Rack rails on network equipment

Wayne Bouchard web at typo.org
Sat Sep 25 03:02:31 UTC 2021


Didn't require any additional time at all when equipment wasn't bulky
enough to need rails in the first place....


I've never been happy about that change.


On Fri, Sep 24, 2021 at 09:37:58AM -0700, Andrey Khomyakov 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

---
Wayne Bouchard
web at typo.org
Network Dude
http://www.typo.org/~web/


More information about the NANOG mailing list