How to Choose Cable Manager for Rack?

In data centers, cable management is of great concern in addition to functional data transmission devices. A mass of cable wires scattering and tangling together is bothersome for operators to implement maintenance. The neglect of effective cable management also leads to cable damage and low performance issues. To make clean and safe entry and exit for each cable, one must employ proper cable rack manager to ensure an organized and neat rack environment. However there are an array of cable manager products in the market. How to choose right cable manager for rack? This post may help.

deploy cable manager for rack to make a neat sever room

Figure 1:Deploying cable manager for rack and other cable management products to make a clean and neat sever room in FS data center.

Overview of Cable Manger for Rack

Cable managers own following functions – organizing and protecting running cables, reducing crosstalk and signal interface, facilitating airflow and cooling, and ensuring a clutter-free data center. In general, there are two types of cable manager for rack: horizontal cable manager and vertical cable manager. Further, each type has different styles available to cater for diverse cabling environment. Other cable management products frequently used in collation with cable manager are fiber optic enclosure, fiber patch panel, cable wires, cable labels and so on.

Types of Cable Manager for Rack

Making clear of different types of cable manager for rack helps you to make a wise decision when buying cable management products for racks.

  • Horizontal Cable Manger

Horizontal cable management panel is often installed in front of equipment such as network switch in parallel. Most cases horizontal cable manager for rack is matched with patch panel and rack-mount enclosure to provide cables a safe and organized pathway from switch ports into the vertical cable manager. And a dozen of wires often bundled with a cable tie to fix loose cables.

  • Vertical Cable Manager

Rack vertical cable management panel is installed erectly in each side of the cabinet walls to take over cables traversing out of the horizontal cable manager. Usually there are several horizontal cable managers for rack placed in different ladders and two bunches of wires are hanging down from each ladder. Thus the bilateral vertical managers play important role to make a clean multilayer cabinet.

Both horizontal cable manager rand vertical cable manager for rack are installed in a server rack or cabinet to run cables away from equipment neatly. To achieve an optimal rack environment, these two cable rack managers are used together in a server cabinet.

Considerations for Choosing Cable Manager for Rack

In addition to the aforesaid horizontal manager vs vertical cable manager for rack, there are other factors for considering.

  • Cable Management Environment

If you should deal with massive cables for a big enterprise data center, then you could consider the perfect combination of horizontal cable manager with vertical cable manager for rack in each of your server room cabinet. If you just handle a small business or office cabling, you can choose to save some money by omitting rack vertical cable management deployment.

  • Rack specification

Server rack usually comes with standard 19-inch wide while depth is flexible in some degree. However rack heights are available with different rack units (1U=1.75 inches) such as 1U, 2U and so on. Accordingly cable manager for rack is designed with different rack units, make sure to buy a right size. Highlights, the bend radius finger bracket can be stacked to reach any heights, ideal choice for high rack environment.

  • Cable Manager Style

1. To prevent equipment from overheating, choose horizontal cable manager with brush strip to ensure better cooling.

horizontal cable cable manager for rack with brush strip

2. For optimal cable care and protection to protect fragile fibers from damage, you can choose horizontal cable manager with finger duct.

horizontal cable cable manager for rack with brush strip

3. To enable flexible routing of massive cords in proper bend radius, pick cable manager with D-ring. It is made with steel for strength and durability, available with 1U and 2 U in FS.COM.

cable manager for rack with D-ring

4. For managing different cable types and quantity, choose different styles of cable manager for rack. For example, vertical cable manager with bend radius finger provides extra-deep cable capacity for applications requiring large thick cable bundles (Ethernet cables: Cat5e/6/7). FS 5U 3’’ wide plastic vertical cable manager with bend radius finger owns ultra-high cable capacity up to 23 Cat6 cables.

cable manager for rack with D-ring

Conclusion

Cable manager for rack is one of the important cable management products in data centers. Making clear of horizontal cable manager vs rack vertical cable management is the first step for right deployment in cable rack management. Considering your cabling environment, rack specification (esp. U size), and various cable manager styles to cater for special requirements will help you to choose the best cable manager for rack.