Cables: to label or not to label....that is the flamewar

Mon Aug 26 12:58:02 PDT 2002

On Mon, 26 Aug 2002, Dave wrote:
> We're having an, ahem, "discussion" with an internal customer (lab user)
> over whether or not my group (sysadmins) should be labeling patch cables
> in her (software QA) lab.  We've found that as often as not, the users
> of these very loosely-controlled software development and QA labs move
> any cables we've labeled to other equipment without re-labeling, and
> it sends us (and them) on wild goose chases when troubleshooting.
>
> We've proposed a compromise of putting a unique cable serial number
> on both ends of each (new) patch cable.

Hrm. I really don't recommend labelling cables with anything other than
serial numbers. Cables have (as you've discovered) an astounding ability
to roam. The numbers are at least easy to match at both ends *sigh*

I do make a point of labeling switch ports when the switch is
a smart switch - but again find that physically labeling ports is more
often a problem than not.

Of course if your switch is widely accessible, it won't matter if you
have port labels in software, either.

cheers!
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"A cat spends her life conflicted between a deep, passionate and profound
desire for fish and an equally deep, passionate and profound desire to
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