Site Surveys?

[icecream-guy]

I've not done a site survey for new network equipment deployment before?
so what am I  looking for.

I'd guess,

I place to put some gear
a place to plug it in.
and uplinks to other network gear.
what else am I missing?

[mmcgurty]

Appropriate power for your UPS and PDU combo as well as another circuit for just a PDU (1/2 on house power and 1/2 on UPS power).
Appropriate cooling/(de)humidification facilities?  Return air for the hot exhaust?  Unit covered under maintenance and what is the facilities response time if AC unit goes out?
Enough room add racks and work in them comfortably?
Storage space?

[Dieselboy]

Accurate / current network diagram might help with physical cabling / existing patch availability.

[Otanx]

Is this a refresh or a brand new installation? Do you own the space, or is it a colo space? Some things to identify.

1. Space to put your gear. Is there a rack? 19 or 23"? If not is there space for one you supply? Does anything need to be shifted up or down to fit your stuff? Don't forget to include cable management in your space calculations. Get a full elevation of everything that is there. Make sure to identify unusable space because of cables, or blockages.
2. Airflow. Is their enough to cool your gear? Is it front to back, side to side, or just room cooling? Does your gear match, or do you need different fans / power supplies?
3. Power. 110/208v? How many watts are you pulling. Does that capacity exist, or does it need to be added. Is the power on a UPS already, or do you need to supply it. Is there redundant power? Can either leg support the full power load? What kind of plugs do you need 5-15? C13/14? C19/20? L6 or L5? How long do the power cords need to be?
4. Connectivity. What is your equipment plugging into? What types of cables (fiber/copper). How many are there? Distance of these cables? Do they come from a patch panel, or direct runs? Do you need to supply patch cables between the panel and your gear?
5. Naming. What is the room number, floor number, building number. What is the ID of the patch panel and ports you are connecting to? What is the names of the devices you are connecting to? This will make it easier if you have questions and need to send emails, or call people. Also you can label everything before you show up for the install.
6. Ask about any other projects that may change anything you documented before the install date. It sucks to come back, and find out that someone else took your rack space.
7. Rules on bringing equipment in and out. Does equipment need to be marked in a special way? What about laptops for configuration?
8. Is there any notification groups about outages at the site you can get added to? If they are turning power off to the building you may want to know so when all your equipment goes off line at 1AM you don't get called.
9. Contact info for local support personnel that can help reboot, or check cables? Also any SLA or contracts for support levels.

That is all I have off the top of my head from my experience. Not all of them will apply to every install. Also not all of them need to be answered at the survey, but it is a good time to start communication.

-Otanx

[Nerm]

Another thing to consider is if your company has any standards or policies that must be followed when turning up a new site you might want to make sure your survey and deployment plans include said information.

[icecream-guy]

it's a new device in an existing data center colo.  just one that I've not been to but once. so I don't know how things are setup...
still can't find the rack elevation drawings. as it's going into an existing rack.  From what I've seen in other data centers, I would assume there are 2 PDU's, one on the left, one on the right, connected to two different circuits.