Gilbert> I'm building out a new data room and wanted to know if anyone
Gilbert> has used neatpatch.

Gilbert> http://www.neatpatch.com/

I went and looked, and the magic seems to be in 2' cables.  How many
times have you needed a 2.1' cable and only have 5' available?  

Gilbert> It looks like a nice straight-forward solution to an all too
Gilbert> common problem I've encountered over the years in just about
Gilbert> every data room I've worked in or visited: nicely braided
Gilbert> cables look amazing but are impractical.  Years of being
Gilbert> pressed for time, a dead switch, or an overly involved
Gilbert> network issue all lead to those braids being annoying and
Gilbert> turning into rat's nests.

So how does neatpatch make it simpler?  It looks like just as much of
a rats nest to me, just with shorter cables and a cover to hide the
mess.  

Gilbert> If you have any alternative cable management
Gilbert> systems/techniques that you have found help reinforce keeping
Gilbert> cables neat I'd be interested in your recommendations.

I really don't, because expediency generally trumps neatness unless
you're a fanatic and willing to cut/crimp cables for the exact
distance you need and neatly tie and bundle them.  I saw this in a
Telco office in Boston once.  Amazing work, but impractical.

The real solution in my mind is moving away from patching using
cables, to using patching in software, but that's got it's own issues
and problems.  

Virtualizing the network fabric is an on-going desire I'm sure.  We
just setup a bunch of systems and wanted multiple subnets, but also
multiple links.  It gets hard fast to coordinate both ends of the link
when noone is completely familiar with both ends.  

If you look back in the Sage and LOPSA archives, I'm sure you'll find
other discussions about cable management, etc.  The best suggestion I
have is to pre-lable each end with a unique number so that it's easier
to trace and find things in the rats nets.  Either buy the labels and
apply by hand, or just buy pre-labeled ones if you can help it.  

John
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