homelab

Dymo makes handheld label makers that are very affordable. Like $40. You don't need a Rolls when a Corolla will get you there.

I don't label anything.

Pros: I don't have to label anything.

Cons: Was it port 48 that's on VLAN2? Maybe port 47? I don't know, let's start plugging in stuff until it works.

Those brother printers are like $80 or something stupidly cheap. The heatshrink tubing labels a few bucks more. Totally worth it. Swap out normal labels and then label your hard drives, your servers, your disk bays, etc. A basic label maker is a life changer and will last forever

Inline labels, hands down. I did similar to this to roll my own

Also just ask work if you can run some off on the brady, they probably won't give a shit

I use wire label stickers. This is exactly what they exist for and will be under $10. I have the Klein Tools numbered stickers because my priority was matching ends in a large bundle, not adding informative labels. But the majority of products let you write your own label.

I just sharpie my cable runs and then just a lable maker on ports and panels.

I use zip ties with built-in tags for managing and labeling cables in my home office. 100-packs go for $8 on Amazon.

Masking tape + a Sharpie has never failed me

At a previous job the Sysadmin who had largely built most the infrastructure heavily used colored zip ties to label cables. 2 blue zip ties goes to this while 4 blue zip ties goes to that, 3 red zip ties goes to this other thing, etc. In hindsight i wonder if part of it was to be intentionally vague to anyone else on the team and force them to come to him for help identifying, since he seemed to love that kind of thing, but I digress.

It's a very affordable system to use at home. Maybe one color per VLAN and on cables where it's important to know one from another do different counts of zip ties. I suppose the same result could also be achieved with colored electrical tape too.

Sorry to Necro a nearly month-old thread but figured its worth sharing