Cabling for Large configurations

Rack to Rack connections between Visio pages

• With front view you can have up to six racks per page
• With rear view you can have only up to two racks per page
• If your solution includes more than two racks you will have to split your rear view drawing over two or more pages
• In that case you might have to run cables from one page to another in rear view
• I made an additional shape “ Rack to Rack 24 port rear“ for running cables between pages, L/R variants

Example: Rack-to-Rack connect shape

Usage:

• Can run 12 cable pairs
• Use ports 13-24 for running cables between adjacent pages
  • Node4&3 page to Node2&1 page
• Use ports 1-12 if you have skip one page in order to reach your destination page
  • Node6&5 page to Node2&1 page
  • Cables passing trough Node4&3 page
• Show me quote with more than six racks and I will be happy build a 48 port version of the shape 🙂

Example: “Rack to Rack 24 port R” shape

• Location of “Rack to Rack 24 port R” shape
  • Top right corner of drawing, just in side the margin shape
• Cables running toward racks located on pages to the right

Example:”Rack to Rack 24 port L” shape

• Location of “Rack to Rack 24 port L” shape
  • Top left corner of drawing, just in side the margin shape
• Cables running toward racks located on pages to the left
• 10 GbE Netapp cables terminating in a switch on this page
• 1GbE Mgmt cables passing this page to following page

Example use case 1:

• Initial setup:
  • two nodes in one rack
  • Cluster interconnect & management switches in the same rack as controllers
  • Additional rack with disk shelves
• Expansion
  • Additional two nodes + disks in one rack
  • Additional rack with disk shelves
• You have to run Cluster Interconnect and management cables for new nodes to another page with switches
• Four Racks total on two separate rear view pages

Example use case 2:

• Six Rack Example
• 2 Nodes / Rack pair
• Cluster Interconnect in Rack 3
• Management Switches in Racks 2

Using switch shapes in multi-page drawings

• You can use Mid mounted switch boxes to assign ports from switches that are not located with the same pages as originating ports
• Reserve ports by cabling both ends of cable shape to same port
  • This way the cable is just “End Shape” with “Zero Legs”
• Sometimes you can just use these to reserve ports and skip running cables between pages
  • if you decide skip running cables between pages, reserve ports with “Zero Legs” cables both in controller and switch ports