Cables: to label or not to label....that is the flamewar

[Heather Stern]

On Mon, Aug 26, 2002 at 12:22:26PM -0700, Dave wrote:
> 
> We're having an, ahem, "discussion" with an internal customer (lab user) 
> over whether or not my group (sysadmins) should be labeling patch cables 
> in her (software QA) lab.  We've found that as often as not, the users 
> of these very loosely-controlled software development and QA labs move 
> any cables we've labeled to other equipment without re-labeling, and 
> it sends us (and them) on wild goose chases when troubleshooting.
> 
> We've proposed a compromise of putting a unique cable serial number 
> on both ends of each (new) patch cable.
> 
> What do y'all do w.r.t. labeling in uncontrolled lab areas?  (What do 
> you do in access-controlled datacenters, for that matter?)
> 
> thanks....

I like Chuck's description;  It has the advantage that shorties are
not usually as useful to the roaming public.

Let us not forget getting cables in an oddball color, for an area which
is expected to remain under materials control.

Me, I label cables that belong to the insides of machines, because I
hate chasing down which stupid jumper-header is the power switch instead 
of the HDD light if I need to move parts from case to case.  But I have
a rather active worklab.   

Anything where the label is a tag risks it being removed deliberately or
damgaed in normal use.

  . | .   Heather Stern                  |         star at starshine.org
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