Before and After Pictures

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Before and After Pictures

Show us your before and after pictures after you have replaced something with new Meraki kit.

 

I just spent the whole weekend ripping out 500 ports of switching in a factory and putting in all new Meraki kit.  These pictures are one of the four main wiring cabinets - before and after the job was done.

 

Before.jpgAfter.jpg

119 REPLIES 119
MerakiDave
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Lot of work.  Thanks for sharing, very nicely done!!

MerakiDave
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Here's one of my own "before and after" stories.

 before and after.jpg

Ok, just kidding, stretched the truth a little, but you get the idea. 🙂 

I can barely see any cables... some serious cable management right here...

Wow!  What a mess.

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Here is another before and after.  In this case, the customer said thay wanted to be able to "see" where the patched ports plugged into the switch, without having to riffle through the cabling.

 

IMG_20181220_161535.jpgIMG_20181220_171039.jpg

Nick
Head in the Cloud

Some nice work!

 

I see a lot of these installs using what looks like slimline patch cables? Can anyone name a brand or provide a link to cabling they use that they would recommend to others?

 

Thanks

Nick
Head in the Cloud

After a recent set of installs before and afters

 

IMG_2779.JPGIMG_2786.jpg

 

IMG_6675.JPGIMG_2792.JPG

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

@Nick what part of the world are you in?

Nick
Head in the Cloud

UK! @PhilipDAth 

Nick
Head in the Cloud

Found the last of the three cabs we did on that install 

 

It really shouldn't be. But tidying cabs is rather therapeutic I find! 

 

IMG_6671.JPGIMG_9518.jpg

Nick
Head in the Cloud

We're seemingly on a roll here doing cabs at the moment so like a proud father I thought i'd throw up another

 

Still on the lookout for some slimline cat6a patch cabling if anyone knows of a good vendor?

 

 

IMG_3540.JPGIMG_3538.JPGIMG_4908.jpg

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

@Nick I  buy my slimline cables from CDL - but I suspect they wont be in your bit of the world.  All the codes begin with PLS.  I mostly use yellow, and then begin with PLSY.

 

https://cdlnz.com/search?q=PLS

Nick
Head in the Cloud

Nice - thats the sort we want

I will do some searching thanks Philip
Ben
A model citizen

Here you go, one from yesterday. Swapped out old cisco's for Meraki MS225. 

 

 

BeforeBefore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AfterAfter

 ¡Woah! 

Meraki Rocks !!!!!!

WadeAlsup
A model citizen

Hardly knew what I was doing...my first real tear out and try to clean up...turned out better than I thought it would, though!

 

IMG_0945.JPGIMG_0946.JPGIMG_0947.JPGIMG_0950.JPG


Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below) and If my reply solved your issue, please mark it as a solution 🙂

Much better!

Nice work!

 

I used Neat Patch for my last major install, works great.

Here's my before and after

Before and After.jpg

Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below)

You have tamed the spaghetti monster. That is no small job. Awesome work! How long did that take?
Adam Slater
Content Engineering Manager
Product Enablement

@AdamS, That took 4 guys and 17 hours. We started at noon on a Saturday and finished around 5am. We ran into some missing ports in a newly renovated area of our office that ate up a bit of time. 

Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below)

@Mr_IT_Guy: Are those dual MX400s? Hate you a little bit.

BHC Resorts IT Department

@BHC_RESORTS, would you hate me more if they were dual MX600s? If so,  then yes those are simply dual MX400s....

Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below)
MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@Mr_IT_Guy @BHC_RESORTS I see your dual MX600’s and raise dual MX450’s. E4A6248E-B2F3-4E8E-8EC0-E81E8177E511.jpeg

 

MRCUR | CMNO #12

@MRCUR yeah, those are pretty nice sir!! 

Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below)
AdamS
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Very nice shot, but may I suggest the framing would be better with some MS425's under that ;-).

Adam Slater
Content Engineering Manager
Product Enablement

@AdamS The MS425s are pretty nice!

Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below)
BHC_RESORTS
Head in the Cloud


@AdamS wrote:

Very nice shot, but may I suggest the framing would be better with some MS425's under that ;-).


Looks like an HP 5406zl. One of my favorite switch chassis! Now if there was a Meraki switch chassis....wow would that be legit!

BHC Resorts IT Department
MRCUR
Kind of a big deal


@BHC_RESORTS wrote:

@AdamS wrote:

Very nice shot, but may I suggest the framing would be better with some MS425's under that ;-).


Looks like an HP 5406zl. One of my favorite switch chassis! Now if there was a Meraki switch chassis....wow would that be legit!


5406R without a second management module. I too really like this model and second the request for a Meraki chassis switch. 

 

I do have some MS425's as well since @AdamS mentioned it... 

 

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_13d.jpg

 

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_179.jpg

 

 

 

MRCUR | CMNO #12
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I did another rip out and replace last night, MX MS and MR.  This is one of the cabinets.

Before.jpgAfter.jpg

This morning :

 

Replaced old Alcatel switch to brand new Meraki MS120 at customer remote bureau. 399 sites to go !

Leguevin Avant2.jpgLeguevin Apres2.jpg

 

 

 

Avant.jpgApres.jpgAnother one, for me cleaning means remove dirty devices 😉 here I removed 1 HP 48P switch with a beautiful stack of 2 MSS225 Meraki switches !

 

 

Removed a fortinet + cisco + aerohive disaster and replaced it with the MX84 + MR42 AP's + Cisco SG300.

Cable cleanup and cabinet rearrangement did most of the cosmetical cleanup 😉

 

 

CleanupBeforeandAfter.jpg

 

 

@KrisVerdonck

 

Hi

 

Is that the 3M turquoise Ethernet cable that you are using, it looks good as does the other colour with it, pale lavender? 

 

I have to build a small rack from scratch that will be photographed and used in explanations, so it will really have to look the business.

 

The turquoise colour works well with metallic objects - see the Mecedes Petronas F1 car, and your other colour choice is equally suited to a metallic environment.

 

I'd use Aston Martin's AppleTree Green if I could find cables that colour (photographs are unreliable, however)

 

Cheers

Robin St.Clair | Principal, Caithness Analytics | @uberseehandel

@Uberseehandel

 

Hi,

 

We used  :

https://www.tridis.be/en/patch-cable-u-utp-category-6-0-15m-violet-utp-snagless

and 

https://www.tridis.be/en/patch-cable-u-utp-category-6-0-15m-green

 

We always use this with a 48-ports switch in combination with 2 x 24 patchpanel around it.

 

See also this one (new rack - no before and after with an MX65).

 

Newinstall.PNG

 

 

@KrisVerdonck

 

That looks excellent. Thank you for the URLs for the cables.

 

I have a feeling my photogenic rack is going to end up more expensive than a lot of the kit in it . . .  ;-[])

Robin St.Clair | Principal, Caithness Analytics | @uberseehandel

Just for fun another cleanup 🙂

Switches and router are from Cisco but Wifi is Meraki.

 

BeforeBeforeAfterAfter

IMG_20160507_143359.jpgIMG_20160508_122926.jpg

The wooden box caught my eye . . . 

Robin St.Clair | Principal, Caithness Analytics | @uberseehandel

It was handmade to put the rack on top of it but then we found a much better stand between the junk 🙂

 


@KrisVerdonckwrote:

It was handmade to put the rack on top of it but then we found a much better stand between the junk 🙂

 


Well the wine was hand made - 

 

winebox.jpg

 

Robin St.Clair | Principal, Caithness Analytics | @uberseehandel

Woah, you have your network gear in a bomb shelter?!  Nice! 

Wow, nice!

Nice job!

One of our branch offices went from 60 desks down to a new office with just 9 when the lease was up. Now a little cramped, with the wall rack sitting in the kitchen of the office. Didn't get a picture of it after finalizing the wiring and a little cleanup.

Mid removal of probably 95% of equipmentMid removal of probably 95% of equipment 

Not clean, but not dirty. You can barely see the Nortel switches that would no longer allow us to make changesNot clean, but not dirty. You can barely see the Nortel switches that would no longer allow us to make changes 

The APC units are sitting on top of a refrigeratorThe APC units are sitting on top of a refrigerator

Wow nice work though

Very nice. How is this cooled?

"Mr. Slim" cools it, and does a pretty terrible job. This noise is horrendous but I've been told because of budget it is what it is. We did have the AC repair guy out three times and he couldn't fix it. I actually became pretty familiar with the guy, who wanted me to call him when it "made the noise again." So I called him, said "Let me play you the song of my people" and he still couldn't hear it. We then determined that the AC guy might have a hearing loss issue. 

Whoa!

I love those slim cables!  They really help in cleaning up a rack.

NICE!!!!!

OMG! How long did this take and how many women?

This took me, myself, and I a couple months [approvals, third party communications, etc]  If cabling was the only responsibility I had, it wouldn't have taken so long. It still needs work. There are several UPS's in there. 

Nice work!

Before: 6 old unstacked Netgear switches:

 

beforebefore

After: 4 MS120-48LP stacked

afterafter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carlos
Conversationalist

Wow, Is that the same site?

Jhon
Conversationalist

Wow!

Good job!

shan
Conversationalist

Wow!

Wow.  That's a serious clean up.  Things look WAY better in the after pic.  Nicely done!

Looks Great 

 

NICE I dont see a UPS thou....

Whoa!! VERY NICELY DONE!!!!!

BruceW
Getting noticed

 

 

Any volunteers to help with this one?  I have a couple dozen to clean up by July. 🙂 

 

wiring mess.jpg

Bruce Winters

I definitely want to see the after photos, @BruceW!


Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below) and If my reply solved your issue, please mark it as a solution 🙂
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Yeah, big job those 4500's.

Hi everyone.

 

I am posting in hopes of some swag but I have to admit I picked this photo to respond to because behind a door in a tucked away from my users, it looks much like this. Job security because only I know the combination to make it all work LOL.


@L337NetEng wrote:

Hi everyone.

 

I am posting in hopes of some swag but I have to admit I picked this photo to respond to because behind a door in a tucked away from my users, it looks much like this. Job security because only I know the combination to make it all work LOL.


Hi @L337NetEng - appreciate the honesty about your motivation for posting! 😛We're glad you're here; welcome to the Meraki Community! I think you should post your "Before" picture here even if you don't have an "After".

Caroline S | Community Manager, Cisco Meraki
New to the community? Get started here
PK
Conversationalist

Yeah, looking forward to the after pics!

Good luck buddy!

ArthurGF
Conversationalist

Wow
Ben
A model citizen

Cleanup time with a client who we switched to a fullstack. 

Since the rack was in the storage area of the café it got a bit forgotten you can say... 

 

Before: 

IMG_20180618_092616593_LL.jpg

 

After: 

IMG_20180618_104807548_LL.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also replaced the old server room rack. 

Old:

rackold.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New :

 

racknew.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Ben

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Here is another "before and after".

 

IMG_20180914_171237.jpgIMG_20180914_220918.jpg

BrothersTM
Getting noticed

Spring of 2016 I ripped it all out.  I mean all.  New switches and about 400% more ap's, new fiber between closets up from 1Gb to 10Gb, new racks, new cat6 cabling...color coded I might add.  Yellow is voice, white wireless, green data, and red security cameras.  I've included a Google Drive share below to view all the pics I have so far.  We had a new construction so you'll see some of those as well.  The end result is night and day and much easier to manage.

 

Before and After pics

 

Since the upgrade, I have added some 1U blanks for air flow management and it just looks nicer.  41 MV21/71s at the new construction.

 

That is a very very nice job!
mmmmmmark
Building a reputation

That looks way better! Nicely done


@BrothersTM wrote:

Spring of 2016 I ripped it all out.  I mean all.  New switches and about 400% more ap's, new fiber between closets up from 1Gb to 10Gb, new racks, new cat6 cabling...color coded I might add.  Yellow is voice, white wireless, green data, and red security cameras.  I've included a Google Drive share below to view all the pics I have so far.  We had a new construction so you'll see some of those as well.  The end result is night and day and much easier to manage.

 

Before and After pics

 

Since the upgrade, I have added some 1U blanks for air flow management and it just looks nicer.  41 MV21/71s at the new construction.

 


Boooo MMF. But seriously, that's some excellent work. I've always wanted to do color coding for patch cables...

BHC Resorts IT Department
MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@BHC_RESORTS Color coded patch cables is the only way to keep things straight without always having to refer to documentation IMO. Also hugely helpful when you have a tech that isn't familiar with networking in a closet and need them to find the right thing for you. 

MRCUR | CMNO #12
jared_f
Kind of a big deal

I was scrolling through this today, did not see @BrothersTM's photos last time. Very impressive, I am not sure if I would have that much patience to color code. Looks awesome!

Find this helpful? Click the kudos button. Thanks!
NSGuru
Getting noticed

This was a new install for one of our DatacenterS. Front of rack and back of rack. Front of Rack Las Vegas Full View 2.jpgBack of Rack Las Vegas  Full View.jpg

Cloud Network Engineer | cloudIT
Certified Meraki Networking Associate

Kudo this if it helped! 🙂
TTunstell
Comes here often

Wow!

trunolimit
Building a reputation

from what I understand about Data Centers is that they have a hot isle and a cold isle. It seems like not the best idea to put the MX and some MS behind other MSes. They are going to intake the hot air discharge from the switches in front of them. I'm sure in a climate controlled environment the equipment won't ever reach a temperature that it will matter but it's an inefficient rack design. 

CarolineS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Just cross-referencing... if you are enjoying the photos on this thread, check out some more in our Spring Cleaning 2018 contest.

 

Cheers!

Caroline S | Community Manager, Cisco Meraki
New to the community? Get started here
CarolineS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Following up on my Spring Cleaning contest entry: here are the before and after pictures for a different kind of Meraki gear - SWAG! I finally got my own cupboard and made a sign. (No, I won't reveal the inside of the cupboard! But it is a thing of organized beauty, I assure you).

 

Caroline's swag disaster - BeforeCaroline's swag disaster - Before

 Swag disaster no more!Swag disaster no more!

 

 

 

Caroline S | Community Manager, Cisco Meraki
New to the community? Get started here
trunolimit
Building a reputation

Any advice you would give yourself before starting this project? I'm being put in charge of a clean up project myself. I'm heading down on Monday to start. 

trunolimit
Building a reputation

Had to tear out the punch panels in this room. In a few weeks I'm going to have to put it back together. Oh Joy!!!

unnamed.jpg

Only advice @trunolimit, when it is that bad, strip everything and start again.

andy1
Conversationalist

...wow...and I thought ours are bad, this is what nightmares are made off. Good luck! 

Leejohn1
Here to help

Wow!!! Good job on the aftermath 🙂

 

-Lee

brwillou
Comes here often

Nice work!

WadeAlsup
A model citizen

New Engineering work space, wired up and ready to go.

engineeringswitch.jpg


Found this helpful? Give me some Kudos! (click on the little up-arrow below) and If my reply solved your issue, please mark it as a solution 🙂
Reggz
Conversationalist

Nice Picture 🙂 

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Much better!

Thanks

Nice work!

Wow! Awesome work!

goodsamaritan12
Conversationalist

awesome!
dragon_ryder
Meraki Alumni (Retired)
Meraki Alumni (Retired)

wow!

Another recent deployment.  These are the before and after pictures for one of the cabinets that was part of a much larger refresh.

 

before.jpgafter.jpg

Nick
Head in the Cloud

The world of onsite work has been at a stop, but things carry on. Some home configuration and then deployed in situ!

 

 

IMG_6533.JPG

IMG_2493.JPG

JoseCarlosBA
Conversationalist

Wow!

Anonymous
Not applicable

"Wow!" or "Woah!"

shan
Conversationalist

Wow! very perfect job

Giving me some inspiration to sort out my cabs!

Fernandes
Conversationalist

Wow! Nice work..!! Congrats...

maderap
Here to help

Wow!

Rstevens55
Conversationalist

Wow Great Job !!

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Another long day doing another Cisco Meraki deployment.

 

Before hand with 10 network devices.

DTR-Before.jpg

 

Replaced with 5 new Meraki devices.DTR-After.jpg

Nice job @PhilipDAth, did the colour coded cabling mean anything or did they just like having a rainbow coloured cabinet? 

The colours meant nothing.  Just different people patching at different times with whatever was lying around. 

Ben
A model citizen


@PhilipDAth wrote:

The colours meant nothing.  Just different people patching at different times with whatever was lying around. 


 

I think this is where it usually goes wrong untill someone takes the time to clean up. 

BlakeRichardson
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I used coloured cables for different networks i.e. Security, VOIP, Wireless, printers, servers etc.

 

We have a strict policy use the right colour cable and if we dont have one in the right size use a beige cable it and label the cable until the right size cables arrives. 

First two pictures are some work I did at a family members apartment, to clean up a terrible pre-installation. Ethernet cables ran through the apartment which was awesome, they just never bothered to terminate them lol. The after photo gives you the general final product of what I ended up with.

 

IMG-20180723-WA0010.jpg

IMG-20180726-WA0023.jpeg

 

 

As for the office, I don't have a before photo, so you'll have to just image a big cable nest of chaos. This photo here is how I standardize things at work for all the IDF locations.

 

24 port patch panel

48 port switch

48 port patch panel

...rinse repeat

 

This is the cleanest solution and I hate doing it any other way  😃

 

IMG-20180228-WA0011.jpeg

Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
TwitterLinkedIn

That is a very nice layout @NolanHerring.

That cabling is on point! Very nice!
NolanHerring
Kind of a big deal

@PhilipDAth @Ben

 

Thanks guys  ^_^


I actually have a better before and after photo below.

 

 

Here is the before.

 

11111.JPG

 

 

Here is the after. It's a little hard to install, but it really helps with the cable management and dust collection.

 

222222.JPG

Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
TwitterLinkedIn

haha, cats and IT gear. Somehow they are drawn to it...  

Stephen_K
Conversationalist

Not as big a job as some, but this was kind of fun. 

 

Stephen_K_0-1701812366658.png

 

I do wonder how to deal with the MS120/250 24 port switches.  Have not seen a patch panel that is only on the right.

Get notified when there are additional replies to this discussion.
Welcome to the Meraki Community!
To start contributing, simply sign in with your Cisco account. If you don't yet have a Cisco account, you can sign up.