
Administrators typically perform a wide variety of maintenance tasks, including
backing up data, archiving old data, cleaning up shared drives, updating and
patching software, and various other chores, all in an effort to keep their
networks running smoothly and employees working productively. But what about the
infrastructure on which the network resides? What kinds of preventative
maintenance should you perform on the basic cabling infrastructure of the
network? When do you know it's time to replace it and/or the switches and hubs
that support it?
That’s what
Titus Ablorh recently asked in our
Technical
Q&A forums. Ablorh said that his cabling infrastructure is about eight
years old and that he’s using CAT5 cabling and 10/100 Nortel Bay switches. He
wanted to know when he should consider replacing parts and whether any standard
guidelines for infrastructure replacement exist. While there’s not a single
clear-cut answer to the question, TechRepublic members offered feedback that
provides some excellent input on the subject.
If it
ain’t broke…A typical answer to the question of when to look at
updating network cabling and other parts might be to wait until something goes
wrong. In one respect, this is a logical response: Why bother replacing
something if there’s nothing wrong with it? While this may seem like a logical
way to approach the issue, especially from a cost perspective, it overlooks the
primary goal of administering a network: keeping everything up and running
smoothly with minimal to no interruption of service. To that end, admins must be
a little more proactive in determining the status of the network switches and
cabling.
But what should you watch for? According to
Gleb
Yourchenko, a systems analyst at InFocus, an increase in the number of data
errors is the first sign that you might have problems with your cabling and
should begin looking at replacing cables or hubs/switches. Others, including
dburk of Encyrion Technologies, said that performance issues can indicate
the need for updates. When cost is a factor, dburk, noted, you might have to
replace only the parts that must be fixed when problems occur.
You want
to do whatever you can to stay ahead of network issues, so heeding the warning
signs of performance issues and data errors is a necessary part of maintaining
the infrastructure.
Heading off potential
problemsIf you want to avoid networking issues altogether, though,
you must take proactive steps to anticipate problems before they occur. The
obvious solution is to inspect regularly your network cabling and other
parts.
“I believe the best solution,” Yourchenko wrote, “is to invite a
technician…at least once a year to test the infrastructure.” The technician will
have the equipment and the knowledge necessary to spot potential problems,
Yourchenko added.
It’s also possible to inspect the jacketing and
connectors yourself, said
TheChas. “If the jacketing is starting to
break down, or the fingers on the connectors are corroding, you should begin to
plan for a rebuild.”
While a physical inspection of the cabling and other
parts won’t reveal all of the potential trouble spots in the network, it can
help you determine which parts should be replaced to prevent hardware-related
data errors from occurring.
The money issue
One of the obvious considerations
is the allotted budget for IT infrastructure. If every company had an unlimited
amount of money to spend on hardware, the easy way to maintain the network would
be to regularly replace parts and cabling regardless of their condition.
Unfortunately, no company has that luxury, so the condition of network hardware
must be balanced against how much a company can spend to fix it. As several
members noted, sometimes you just have to replace parts as they begin to
malfunction or as performance issues begin to occur. At the very least, you can
anticipate and plan for budget needs by conducting regularly scheduled
inspections.
Replace when you perform other
upgrades
Because infinite variables come into play when examining a
network infrastructure—such as budget constraints, environmental variances, and
hardware quality differences—it's hard to generalize about the timing for
replacements. However, roger_simpson2002 offered a couple of good rules
of thumb. First, he suggested that if you’re upgrading your switching backbone,
you should go ahead and replace the cabling too. Taking this extra step ensures
that all of the equipment is updated. And, from a financial perspective, the
cabling can be considered an integral, even necessary, part of the upgrade and
can therefore be absorbed when budgeting that item.
Another instance in which you should replace the cabling is when you see signs
of physical wear, he said. Other readers echoed this advice. Again, some kind of
inspection of the cabling is important, regardless of whether you do it yourself
or pay a technician to do it.
Your budget, your
call
Although your budget may determine how much you can do to upgrade
your network infrastructure and how often you replace cabling and other parts,
it will be useful to keep these maintenance tips in mind:
- Pay attention to data errors as possible signs of cabling issues.
- Regularly inspect the cabling and other parts for signs of wear.
- Replace cabling simultaneously with other upgrades.
Some
networks may run for a decade or more on the same cabling with no problem;
others may have to be updated after a few years. As our members have pointed
out, because of the vast differences that can exist from one company network to
the next, you often have to make your own call about it. But you should be able
to use some of these insights to help you make the decision.