Structured cable management. evolved.

In the first iteration, we took a very simplistic assumption of one to one back connectivity between patch panels. We have replaced that with individual back connectivity option per port now. We have also added option to add cable type for back connectivity with this. So you can add cable speed and other attributes for back connectivity for each port. In addition to RESTful APIs to do this easily, we have also added a new bulk operations option to provision back connectivity as discussed below.

From Tools > Templates & Bulk Operations > Panel back connectivity, you can choose the patch panel, its modules(if any), starting port #, ending port #, then patch panel and module, starting port # and cable type and provision back connectivity in bulk.

You can now add modules to your patch panels and configure different port types or just modules. Patch panel model can be type “singular” and “modular”. For modular type patch panel, you would be given an option to add modules to it.
Ports for each module would be created based on “patch panel module models”. All the module ports would show up in the original patch panel view.

Now you can choose an optional starting number for the patch panel ports, add a label to each port. Port types are assigned per port now.

Since adding all the additional attributes to each port, we have taken out display for full path display for each port. Now it shows a color coded square and with hover over. You can get full path details when you mouse over any of these images.

Visual display for patch panel changes in this iteration, specially for back connected patch panels. Since the original assumption of one to one panel connectivity is now out, we are only showing the patch panel in question with connectivity. Back connectivity for each port is shown when you mouse over an individual port. We would be working on adding multiple hops to back connected ports in visual displays. Please send us a note if you have ideas on improvements on the visual display.

Tools > Import > Asset Import has option to add patch panel model ID or Info the patch panel modules. You can create patch panel ports simply by importing the asset using an excel sheet.

You can add patch panels and/or patch panel ports using models from the assets api call as documented on device42 documentation pages: https://docs.device42.com/api-overview/device42-api-documentation/

Individual patch panel port details can be managed as well from: patch panel ports via API.

Get your structured cable management under control with freshly pressed 4.0.0 beta available at device42 beta download page. Current customers can open a support ticket from the left tab or send us a note to support {at} device42.com to get the update file for this beta release.