Datacenter tools?

Thu Jun 3 16:50:45 PDT 2004

Genie Lift GL-8 with load platform and ladder. Allows one person to 
rack-mount equipment weighing up to about 400 lbs up to shoulder-height. 
The integral ladder makes it easy to work at the top of racks or in 
cable trays. Avoid the "straddle" base - too wide for easy maneuvering 
in data center aisles. Also, don't believe too much about the maximum 
claimed height the lift will reach - you can't attach the load platform 
when the forks are inverted and the bare inverted forks don't provide a 
horizontal plane for lifting things.

Takes up about as much floor space as a rack but fits nicely in the 
"untouchable" zone beside the PDU.

http://www.genielift.com/ml-series/ml-1-3.asp

No, I don't work for 'em.

Dave Mack

Michael T. Halligan wrote:

>My ops director has a good-sized chunk of cash in our budget
>marked aside for "Datacenter tools".  I was wondering what people like
>to keep on their datacenter for such things.
>
>So far, we have : 
>
>- Plantronics Industrial noise-canceling phono dual-ear headset,
>  with connectors for the 3 different types of cell phones our ops
>  people use, and one portable phone we keep in a cabinet.
>- Power convertors for the 3 different types of cell phones
>- anti-static straps in each cabinet
>- assorted sizes Velcro cable ties, as well as nylon zip ties
>- 1 APC Environmental Monitoring Unit in each cabinet
>- 1 Laptop in each cabinet with serial connections and adapters for
>  3 different types of serial connections
>- Ethereal & Minicom installed, as well as a web browser
>- Patch panel for laptop with 3 network connections (one for each
>  subnet)
>- Assorted tools (punchdown, cable cutters, screwdrivers, wrenches (for
>  adjusting cabinets), several paper-clips (APCs have very tiny reset
>  buttons if they trip)
>- Roll of quarters for vending machine
>- One cold-spare for every classification of server, including load
>  balancers, switches, firewalls
>- 4U chatsworth locking drawers in every cabinet to keep spare parts and
>- Cold spares for anything that we could imagine will break (CPU,
>  memory, different sizes of hot-swap drives, raid cards, PDUs (very
>  helpful, just had a PDU fail on us yesterday), GBICs,  we've even got a spare
>  1U USR tray of fans in case one of ours fails. 
>- Paper & pens
>- 2 Label makers, with extra tape
>- Post-its
>- Multimeter
>- Extra cables of all types (serial, scsi, cat5, cat5 crossover)
>- Power tester
>- Ethernet link checker
>- Floor panel lifters
>- Foldup nylon chair
>- 2 Keyboards & Mice (less important since our datacenter provides
>  rolling carts)
>
>It sounds a bit cluttered, but we have 2 cabinets dedicated for testing
>environment and management tools, and production in other cabinets,
>eventually we'll have 2 cabinets solely for testing, and one for
>management).
>
>We've tried to make everything as remotely manageable a possible.
>Everything sits on a remote serial console, as well as a remote
>reboot switch. Our datacenter has a staffed 24x7 NOC that will change
>tapes, sit down at a terminal to read errors and type commands, as well
>as reboot boxes.
>
>We've also made everything redundant as possible, having everything
>that's not using our clustering utilities have a hot-spare (vrrp for
>network gear, LVS for servers).  We've also setup automatic rebuild
>scripts for all of our servers, so we can kickstart or systemimage
>through a serial console.
>
>My goal is to eliminate trips to the dc as much as possible, but making 
>sure we have every tool we need in case of any unforseen failure.
>
>Some of the proposed new tools have been :
>
> - 1 AXIS network camera per cabinet (the kind that pan, so we can
>   potentially look at blinkys, as well as who's accessing)
> - Fluke network debuggers
> 
>
>Does anybody else have any other good ideas for tools to keep in the datacenter?
>
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