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Hi all, just trying to understand something, we have to do some work in the IT hub rooms at the current job. It will involve turning the power off to some sockets feeding hubs with data cables patched across. There are not many installed yet as they are soon to fully occupy the building. I understand that the patch panels link the data from the ports in the field to the hub via patch leads, what i am trying to undertsand is what will happen if these hubs are powered down, would all data transfer between ports cease or will anything be corrupted by doing this . I am trying to understnd what actually the consequences would be of doing this . Due to the way things are going to work out the work will likeley be needed to be done when they have moved in so need to undertsand whats going to happen . as there are other circuits in the same room, if i were to unplug and replug in quickly would there be any effect or would it just start as normal .

Any help from data minded people appreciated.

Nick

I should think that when you power down the hubs that will stop all communication through them to/from the computers/servers that are linked through them.

On a simple scale it would be like unplugging your router, you would loose all internet contact.
Depending upon what failsafe system they have, may allow you to disrupt the connections, or not.

Richie will be along sometime, with some advice as he is the expert on that.

dave

Do not disconnect power without the specific approval of the IT manager - and I'd get it in writing!

Critical services may be running and you could be held liable.

I agree with kellys_eye. As soon as you cut the power to the switches (hubs) they won't be able to transfer data. I would imagine that this will need to be planned down-time. Even if you just flick the power on and off it will cause problems as the switches will most likely need to go through a boot process. The switches where I work take a couple of minutes to startup after you turn them on.

Thanks for the insight, i had a feeling that would be the case,its definiteley going to have to be carefully planned as we have got to do works in all three of the hub rooms , most likely out of hours is the way forward, Cant even say they will be ok as they are UPS backed as i am needing to work on the load side of the UPS. Oh well such is life ,

Thanks again

Nick

It's all been said already. Patch panels don't use power, they just act as a pass-thorugh. The switches/hubs direct the network traffic. Turn them off the traffic gets dropped and everyone loses connection to the server, internet etc.

If you ever need any help with data stuff I'm only down the road from you.