Never route the cables down the inside of the rack, you’ll hate yourself in the future. If I’m dressing a rack full of the same type of device, such as a rack full of compute from the same vendor, if the NICs are on the left or right, i’ll route the cables down the side of the rack in front of the posts using cable management clips.

Same for DACs, which are usually slightly stiffer / thicker copper cabling with moulded SFP modules on the end. The distance from the bar to the switch ports should be adequate not to cause undue stress / bending on the fibres. Then just velcro the fibre cables to the bar. This way you can neatly route the top row of switchports into the top cable management, and the bottom row into the bottom cable management.įibre is much the same except i’ll use cable management bars which are simply 19” metal bars that stick out a few inches. Personally, for copper cabling, I like to put a horizontal cable management enclosure above and below the switches, but with a 1U gap (blanking plate). As others have posted, most enterprise grade ToR switches can be ordered with the airflow reversed for mounting the devices with the ports facing the rear of the rack.ĭepending on the model/vendor, you can sometimes order the fan modules and/or PSUs with the airflow reversed separately.Īs for cabling, it depends on the width of your rack and cable management fixtures.

Tor switch rack mounting