I've been asked to resolve a connectivity issue in a roof void in a remote area, and it's quite a disaster! The cabling is a mess with Cat5 and Cat6 cables tangled up all over the place, plus some fiber cables mixed in. There are patch panels connected to other patch panels, and I need to deal with a stack of three "Retro" Cisco C9200 switches, which come with eight VLANs and confusing port descriptions. I'm not a network architect, but I need to figure out how to untangle and document this chaos. Can anyone share tips or strategies on where to start?
1 Answer
Start by mapping out all your ports and cables. It's essential to untangle everything and clearly document where each cable goes. This will help you get a better grasp of the whole setup before diving into the actual configuration.
Mapping the cable connections sounds like a tough job, but it seems necessary. My main worry is figuring out where everything connects since I don't have that info yet.