Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
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Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#2When the virtual HVAC fails, do the VR cables lessen their rigidity as the temperature heats up?
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#3This puts the focus in the wrong place.
When wiring a rack, you've got to start with an understanding of what you want each piece to do. If you have a switch where all the ports are untagged or on a common VLAN, the only thing which matters about cable placement in the switch is how easy it is to trace later on. If you have multiple VLANs, you need to have a map right there in front of you saying how the ports are assigned.
On the physical level, dealing with intermittent connectivity issues (cable not plugged in properly, cable damaged by mechanical stress) and difficulty extracting cables (RJ45 lock lever too small or stuck) are relatively common issues that won't be adequately simulated in VR anytime soon.
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#4That was uncomfortable watching - having been responsible for data centers in a past life my nightmares were haunted by those with no, or worse, little knowledge re-patching critical infrastructure.
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#5This puts the focus in the wrong place. When wiring a rack, you've got to start with an understanding of what you want each piece to do. If you have a switch where all the ports are untagged or on a common VLAN, the only thing which matters about cable placement in the switch is how easy it is to trace later on. If you have multiple VLANs, you need to have a map right there in front of you saying how the ports are as…
My thought is this is probably an attempt to bring a physical paradigm to a software-defined network, since it's apparently a Cisco project.
Though your comment brings to mind a couple of things that might be useful in the world of physical networking:
1. An AR tool that identifies the physical switches and overlays the port VLAN assignments, trunks, etc. Bonus points if it could color-code the cables accordingly, though I don't know how you'd track them through a knot somewhere.
2. A physical switch with RGB port LEDs with color-coded port assignments would also be nice. Very nice.
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#6Perfect for my new video game, "Sysadmin Simulator 2018"
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#7Similar to cloth physics, except it's 1D.
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#8This puts the focus in the wrong place. When wiring a rack, you've got to start with an understanding of what you want each piece to do. If you have a switch where all the ports are untagged or on a common VLAN, the only thing which matters about cable placement in the switch is how easy it is to trace later on. If you have multiple VLANs, you need to have a map right there in front of you saying how the ports are as…
My thought is this is probably an attempt to bring a physical paradigm to a software-defined network, since it's apparently a Cisco project. Though your comment brings to mind a couple of things that might be useful in the world of physical networking: 1. An AR tool that identifies the physical switches and overlays the port VLAN assignments, trunks, etc. Bonus points if it could color-code the cables accordingly, th…
2 would be pretty easy to do the second one in software right now: "Switch, steady orange on all untagged ports, blinky orange on all VLAN 601."
Port LED status lights are already multipurpose: https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/release-independ...
It would be nice to get the ability to control them more generally.
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#9Would be fun to hook this up to crossbow or another robust virtual network stack. Virtually wire up virtual networking. Throw in a little virtual PDA to configure and spin up new VMs (spawning them into rack on demand).
Re: Using rope physics to simulate cabling a data center in VR
#10Perfect for my new video game, "Sysadmin Simulator 2018"
Halon dash mini-game.