Cable Management for Rack-Mounted Systems

This paper discusses methods and techniques by which one can avoid mismanagement of cables and attain a more organised cable management. This is particularly relevant in the case of high-density server installations. High-density server installations usually require extensive amount of power and data cables for each rack. In such a case, the right management of cable assemblies is important else it can cause failure of system performance and unnecessary downtime, while making maintenance difficult and even causing safety hazards. This paper comes up with methods and recommends techniques and products that can be employed for safe and effective cable management. If a High Performance Computing (HPC) data center has to work efficiently, it is important that their highly populated equipment racks are managed with caution. The component density of a rack increases with more sophisticated systems. If cables are not effectively in such a case it can turn enterprise HPC systems into a costly and unacceptable affair. Mismanaged cables can cause reduced performance due to signal crosstalk, hamper performance due to interferences across adjacent cables, make it difficult to maintain HPCs because components are blocked by cables, cause safety hazards due to unprotected movement, and cause thermal (cooling) issues because of restricted airflow around active components. With effective cable management one can achieve stable and reliable performance along with ease of serviceability and thermal efficiency with cost-efficient equipment cooling.