*Business* "server room" comms cabling

Metal box with cover built into the closet wall behind the clothes.

Joe

That;s sort of the approach I've taken -- a box recessed into the wall to wedge between studs. This hides the "wall cavity" behind the bulkhead formed by the boxes recessed sides.

For a cover, I affix a patch panel to terminate the ends of the routed cables and seal the box (service loops hidden inside). This seems cleaner than having lengths of cable dangling out of the wall.

But, I need to transition from this to the switch (in my case).

If I position a rack directly in front of it, then the patch panel is hidden and the patch cords contained within the rack. This wastes a fair bit of volume just to hide the cords. This would be comparable to cables feeding into a rack from above/below WITHIN the confines of a rack.

It also means the rack has to be effectively immobilized as moving it would wreak havoc on those connections.

Wall-mount Ethernet junction box:

Then an oldie-but-goodie for cosmetic cable management is route the cables through a length of vacuum cleaner hose around the edge of the room to where the server rack is located. The interface you'd have to have a bracket for the end of the hose underneath the box which isn't entirely "clean" but probably good enough for rock n roll.

That is more-or-less my approach -- though on a much larger scale (~144 ports, in this case) and with more consideration to how a user would deal with that mass (mess?) of cable.

Additionally, I augment each connection with a means of signalling the user ("This is the cable/connector that I want you to address") and the user signalling the system ("I want to unplug this cable; tell me when it is safe to do so"). So, the system can keep its cable map up-to-date (they aren't interchangeable as they would be on a switch).

The transition from this "patch panel" to the "switch/server" is the messy part. You don't have one strand of fiber (as John observed) but, a potential tangle of individual cables winding their way to individual "destinations/origins". (This is why the original post talking about data centers; it's far more than a SOHO application!)

I use cable loom for that. I bundle them 12 to a ~1" diam stretch of loom. It has the advantage over a "tube" in that it can be applied and removed even after both ends are secured.

I think I answerd much of this at the bottom of the last posts, but to add to that.....

I think my previous covered most this but yes, any fixed in wall cabling uses patch panels

scenario 1 ( only one floor)

wall-outlet -> hard wired to patch panel in server room, patched -to- switch -> router

scenario 2 (multi floor)

wall-outlet -> hard wired to patch panel "A" in a closet/riser (known as floor distributor). second patch panel "B" in FD hard wired to a patch panel down in main server room -> patch directly to swtich -> router

scenario 3 (high-rise multi floor)

No ethernet does not magically stop at 100.01 metres, you can get up to

scenario 1 above applies, and the bulk entry point is always taken from teh ceiling and placed in ducting to your server rack.

this is manadatory in all commercial buildings - in this country at least, and you'd want to do it anyway.

In shared commercial buildings some walls are whats known as certified fire walls, and greater care and repair must be taken using acceptable firestop foam, putty, and if wall plates are in a firewall ther same applies there, often metal boxes, intumescent pads, and also check your local codes because you may have to have an inspector come out and re- certify your pernetrations, so you need to know from any letting agent if such walls exist and where they are.