[nycbug-talk] Recommendations For Data Closet Hardware

[George R.]

alex at pilosoft.com wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Mar 2006, Gordon Smith wrote:
> 
>> - The room will be used as a demarc for: 
>>     - POTS service 
>>     - Business cable modem service
>>     - Down the road, possibly one or two T1s; for now, I want to make
>> certain that anything that needs to be built into the premises is there to
>> facilitate that future direction
>>     - Down the road, possibly Verizon FIOS (fiber optic) service when it is
>> available in NJ
>> - For future use, the room will be outfitted with CAT5e home runs going out
>> to each desktop
> The normal way for this is to have a wooden board where vendors (vz, etc)  
> terminate their connections (demarc), and then you wire everything to your
> rack, where you connect to your equipment. 
> 
>> - I need to select termination panels ("patch panels") through which we can:
>>
>>     - Bring in the POTS service
> Verizon will accept "110 block" or "66 block" for POTS dropoff. They won't 
> terminate it on anything else. Get a "110 block" with a prewired 25-pair 
> connector (amp rj-21x) and an AMP 25-pair patch panel (one jack=one pair) 
> for distribution in a proper 19" rack.

see my comment below about phone system.

> 
>>     - Bring in 75 ohm coax for the business cable modem
> You generally don't get a choice where cableco drops off your coax or puts 
> cable modem, but you can try.
> 
>>     - Down the road, bring in T1 and/or FIOS service
>>     - Hook up a small business phone system and distribute phone service to
>> the "station" at each desktop
> Generally, small business phone systems mount directly on that wooden
> board, most of them are not rackmountable.
> 
>>     - Bring an RJ45 network connection out of the cable modem and, through
>> the patch panel, connect it to a wireless router/access point located in the
>> middle of the office for optimal distribution of the signal
>>     - Down the road, install a hard-wired router and switch to connect to
>> server machines in the room, as well as hard-wired desktop machines
>> throughout the office.
>>
>> Other info about the room:
>> - The room is 5' x 5' and has a door that locks with a button lock.
>> - The door has a ventilation grate on the lower half of the door.  I've
>> requested that the room be outfitted with a covered HVAC grate fed by
>> ductwork with a 90 degree bend close behind the grate (to keep any foreign
>> matter from falling through the duct into the room!).
>> - So far as we know, there are no water pipes over or near the room.
> How many servers you going to have there? If its a large number, 
> overheating can be a problem.

absolutely on the heating thing. . . sometimes management sees some type
of hvac as an 'extra', but this is completely foolish.

better to spend a few grand on this today and save the cost of labor and
equipment replacement tomorrow.

>> I've already seen several members of the group recommend vendors in the
>> NY Metro area who know how to configure server machines for FreeBSD 6
>> with RAID 1+0, and that's going to be very helpful to us; if anyone
>> knows of such vendors in central New Joisey, that would be even more
>> helpful.  Any recommendations for the patch panel, phone system or other
>> hardware would be appreciated, as well as any tips that might save some
>> agony down the road.
> everything depends on how much money you want to spend on it.
> 
> you can get decent analog phone systems on ebay now for 500-1000$. If you
> want pimp new IP phones, you might consider something else.
> 

That's one direction to go.  But with moves/adds/changes, it's another
thing to worry about onsite either by having someone who knows what they
are doing, or paying >$110 an hour for someone to deal with a key system.

But the better option, IMHO, if you are not going to go with VOIP, which
is one good option but depends strongly on your bandwidth (t1: yes, dsl:
no way, cable: maybe), is to use old-fashioned Centrex.  Old? yes,
useful for a small offices not looking to pay for regular phone support.

I assume Bell still offers that. . .

> patch panels are 50-100$ a piece at most.
> 
> your biggest expense will be to clued people putting it all together. :)
> 
> -alex

That's the truth.  And this applies to not just the technical people,
but also to the phone system people, electrical contractors, etc.

g