Hi all,
I've taken over a site that has not been maintained or planned out well. The tech core where all the servers and networking equipment lives has a 140 port patch panel near the core switch, which is fine for now but leaves no room for expansion. The cables run to the main patch panel are these two or four port biscuit boxes that are either zip tied to the rack (no, not kidding) or are laying on the floor at the bottom of the rack (yes, seriously). Worse yet, there is an abundance of them in places where we will not be using IT equipment in the future and none where we have a major install planned for this summer.
I want to replace them, all of them, with 24 port 1-RU patches at the top or bottom of the racks. I can run all new cables to those racks and have space in those racks for my new patch panels and what not, but the issue is this: I don't have any rack space near the core switch where they will need to terminate and I need to add more panels there as well.
So my question is this: Do I try and play the shell game of removing old patches and punching down my new ones and deal with some odd number scheme that isn't consistent on the patch near the core? Or make space in the adjacent rack for all new patches? Or something else? I am open to any ideas since this is the first time I have had to do this.
Hope that made sense and thanks in advance!