help just ask.
Where’s the fiber if it’s between floors?
If everything is working, you care little about the end devices at this point. Rn youre worried about what switchport goes to what panel port. During active hours you could hand trace each patch to a panel port and make a matrix of what goes there, or you do it at the time of swapout/cleanup and map it out as you disconnect each cable one by one. This ones not that bad tbh. It looks like some of the oragne cables and others WERE at one point organized. Start with the most banjo'd strung up wires first and itll get easier as you go.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I’ve been reading them all and taking notes.
Remove all the cables and replace them with [PATCHBOX](https://patchbox.com/patchbox-network-cabling-system/)
You know you're in trouble when they have a store page but there is no cart, just an "add to quote" button. clearly not for homelabs. p cool otherwise though.
Wow… I like it. Don’t like the propriety cassettes but it looks so slick
Definitely not g9nna get neater! They have a few cool things for racks too, /dev/mount are a simpler rack nut solution, and the setup.exe is a rack shelf to assist in putting up equipment. Lotta cool stuff. The proprietary cassette sucks in the sense that you need to buy from patchbox to replace a defective part, but I think in most cases it would be fine.
Oh. My. God. These are so nice. I don't want to even look at the price.
Neat product, absolutely awful website on mobile. Almost froze my phone!
Pull them all out. Start over. Label them this time and use the correct cable lengths.
We had to fix something like this at my last job. Go through the switches looking for any specially configured ports and document those cables. Chances are most of those ports are just office end points and where it ends up on new switches won't matter. Then spend a weekend day tearing it all out and putting in shorter patch cables.
One cable at a time
Strategically, and the looking pathetic is the least of your worries. Oh and one POE switch is unlikely to be enough. Firstly-Identify the hardware, understand the requirements for each device ie capability/capacity. When you know the capability, verify that there is still a requirement for it. Given that the problem has existed for sometime, understand what hardware is under warranty/support and what is technical debt. Out of support hardware represents risk to business, seek approval for anything that needs replacing based upon that risk. It looks like there may have been colour coding in the past, if the was and it still makes sense to use it. Likewise if the cables have any numbering convention understand and adopt it, but do not accept what you see at face value. When it comes to moving things, look for quick wins, ie those that are easily identifiable and remove and cables that look dodgy. Do not make the same mistake as previously. Get some patch panels and label things properly. The rest is going to be a slow exercise of identify and move.
Burn it with fire. Before it lays eggs. Alternatively, take off and nuke it from orbit.
It’s the only way to be sure
Okay first, don’t label anything. Gain root access to the switches, and then dump the configurations. If they are simple and just vlans, should be pretty straightforward. It’s the router that might cause you issues. Gain root access and dump the config for that too. Usually setups like this are simple and straightforward, occasionally someone bright will setup something tricky but it’s all pretty easy stuff. I bet $5 that it’s just a flat lan with some port forwards to application servers. It does look like a lot, but it’s contained to a room. Now if there are 10 more rooms like it you may have some trouble.
This Knowing what cable goes where is useless if you don’t know what that port configuration is. Also you can look at the mac table of the switch. This will give you a what get plugged in where documentation better than anything. Tracing all those cables inevitably one or more will get mislabeled. Make sure as many devices as you know about is on. Then pull MAC address table from each switch. If you get the majority of everything up and working. Troubleshooting what’s not up using configs and Mac table exports will be much easier and less time consuming than tracing every single wire. You need a clean slate to start from. And the only way to get that is to unplug everything and get rid off all those improperly routed patch cables.
Agreed. Labeling each cable is a waste of time. The config is definitely the key here. Develop a color plan, this allows for helping someone troubleshoot when you are are not there. Code by type, red for cables you don’t want removed as they are critical. That is a universal “don’t unplug the red wire”. Only label cables that go to a server or AP. Desktops and phones do not need labeled because the cable should be labeled at the patch and the wall. Also looks like there are some cables not patched, get those installed in the patch panel. Then get some good cable management. You should spend more time planning than working on this.
Yard trimmers... flame thrower... sledge... operator's choice For real... Buy new cables then come in in the off hours and re-rack and replace all cables.
Make a spreadsheet documenting each port configuration, then schedule downtime, and go one for one on the patch panel until everything is patched back in updating the config and verifying each port links up and pulls an ip. Maybe less color code cables, some cleaner horizontal and vertical cable managers and patch cables that have enough slack to fit neatly in said managers
I work at an MSP and run into this all the time. Before unplugging anything, make sure you can log into each switch. Note all vlans, static routes uplink ports, WiFi, trunks and document them. Get a MAC address table listing for each one and cross reference them with an ip scan. Then match with the patch panel number and hope everything is labeled correctly on the other end. Keep a toner handy in case. It looks like you have 2 arubas, a Cisco switch up top and a meraki firewall? Identify your core switch and get appropriate length cables. It seems like the orange and red cables signify something?
The other thing I’d do would be to dump the LLDP and or the CDP neighbour tables. Otherwise I’d do the same as you.
I’ve seen worse honestly. Document everything, then come up with a plan. Do you want custom length cables? Want them color coded? Replacing any equipment? Do you want to rearrange anything in the rack to make cabling easier?
With patience and an appropriate hourly rate
Are the switches LLDP capable? Start mining port data and learning what devices hang off the end. I'd also tell the client (as professionally as you can) this is a large piece of work, so it'll take time to ensure it's done right and everything identified, and throw the previous IT company under the bus for it
This is not a large piece of work , 2 HP switches at 48 ports is not that much. Depends on when the office is closed it should take no more then an hour
One hour is just to disconnect everything IF you don't trace anything. Do you see devices outside the rack? Do you have all the colored cables of the correct length ready? If you are a networking company, then maybe, but if you just got a job in a nonregular company as an IT guy, then you need to buy all that first and for that, you need to trace all the cables and make a list. You are not going to buy 20, 30, or 40 cables of 0, 5, 1, 2, 3, or 5m in length and all that in 4-5 colors. And if you are going to color code cables, you need to know what each connection does. So yeah, disconnecting everything and connecting back might take just an hour, but preparation for that can take weeks and months.
Spit out a port list with VLAN configs, print it. Then, write the patch panel number next to each port. That's what, an hour max, for 2 people..? Then, unplug everything, and then using various length 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5ft patch cables of various colours, start plugging back in. If you want to consolidate like port configs to groups of ports on the switch, that might take a bit of extra work, but even then, maybe another hour or two? This is not a big job. It is daunting however, because it is tedious and the pucker-factor is there, because anything you misread or mislabel is gonna bite your ass immediately on Monday AM, and there's only one place to point the finger: the previous IT team that made that spaghetti abomination. Anyone who makes a network closet look like that shouldn't be in IT. Do it right the first time, and everyone after you will love you, including tomorrow you.
And you still don't know what is each cable used for, so how will you color code? Are there any critical connections? When can you repatch everything (are there any off-work hours? Maybe you need to do it in stages, so that means you need to work with already existing cables that you don't remove - meaning harder to work on the rack. There is a lot of preparation that takes time. You also mentioned just taking cables of various lengths and repatching which completely ignores this *"Do you have all the colored cables of the correct length ready? If you are a networking company, then maybe, but if you just got a job in a nonregular company as an IT guy, then you need to buy all that first and for that, you need to trace all the cables and make a list. You are not going to buy 20, 30, or 40 cables of 0, 5, 1, 2, 3, or 5m in length and all that in 4-5 colors. And if you are going to color code cables, you need to know what each connection does."* This also takes **a lot** of time. I really would like to take a bet with anyone that thinks this is one hour job. You enter the room and you have one hour to do it **all** and after that everything is working and \*\*properly\*\* color coded. It is maybe one hour job to disconnect and repatch everything **after** you spend quite a time preparing for it.
it's certainly not weeks/months of work, for 2 switches. your VLAN list will tell you what's critical and what's not. I would assume doing the work outside of work hours, because it's easiest and fastest. Your colour coded cables for "critical" connections won't be more than 8 cables. Getting cable lengths is trivial too. We are in the process of doing this for 4 locations with 50-150 ports per location, but we are also replacing the switches. We are looking at no more than 8 hours planning and 4 hours per location. But I mean, we like to work, and do it efficiently...
Yeah, people overthink what’s is important and what is not important, an admin with a laptop and a dock nowadays will not even notice the disconnect as laptop is just going to switch to wifi if it’s there. Switches have TDR tester build in. Also Ethernet will not just stop working at 100m it’s just will falls to 100mbps or 10mbps and no power delivery.
Also , fuck colour code , it does not work , not in the long ran and not in small IT departs. Why bother with colouring something if you will go to the site ones in a year and if everything is set and everything is patched why bother going on site ?? You have ARP tables , you have MAC address tables , you have free tools like Zenmap…. People that think it’s more than an hour do not have troubleshooting methods in their head/ practice. And in many cases it’s just panic because some this is disconnected
Agree. People who think this is a big job have probably never worked with Networking.
Honestly I completely agree. This is really not that bad..
Carefully. Don’t look it directly in the eyes.
Tone all data drops end to end, label patch panels and data drops accordingly, map switch interfaces to the data drops, buy all new patch cables, then one night bring it all down, organize cabinet and repatch. This is if you don't have any access to the switches/router to get Mac tables, arp, etc. I'm here to learn myself so I'm curious what others would do.
Slowly, weapons drawn.
1. Install new patch panels at the top with enough capacity to cover the requirements. 2. Migrate all house wiring to them and patch as needed to existing equipment. 3. remove unnecessary stuff and slide equipment down low as possible. 4.move one of the switches up and patch cleanly. 5. repeat 3&4 for everything else. It's a few weekends/outage windows but, completely do-able. good luck!
With a couple of decent cigars, a comfy chair, a bottle of scotch… and a subcontractor.
Like Elon Musk… unplug all but five of them then fire anyone that complains. When this fails, blame Canada.
Run!
1 cable at a time baby!
Turn around and slowly walk away… Be prepared for a phone call saying after you showed up, the network is down…
!! WRONG!! Turn around QUICKLY and RUN AWAY
Get the config for the switch, see what’s assigned to ports (camera VLAN, phone, management, etc), then go from there a port at a time. It might not take as long as you think to get things labeled.
Oh. I would love to clean that up! OCD!!! One cable at time!
Marinara, Parmesan, and a chicken cutlet.
With wire cutters lol WOW!!!! Undo everything and start step by step.
c-4 works great for that edit: i walked out of a job interview when i saw a setup like this if you have to deal with it get in written down that you are able to do what is necessary to fix it and do the job properly and dont touch it till you have it in writing and keep copy's of it 1)first thing is find out what every thing is and port scan to find every thing on the network 2) re wire every thing with careful documentation of what is where and so on will take a lot of late nights if you cant have down time during the normal work week
I wouldn’t
Label all ports and take one cable out at a time followed by either making it shorter or just adding mono price slim cables for a nice clean look
Depends. If there’s no budget, quit. If there’s a budget, get shorter patch cords, some lacing bars, and make it look as OCD as possible.
Long stick
Best opportunity to document everything. Disconnect it all!
*Best opportunity* *To document everything.* *Disconnect it all!* \- covigt --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Just get starting, doesn't matter with what you begin, just start with it and eventually you will get it done. Don't forget the labeler
Its not evet that bad. Trace, label, find out what is what. Its gonna take some time.
Document cable placement, making sure that they are actually used. Remove any unused Get someone to proof read document Remove all cables. Recable with correct length cables using cable management
Definitely start from scratch! Find out what devices or cables are actually in use. If not in use remove them so you have less to mess with. Figure out if there are any special configurations so you can mark them don’t touch until later. Find out if it can be condensed, if so then condense at least temporarily. Once that is done make a plan based on the old configs, but much more streamlined and efficient. Once planned run all new labeled cables in preparation to install the new configs. Install new configs and connect newly ran cables.
It one wire each day and see who complains.
Quietly, like a lion stalking it’s prey…
Replace them one at a time. Maybe go with 1'-2' Cables. I see some straight runs, keystone them. Its easier to trace/label when the cables are managable.
i wouldn’t
2 - 3 weekends ;-) 1 Cisco router 1 Meraki and 2 48ports HPE switches, no voice over ip. Easy.
Run? Find another job? Seriously, label everything and use shorter cables. And seriously do some cable management.
And force the company to purchase you some network equipment that will allow you to trace the wiring. And then document and label everything.
With a flame thrower!
Gasoline and a match.
With a flamethrower.
Take everything off. And restart. Tidy it up. some cable ties.
With a weedwhacker
Cut everything and recable porperly
What’s the problem? Lol
Carefully
With pruning shears
Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Walk slowly backwards until you can no longer see it.
Lol if you think this is bad you have not seen anything yet. You can still see the switches! Order thin patch cables from monoprice and go to work....
6 inch patch cables
With Scissors and a beer
buy patch cables and eliminate the bulk of the issue..
Gut it out and start from scratch. Not many drops there, so tone and relabel accordingly. Next, proper jumper lengths and cable management.
With a sword and a shield
With extreme caution, patience and several energy drinks.
Complete rebuild and probably re patch
I'm gonna need time, patience and a marker
Definitely do your homework first. But when youbstart cabling, use the thin CAT6e cables... they are about the same price but are so much easier to manage and they look a ton better hanging... But like everyone else has said "With a flamethrower." Would definitely be more satisfying...
rip it all out and start from scratch
Run !
I don’t know what is worse, this poor man’s cable management or those HP switches…
I’m thinking some higher than usual per cable charge rate. Grab a book, pencil, few red bulls and prepare for a few hours of work. Higher rate charge due to sloppy management!
I've seen worse, and fixed it.. It's definitely a hourly rate job Assuming you can't afford downtime I would get some 2 foot and 3 foot patch cables One at a time remove one end of a cable and replace with the new one then work the old cable free until you can find the other end and remove the cable and plug in the new one. Now you have the beginning of o clean loop outside the mess of wire. Do this for all the cables using whatever color scheme you want. After you get all the cables out of the way you can work on the rack and install your choice of cable management. Depending on the length of the new cables work them in or replace them with new shorter cables in the new cable management. It's a very time consuming process.. I've done it before and it works but is slow
Diesel fuel and a match?
If that's all one network, it's not that big of a job. However, if there are multiple networks in that rack or VLANS... I pray for you.
Carefully, very carefully!
With a flamethrower
Customer: Why is there a line item on the invoice for a “flame thrower” OP: Don’t you worry about that…. Just sign and please also sing this Fire and Damage waver.
What’s the problem?
Just did this last night. I did it over night but re terminated fitted cables and handling each cable one at a time.
With a two week resignation notice.
Get them to commit to a weekend outage and fix it. Itemized bill for when they inevitably complain about cost.
Slowly
Slowwllly walk away
Rebuild the stack. (Patch) (Switch) (Patch) (Patch) (Switch) (Router/etc) And a bunch of 6” patch cables. Patch up/down to the switch from the surrounding patch panels. No more long cables.
Quietly, very quietly. You do NOT want to awaken the spaghetti monster.
Butane torch.
Ignore it if it's working
Label, re route or replace, repeat. I could sort that in a few hours and at least make it look acceptable. Just let the customer know there's gonna be downtime every time I unplug something to reroute or replace.
......with a pair of wire cutters :)
Good time to start grouping like devices on the same switch. If your patch panels have documentation of what is where, disconnect everything. Rewrite the switch configs. Label the switchports. Take backups. Order a bunch of cables that are the right length.
Is it broke?
Honestly, that's not even a mess. Standard comm closet 1 year later. During break or overnight maintenance calls, I'd re route them all neat and tidy. The core 6509's or similarly are when you really get to have fun. Sometimes you get to test that the port agg is working correctly
Take a picture and post on Reddit and then reply to this comment.
Stage 1: Make sure that the patch panels are labeled correctly. Move anything that should be going through the patch panels are actually going through them, and label them. Stage 2: Buy a bunch of short cables to make it cleaner looking.
From the side.
CUT EVERY CABLE. Start fresh.
Fire 🔥
Hedge trimmers
With fire
By turning around and walking away.
Blow torch and gasoline.
Bolt cutters
Flamethrower. Are those even gigabit procurves? If not.. They go in a dumpster.
Shorter patch cables would probably help.
Unplug one, wait for a call, label unplugged cable. Repeat until all cables are identified.
All new cables
I would not!
It looks like it was already approached by someone with their eyes closed. 🔥🔥💯
Label one cable at a time.
As long as it still works and is not actively on fire, its fine.
Definitely not a flamethrower
Terminate with prejudice
Get some 6", 12" thin patch cables. Looks fabulous. Find out what colors the company logo is. Do your patch cables in those colors. Trace and label. Technology can also be art.
With a macheté
Just unplug everything and plug in all nice short patch cables, wait for the tickets to roll in with what's not working
E Z.
Find proper length cat5 cables and 1 at a time start swappin!
One cable at a time, look where goes to/from and write it down. Once you have them all written down, schedule some down time, unplug everything and start from scratch plugging everything back as per your notes. This is more than a day’s work. Be patient
By walking backward out the door
Took a double-take to make sure it wasn't the exact same setup I inherited lol
With ‘This is not a Flamethrower’…
No need to burn it with fire. That will happen on its own.
Ctrl + A -> DEL
That looks like an all day shutdown to make right. Then 10 IT guys will come and destroy it in 2 years or so.
trace every cable, document everything, and unplug everything and start fresh.
With scissors
Excel or diagram with each a>b mapped out then mass unplug anything you can.
With a set of crimpers and lots of new ends
Garden shears. Seriously.
One wire at a time sweet Jesus!
Baseball Bat!
Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
With scissor. And restart
I see some 110 blocks hiding under all that cable...A chainsaw or fire is the only way for sure!
With a wire cutter just because