Cable management arms

[Colin Patterson_1]

Our customer has requested that I fit all HP servers to racks without the supplied cable management arms. Looking at the advice on the HP support site the arms are designed to improve air flow and provide cable protection. The rack will be high density and without the arm there is a definite chance of a cable getting trapped and cut.
Is the fitting of the arm on the rail optional?
I don't want to be at risk of being blamed for an accident if a mains supply cable gets damaged and injures somebody pulling a server out on it's rails.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi Colin,

What servers are you talking about specifically ?

The cable management arms are usually optional, but I would recommend that they are installed, if just to keep the rack neat more than anything else.

Cheers,

Rob

[Colin Patterson_1]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the fast response. The servers are DL 585 & DL360's Unfortunatley at the moment the HPcds team only install the rails and slide the server into place. The customers own network team do the cabling of mains, network, fibre and storage cables. This will change in the future but at the moment we have to have a full shutdown and disconnection of all cables to do a two minute job of changing a cache battery. One person has already damaged a supply cable by pulling the server out which pulled the cable around the edge of the rack it was tightly tie wrapped to. I see it as a risk. I also raised it with our Health & Safety manager who directed me to HP support.

[Ken Krubsack]

I used to be one who didn't believe in cable management arms. I have long since changed my mind, for all of the reasons mentioned already.

Having said that, I will say that not all cable mgmt arms are created equal. Oddly enough, my personal favorites were made by (shudder) Dell for the PE2650/2850 series. The cable management section itself is a metal cage with a cover that snaps shut and keep the cables under control.

HP - hint hint hint...

[Colin Patterson_1]

Ken, I agree. I used to install Dell kit at my prevoius site.

I can't get any commitment from HP support or my health and safety manager. Some say they are optional others say fit them. I'm going to keep the email from the system manager who asked me to leave them off.

I'll let the management fight over it for now.

Thanks for the response..

Colin