Rack rails on network equipment

Fri Sep 24 19:59:07 UTC 2021

On Fri, Sep 24, 2021 at 02:49:53PM -0500, Doug McIntyre wrote:
> You mention about hardware lockin, but I wouldn't trust Dell to not switch
> out the design on their "next-gen" product, when they buy from a
> different OEM, as they are want to do, changing from OEM to OEM for
> each new product line. At least that is their past behavior over many years 
> in the past that I've been buying Dell switches for simple things. 
> Perhaps they've changed their tune. 

That sounds very much like their 2000's-era behaviour when they were
sourcing 5324's from Accton, etc.  Dell has more recently acquired
switch companies such as Force10 and it seems like they have been
doing more in-house stuff this last decade.  There has been somewhat
better stability in the product line IMHO.

> For me, it really doesn't take all that much time to mount cage nuts
> and screw a switch into a rack. Its all pretty 2nd nature to me, look
> at holes to see the pattern, snap in all my cage nuts all at once and
> go. If you are talking rows of racks of build, it should be 2nd nature?

The quick rails on some of their new gear is quite nice, but the best
part of having rails is having the support on the back end.

> Also, I hate 0U power, for that very reason, there's never room to
> move devices in and out of the rack if you do rear-mount networking.

Very true.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way
through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that
democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"-Asimov