Network Rescue - Small Office Rack Relocated and Beautified 

One additional suggestion any time equipment is moved. Have the administrator confirm in writing that they have a) logged into each switch, router or firewall, b) executed whatever command commits its running config to its flash memory to survive a power reset, c) extracted a backup of the configuration off of the device in case it needs to be pushed back in if the device doesn't recover cleanly from the power cycle.

I like this series, would love to see more. Even though the before wasn't terrible, always nice to see little improvements built into the move.

That was a solid job, and a great advice in the end. Some clients really are like family members, once you go near their stuff they feel like you are now their lifetime tech support.

Resting the switch on screws, placed below the desired U, is incredibly simple yet genius! At about 8:40

Happy to find someone that gives the vibes FiberNinja used too.

Here's a tip from years ago when we were building our office and fitting out our network room. Once we determined which wall where all of the phone and network racks would go, instead of drywalling that wall, we covered it entirely with furniture grade plywood. Instead of plastering just the joints, we plastered the entire sheet with a very thin coat of mud and sanded it down so that it was indistinguishable from drywall. It was beautiful. And we could mount anything anywhere because we could drive screws anywhere on that wall without trying to find a stud.

Very nice, efficiently done. Please keep these real-world practical network install/revise/rebuild videos coming!

muchas gracias por compartir! Saludos desde Honduras.

Nicely done. Looks much better now and easier to manage. Thanks!

Fantastic video. Amazing neatness and attention to detail.

Learning so much from this channel.

Nice video. One question I found good to ask the client (and users in some cases) ahead of time is if there are any known issues or problems that they have been having previously? When you're finished and you discover something not working right, it may be because it was that way before. Also, a lot of such problems may disappear (due to better connections and new patch cables) so you get extra credit for fixing that too!

Loving the series and the narration.

Derrek has a calming deep buttery smooth voice like a white morgan freeman😂

I have no experience in this kind of thing, but I imagine this would classify as one of those potential "nightmare jobs". For you to have finished it within 15 minutes of the allotted time is seriously impressive to me! Great content and I look forward to watching more!

I love this. Thank you for making this video!

Love this. Very nice and informative.!

Went through something similar myself recently. Moved into a house built about 100 years ago and have been working on it while living in it. Have pulled about 2K feet of ethernet and some OM3 fiber through the house with a bit more to go but had my router, server and switches sitting on a dresser in my office area. Finally bit the bullet and put the rack in place and got everything mounted. Still need to either upgrade or add a second UPS but that is for another day. My rack is a similar height to the one in the video but is full depth for my 4U server case (Chenbro NR40700). My rack is on wheels so it can be pulled out of the closet for maintenance or pulling more cables. I also have enough slack in the main lines that I can completely remove the rack from the closet (it's under a set of stairs with minimal room) without issue. I do have to ask why not go for patch cables that are custom length instead of using a tray to hold everything? For my OM3 connections I picked up some little seven inch cables and for all my ethernet I made 12" patch cables to keep things nice and tight which IMHO looks a lot cleaner. What is your opinion on using TIA B vs TIA A with Cat6? With Cat5 "B" was the spec I used and "A" was the old one but now it seems that "A" is the new correct standard again. Not sure what if anything the switch adds other than it is a bit tougher to pin out the cables using the "A" standard. How about the 8P8C jacks and plugs that are being touted as Cat7 and upcharged vs the old ones that were labeled Cat5 or not labeled at all but still compatible? From what I can tell the standard for the connectors hasn't changed a bit since they were introduced and I still use the ones I have had sitting around for 10 plus years. For those wondering I am currently running the Chenbro NR40700 with a SMC X8DT6-F and a pair of Xeon X5690's and TrueNAS, the router is in a Rosewill RSV L4500U with a SMC X10SLL-F and Xeon E3-1226 V3 and OpnSense, Fiber switch is a Quanta LB6M, the Ethernet switch is a Dell PowerConnect 5548, and the WiFi is provided via a pair of TP-Link EAP 650's (soon to be 3 when I get the upstairs finished) with a Omada OC200 controller and POE provided via TL-SG1005P. I use the 10G fiber as a backbone from my router, server, and desktop with a pair of DAC's connecting from the Quanta LB6M to the PowerConnect 5548. I also plan to have a fiber drop at two points in the living room, multiple points in the office, with one drop in each of the downstairs bedrooms, and two drops in the master suite which is being put in upstairs as a way to futureproof. I have a 3 24 port patch panels with one installed above and two below the PowerConnect 5548 and right below those the LB6M is installed and routes to the patch panel right above it.

If the customer(s) are happy with it, so be it, but you've just mixed Company A and Company B in the new setup. The original rack had them clearly separated. I love how neat the original infrastructure wiring was - once the mess was out of the way.

Great Job !!!

Thank you! Love your videos! Well done 👍

Love your videos!!!

I want to hire these guys and I don't even have a network!

Well done, very neat indeed. I like that neat patch cable management system, I need to look into it.

More of this

Great videos, new subscriber! 😊

Good video Sir.

please do 1 patch 24 port, 1 48 port switch below that, then 1 patch 48 ports below and so on.. then you can use only 6 inch patch cords and no messing with cable managers and makes it ten times easier to troubleshoot. Connecting everything is easy but troubleshooting is really why we do these kinds of jobs. Have done hundreds of these and I was using cable management also before i discovered the way to do it with 6 inch cables.. 1 patch panel, 1 switch, 1 patch panel, 1 switch, etc

Awesome rescue! Making a 24 cable run tomorrow and getting some inspiration from your videos. Lol. I know that price questions must pop up a lot, but how much did you charge? And how? By the hour or by the job? What about keystone jacks, are they charged individually or by drop (2 cables to one wall plate, 3 cables to one wall plate?). Thanks in advance!

The schemes you save on your phone should also be uploaded in the cloud, just for extra caution

You kind of skipped over the super laborious part of moving the trunk bundles, but am I to understand you finagled the terminated patch panels through the ceiling space to move everything without having to reterminate?

Hey Derek, I know that I saw it in one of your videos but I can't find it again. What braided fish tape are you using and also what collapsible fish sticks are you using? I've learned quite a bit from your tutorials and really appreciate your time and effort. Thanks a lot!

Is there a general guideline on distance between the outlet power lines and the ethernet cables?

only seen 47 seconds of the video so far but i want to say before i forget, i want that guy holding the green ladders job! how do i apply :) (joking around aside) that was a very nice job! well done team!

Hey great job, out of curosity what does something like this cost? ball park figure , between what and what?

How do you do a rescue if the cables for the patch panel was cut too short to be mounted to the cabinet?

this was very well done, can you do a video about a DIY server rack? im doing this for a home, but looking for a diy solution, some of those cable mangers you use are not avalilable in my country, and if you do find them they are very expensive, hence i wana do a diy solution.... most of my colleague and friends homes are becoming increaseingly tech resourced, meaning, we have multiple DVR, switches, smarthome devices, POE cameras, NAS, etc, and all of this looks untidy and jumbled in a corner.... im looking for a diy way to make it much more appealing.

This was a cool project. Thanks for sharing! How much does a job like this cost? How much inventory do you keep on hand in terms of patch cables, boxed cable, etc? How often do they go smoothly like this vs hairy issues that drag on?

What do you call those hooks mounted to the concrete under the ceiling that holds the stack of cables?

Would have asked for more time if possible and do this on a weekend less people around. And I had the idea this ended up in a kitchen or break room that's such a bad location if used as kitchen or breakroom

11:10 ✅

good lord are FAX’s still a thing?

Whats ups with that paloalto and that link??

P R O M O S M 😈

Typical switch rack. They all start out neat and become wire vomit over time.

why is this a tough situation - it is pretty standard - take pics and label everything directly - pics don't lie your notes do