Rack rails on network equipment

Fri Sep 24 18:27:26 UTC 2021

Andrey, hi.

The speed rails are nice, and are effective in optimizing the time it takes
to rack equipment.  It's pretty much par for the course on servers today
(thank goodness!), and not so much on network equipment.  I suppose the
reasons being what others have mentioned - longevity of service life,
frequency at which network gear is installed, etc.  As well, a typical
server to switch ratio, depending on number of switch ports and
fault-tolerance configurations, could be something like 38:1 in dense 1U
server install.  So taking a few more minutes on the switch installation
isn't so impactful - taking a few more minutes on each server installation
can really become a problem.

A 30-minute time to install a regular 1U ToR switch seems a bit excessive.
Maybe the very first time a tech installs any specific model switch with a
unique rail configuration.  After that one, it should be around 10 minutes
for most situations.  I am assuming some level of teamwork where there is
an installer at the front of the cabinet and another at the rear, and they
work in tandem to install cage nuts, install front/rear rails (depending on
switch), position the equipment, and affix to the cabinet.  I can see the
30 minutes if you have one person, it's a larger/heavier device (like the
EX4500) and the installer is forced to do some kind of crazy balancing act
with the switch (not recommended), or has to use a server lift to install
it.

Those speed rails as well are a bit of a challenge to install if it's not a
team effort. So, I'm wondering if in addition to using speed rails, you may
have changed from a one-tech installation process to a two-tech team
installation process?

Best Regards,

Mauricio Rodriguez

Founder / Owner

Fletnet Network Engineering (www.fletnet.com)
*Follow us* on LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/company/fletnetnetworks>

Mauricio.Rodriguez at fletnet.com

Office: +1 786-309-1082

Direct: +1 786-309-5493

On Fri, Sep 24, 2021 at 12:41 PM Andrey Khomyakov <
khomyakov.andrey at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi folks,
> Happy Friday!
>
> Would you, please, share your thoughts on the following matter?
>
> Back some 5 years ago we pulled the trigger and started phasing out Cisco
> and Juniper switching products out of our data centers (reasons for that
> are not quite relevant to the topic). We selected Dell switches in part due
> to Dell using "quick rails'' (sometimes known as speed rails or toolless
> rails).  This is where both the switch side rail and the rack side rail
> just snap in, thus not requiring a screwdriver and hands of the size no
> bigger than a hamster paw to hold those stupid proprietary screws (lookin
> at your, cisco) to attach those rails.
> We went from taking 16hrs to build a row of compute (from just network
> equipment racking pov) to maybe 1hr... (we estimated that on average it
> took us 30 min to rack a switch from cut open the box with Juniper switches
> to 5 min with Dell switches)
> Interesting tidbit is that we actually used to manufacture custom rails
> for our Juniper EX4500 switches so the switch can be actually inserted from
> the back of the rack (you know, where most of your server ports are...) and
> not be blocked by the zero-U PDUs and all the cabling in the rack. Stock
> rails didn't work at all for us unless we used wider racks, which then, in
> turn, reduced floor capacity.
>
> As far as I know, Dell is the only switch vendor doing toolless rails so
> it's a bit of a hardware lock-in from that point of view.
>
> *So ultimately my question to you all is how much do you care about the
> speed of racking and unracking equipment and do you tell your suppliers
> that you care? How much does the time it takes to install or replace a
> switch impact you?*
>
> I was having a conversation with a vendor and was pushing hard on the fact
> that their switches will end up being actually costlier for me long term
> just because my switch replacement time quadruples at least, thus requiring
> me to staff more remote hands. Am I overthinking this and artificially
> limiting myself by excluding vendors who don't ship with toolless rails
> (which is all of them now except Dell)?
>
> Thanks for your time in advance!
> --Andrey
>

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