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.
Lot of work. Thanks for sharing, very nicely done!!
Here's one of my own "before and after" stories.
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.
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.
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
After a recent set of installs before and afters
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!
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?
@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.
Here you go, one from yesterday. Swapped out old cisco's for Meraki MS225.
¡Woah!
Meraki Rocks !!!!!!
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!
Nice work!
I used Neat Patch for my last major install, works great.
Here's my before and after
@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.
@Mr_IT_Guy: Are those dual MX400s? Hate you a little bit.
@BHC_RESORTS, would you hate me more if they were dual MX600s? If so, then yes those are simply dual MX400s....
@MRCUR yeah, those are pretty nice sir!!
Very nice shot, but may I suggest the framing would be better with some MS425's under that ;-).
@AdamS The MS425s are pretty nice!
@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 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...
I did another rip out and replace last night, MX MS and MR. This is one of the cabinets.
This morning :
Replaced old Alcatel switch to brand new Meraki MS120 at customer remote bureau. 399 sites to go !
Another 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 😉
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
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).
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 . . . ;-[])
Just for fun another cleanup 🙂
Switches and router are from Cisco but Wifi is Meraki.
The wooden box caught my eye . . .
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 -
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.
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.
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:
After: 4 MS120-48LP stacked
Wow, Is that the same site?
Wow!
Good job!
Wow!
Wow. That's a serious clean up. Things look WAY better in the after pic. Nicely done!
Looks Great
Whoa!! VERY NICELY DONE!!!!!
Any volunteers to help with this one? I have a couple dozen to clean up by July. 🙂
I definitely want to see the after photos, @BruceW!
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".
Yeah, looking forward to the after pics!
Good luck buddy!
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:
After:
Also replaced the old server room rack.
Old:
New :
Cheers,
Ben
Here is another "before and after".
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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!
This was a new install for one of our DatacenterS. Front of rack and back of rack.
Wow!
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.
Just cross-referencing... if you are enjoying the photos on this thread, check out some more in our Spring Cleaning 2018 contest.
Cheers!
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).
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.
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!!!
Only advice @trunolimit, when it is that bad, strip everything and start again.
...wow...and I thought ours are bad, this is what nightmares are made off. Good luck!
Wow!!! Good job on the aftermath 🙂
-Lee
Nice work!
New Engineering work space, wired up and ready to go.
Nice Picture 🙂
Nice work!
Wow! Awesome work!
wow!
Another recent deployment. These are the before and after pictures for one of the cabinets that was part of a much larger refresh.
The world of onsite work has been at a stop, but things carry on. Some home configuration and then deployed in situ!
Wow!
"Wow!" or "Woah!"
Giving me some inspiration to sort out my cabs!
Wow! Nice work..!! Congrats...
Wow!
Wow Great Job !!
Another long day doing another Cisco Meraki deployment.
Before hand with 10 network devices.
Replaced with 5 new Meraki devices.
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.
@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.
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.
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 😃
Thanks guys ^_^
I actually have a better before and after photo below.
Here is the before.
Here is the after. It's a little hard to install, but it really helps with the cable management and dust collection.
haha, cats and IT gear. Somehow they are drawn to it...
Not as big a job as some, but this was kind of fun.
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.
These are 2 Racks recently done bij me, april 2024, i used Unifi slim Patchcables CAT6: