I just started a Systems Administrator position and one of my first tasks is to clean up the data center. There are wires all over the place, power strips hanging by a chord mid air, and cables intertwined within one another. (I’d post pictures but I’m still new here and I didn’t bring my camera. I’m not sure how they would like the new guy taking pictures in the data center on his second day anyway.) The data center has about 6 racks. 5 on the back wall with a 6th in front of the other 5. The 6th has cables going to the other 5 via a makeshit bridge across the roof of the racks. The hardware is all Dell. The switch cabling bends around to the back from the front (very sharp bends), and hangs all the way down to the floor, then back up to it’s destination.
Anyway, my boss told me this is a 99.999 uptime data center, and we cannot shut it down to organize the cables. He wants me to clean it up as best I can without downtime.
I think this is impossible, but I wanted to ask to see if there is anything I can do. I guess I can buy some velcro straps and tie everything together… I wanted to see if anyone has ever done anything like this and if there is some magic solution I am overlooking.
I will try and get some pictures up for you guys soon. Please tell me what you think.