[c-nsp] APC Cabinets with SIde Air Distribution

[Rick Martin]

 We are in the process of a hardware refresh on our core network which
will see about 10 Catalyst 6500's replace existing 6006's and older
6509's. All will have either Sup 720 or Sup 32. Hardware has been
ordered and is arriving daily.

 I am interested in what others are doing to accommodate hot isle/cold
isle configurations with the cold isle in the front of the cabinet? As
most of you are aware the fan tray on the 6500 is on the left side
drawing cool air in the left and expelling hot air out the right. With
our current configuration we have cabinets with an outside measurement
of 22" which leaves very little room for air flow on the sides, shortly
after installing this equipment in 1999 we wound up removing the sides
of all cabinets. Of course this resulted in the exhaust from one switch
being drawn in the intake of the next.

 We want to fix this situation with this hardware refresh project and
have been looking at the APC 29" wide cabinet (PN AR3150) with APC's
Side Air Distribution Fan (PN ACF201BLK).

  Can anybody comment on this setup? Or perhaps offer different/better
solutions for air flow management?

 Thanks for your comments, and or advice.

Rick Martin
Network Engineering Team Lead
State of Arkansas, Department of Information Systems