Regular cleaning of switches and routers

[perks1964]

Aside from obvious dust around fans and vents, is there a regular schedule for opening and cleaning a CISCO router or switch? Does this take place? Or is it a wait until the thing breaks before you do it kind of thing. I am looking to make a PM scedule for this and other devices in our operations center. Any advice? Thanks

[Leo Laohoo]

Let me tell you my experience.

We had a stack of 3500XL switches in a kennel.  The office and switches is about 20 metres away from the kennel. 

Anyway I had to upgrade the switch.  Fine.  When I got back to the office I noticed that there was a fine coat of dust  so I decided that I need to clean the inside.  When I removed the lid, the bottom half (from the fan) is completely covered with DOG HAIR!

Let's say that I had to use the cleaner's portable vacuum cleaner to do something to it.  The switch continued to work.

[ankugarg]

You are generally not required to clean inside of routers and switches..I have never seen any problem occuring due to non cleaning

[garapoglou]

Hi,

It depends on the physical environment. Data centers built properly do not contain much dust. In such environments you don't have to perform a regular cleaning, but you should check their condition every once in a while.

If the devices are working in a common room while air from outside gets in, you should clean them on a regular basis.

I've seen switches working on wall-mounted racks in halls or under stairs and their condition was terrible. Most of the times nobody deals with them because they keep up working or because there's so much noise in that places the noise produced by their fans can't be heard. During night time when everything is quiet there's no one to hear those dying fans.

On the other hand, I've seen devices working inside data centers full of dust and stuff just because someone drilled a couple of holes on the wall sometime to mount some sensors.

That's why it always depends on the environment. If the room or the data center is clean, the doors are kept close etc. you don't have to deal with such things regularly. Otherwise you have to check them really often.

Best regards,

Giorgos

[hobbe]

As a general point it all depends on the environment.

This is how I do things.

Once a month/2 months I try to make rounds for visual checking of the equipment on site where I am.

If the visual check, wich includes cabeling, power/comm, reveals that there are nothing that stands out ill do nothing.

But if there is something that stands out such as stains, or plaster, dust or smell then I investigate further and takes a look at things if they need cleaing, replacements and so on.

if they do need cleaning I normally just use air on a can to wash out dust and plaster.

it normally takes less than an hur or so to do the rounds but I think it is a good thing to do if you can.

however there are remote sites that does not get an inspection for years.

I clean maybe 1-2 equipments /year.

Mostly due to dust from handymen drilling holes.

but sometimes you check an equipment and realise that there is a lot of dust in them.

Normally what I discover when doing the rounds are busted cabeling that needs replacing and fire hazards (papers)

takes a few seconds to fix.

Good luck

HTH