varjohaltia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
varjohaltia) wrote2004-11-17 05:17 pm
varjohaltia) wrote2004-11-17 05:17 pm
NES
Finally, pictures. Here's one aspect of what I do at work.
First, we look at blueprints for new buildings, figure out what kind of computer networks are needed, what equipment needs to be bought to make it happen, how much it's going to cost and all that, argue with the architect and others about how much space we get and where we can put jacks etc. Then, as the building's being built, we poke in every so often and make sure things are going smoothly.
Looks OK so far... Says Joe, in one of his demonic moods.
This is what we finally get to work with--an empty rack.
That'd be Lyle, Brady, me and Joe, in front of the finished first floor building distribution facility (BDF). Having specified all the actual equipment, it gets shipped to us, we unbox it, put on the right mounting hardware, configure the OS, lug it over, bolt it into the rack, connect everything up, and spend the better part of a week running close to 1000 connections. One patch cable in the closet, labeled, one in each room where the actual data connection ends up residing, and test each one.
Yeah. Me.
Ain't it exciting?
Those who care: we use one Cisco 2970 in each BDF/IDF to aggregate a bunch of 2950T-24s with gigabit copper. Each IDF connects to the BDF building switch via gigabit SX ethernet (multimode fiber). The building switch is whatever layer 2 fiber switch happens to make most sense. Each building then connects to the nearest phone room and a distribution Cat6500 (our campus equivalent of a central office) over gigabit LX ethernet (singlemode fiber). Each IDF gets a UPS with network management and environmental monitoring, too. And lightning protection... We're in the lightning capital of the US/world. All wireless access points cleverly concealed throughout the building get fed power over ethernet from these rooms too--all that gear is hidden behind the rack.
The entire building is wired to Category 6 standard, in a faint attempt to futureproof the wiring plant.
And that's how people here get their Internet, Internet 2 and other pr0n.
NES Back
NES Front
About a third of all the installation supplies that end up filling four racks.
NES (Natural Sciences) in itself is going to be a really sweet building. It's four occupied stories tall (with mother-of-all-HVAC-systems fifth floor) and is almost entirely classrooms, computer labs for GIS systems and meteorology and at least half of the entire building is chemistry labs. There are hydrogen, nitrogen, air and acetylene lines running throughout the facility, and more fume hoods (with emergency bypasses and air flow alarms and such), emergency showers and eye wash stations than you can shake a stick at. On the other hand, I'm happy we got to work in the building before any of the real chemicals are delivered...
First, we look at blueprints for new buildings, figure out what kind of computer networks are needed, what equipment needs to be bought to make it happen, how much it's going to cost and all that, argue with the architect and others about how much space we get and where we can put jacks etc. Then, as the building's being built, we poke in every so often and make sure things are going smoothly.
Looks OK so far... Says Joe, in one of his demonic moods.
This is what we finally get to work with--an empty rack.
That'd be Lyle, Brady, me and Joe, in front of the finished first floor building distribution facility (BDF). Having specified all the actual equipment, it gets shipped to us, we unbox it, put on the right mounting hardware, configure the OS, lug it over, bolt it into the rack, connect everything up, and spend the better part of a week running close to 1000 connections. One patch cable in the closet, labeled, one in each room where the actual data connection ends up residing, and test each one.
Yeah. Me.
Ain't it exciting?
Those who care: we use one Cisco 2970 in each BDF/IDF to aggregate a bunch of 2950T-24s with gigabit copper. Each IDF connects to the BDF building switch via gigabit SX ethernet (multimode fiber). The building switch is whatever layer 2 fiber switch happens to make most sense. Each building then connects to the nearest phone room and a distribution Cat6500 (our campus equivalent of a central office) over gigabit LX ethernet (singlemode fiber). Each IDF gets a UPS with network management and environmental monitoring, too. And lightning protection... We're in the lightning capital of the US/world. All wireless access points cleverly concealed throughout the building get fed power over ethernet from these rooms too--all that gear is hidden behind the rack.
The entire building is wired to Category 6 standard, in a faint attempt to futureproof the wiring plant.
And that's how people here get their Internet, Internet 2 and other pr0n.
NES Back
NES Front
About a third of all the installation supplies that end up filling four racks.
NES (Natural Sciences) in itself is going to be a really sweet building. It's four occupied stories tall (with mother-of-all-HVAC-systems fifth floor) and is almost entirely classrooms, computer labs for GIS systems and meteorology and at least half of the entire building is chemistry labs. There are hydrogen, nitrogen, air and acetylene lines running throughout the facility, and more fume hoods (with emergency bypasses and air flow alarms and such), emergency showers and eye wash stations than you can shake a stick at. On the other hand, I'm happy we got to work in the building before any of the real chemicals are delivered...
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I got to do something very similar once. I was installing computers in a series of apartment complexes in Omaha, NE. It consisted running alot of wires through places wires had no business being run, as the buildings were old and not designed for having computer systems living in them.
I feel your pain.
Congrats on surviving it; dust, foreign particles forever embedded in your scalp, wires, wires, wires, and all.
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New buildings, like NES, are utter beauty as far as working in them goes. There is fairly generous conduit to the gang boxes, and all hallways and many larger rooms have wire tray dedicated to communications wiring.
Which is very good, actually--I've seen pictures from a few cases of office building fires, and seeing just what happens when a suspended ceiling collapses and lets all the wire dangle into the room was pretty bad. The fire departments dread it, because the firefighters get caught in a spaghetti of wire criscrossing the room in all dimensions.
Luckily having either the police or the fire inspector voice opinions (Wire trays are good. Thou shalt use them and not cut them from the budget) generally means that the project managers follow said recommendations.
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Code nightmare.
Wierd Old Place Enthusiast dream.
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Besides, it lets us play with power drills, jack hammers, saws-alls, and all those other fun toys!
The fire safety aspect really only matters in office buildings with drop ceilings and a lot of wiring--unless the cable is attached in some fire-proof manner, the room becomes practically unpassable without power tools once fire has collapsed the ceiling. Apart from the network cable, there's also coax for TV, cable for HVAC monitoring, cable for fire alarms, cable for burglar alarms, electrical cable, cable for door controls and myriad other things. It can get pretty messy.
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Maybe you can show me UCF campus sometime? I'm sort of curious about other universities.