Tue Jan 27, 2015 10:03 am
LOL... stealing my soap box again, eh?
I didn't mean plan for (expect) a Netonix switch to fail... but always expect the unexpected and try to have a plan for how to recover from it.
On my last job, I was 100% responsible for the business side of the network and only had a dotted line to the process control side. I would get called in to assist if'n when they had issues. I did all the work on my network but for the process control network it was a union shop so the ENI techs did all the installs, and cable layout. There was one ENI tech that was obsessed about the jumpers and used short jumpers from the switches to the patch panels. Some of the other techs would tangle up the jumpers in front of the switches so badly that it was impossible to remove a failed switch from the front without removing jumpers going to other switches.
Sometimes I got lucky and could pull the switch forward just enough to get at the screws to remove the ears so that I could then pull the switch out the back instead. Sometimes not... the back was often such a rats nest of power cords, premise wire, etc., that removing via the rear was not an option either. If I had supervisory authority over the ENI techs, I would have never let them make such a friggin mess in the first place. There was little chance of getting them to clean it up on a scheduled shutdown cuz the techs were busy doing other planned shit.
I had the same problem with their servers... jammed in willy nilly... power cords too short to slide out the server. They cheaped out and didn't buy the optional redundant power supply. The Dell server had the C14 connector for the redundant PS and sometimes the techs had a power cord plugged into the outlet as well but if you pulled the other plug to try to rearrange the cords one at a time, the server went down hard!
All my servers had redundant power supplies and the cords long enough and properly routed so the server could be slid out. All my network switches had long enough jumpers routed out the the side of the rack and back, so a switch or a module could easily be pulled. At one time I had to change out 25 modules when I discovered a production run flaw in them. They were hot plug modules so I could effect the swap with minimum (rolling) network disruption.
Anyway... ramblings of an old man. Like I said, to fail to plan is to plan to fail.