Talk:The Design and Organization of Data Centers/Location

I like this book idea, this is something that I might be able to help with, unlike most of the other subjects. My background is in network engineering, but I must admit that I have only designed a few data centers, and they were not big and serious like what you are listing here.

I have observed this done wrong; once a client had their racks installed so close to the wall that we couldnt easily get behind the racks to deal with the (never ending) cable hassles.

I found a $50 portable label machine to be my best friend. I like to tape a copy of the network map right onto the wall, and have a pencil (with eraser) velcro'ed to it. I encourage others to "write on the map any time", and we occasionally update it. The map has the file path listed (not a URL of course) on it. "revised [date]" is below the title of every map.

I'm more of the networking guy than a contractor that does this type of work, but let me know if there is anything somebody like me can add to this book. note, I have not read thru it fully.

Definately remind the reader that documentation is "billable hours", so they are financially modivated to do what we are notorious for putting off. I like to tell clients "if I do my job correctly, I can get hit by a bus and my office can burn down, and you will have most of the information you need already documented by me, you will not discover after the fact that it's all stored in my head and what you have is obsolete. Therefore you will see me take time to document things. Computer folks are notorious for procrastinating when it comes to documenting a constantly changing network"

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Please, have at it! One of the largest parts of the book is the organization and documentation sections.

Jeff Albro