Benefits of Site Survey

Snowflake Queen
Dec 9, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Dec 11, 2025

Fabulous, now that we have found the answer, excited to work on the project? Yes, you should be!

This is from me to you, projects are FUN! Honestly, it will break you but if you REALLY TRULY love projects, it will mould you into a person where the project itself will begin listening to you and help you to move it forward.

This is from technical terms, hence we begin from Layer 1 which is the Physcial Layer.

This step which is call ‘Site Survery’ is a MUST DO and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED NOT to Skip.

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First Benefit:

When you go to the physcial site, you gain awareness of

the location,
the surroundings,
the entrance,
the guard house,
the clearance,
the drive through for the delivery driver,
the unloading/loading bay for the delivery driver,
the pathway to the destined location (server room),
number of steps/staircase,
common/cargo lift,
how spacious, narrow, enclosed the area is,
the people around,
the toilets, the smoking corner, the drinking water station,
the locations where escort is needed (in case need the escort to allow you into the room after going to toilet)
& the exit.

Second Benefit:

Once you are in the Server Room, you will gain awareness of

the signing in to the room,
room layout,
the placement of rack(s), whether the rack is left unlocked or require a key to unlock,
locating the existing mounted firewall unit in the rack,
the length of the power supply (where is it connected to),
the power supply pin (C13 C14),
the network cable connectivity (type of cable & the length of it) to the next hop (this is IMPORTANT),
the nuts & bolts (if there’s any spare, pls ask permission if you can use them; or needs to be arranged; or use the existing ones),
if there’s any empty rack space,
if there’s any desk or to sit on the server room floor to perform the work
and if there’s proper place to leave the old firewall/box.

Third Benefit:

A Standardized Documentation

This information is required for Rack Design Documentation:

Server Room Location
Server Room Name
Who have access to the Server Room
Server Rack Name Information
Server Rack Placement/Location
1. If it’s one rack, take note of the rack location
2. If there are multiple racks, take note of the rack placement
Rack Unit (RU) Information of the Existing Firewall (Good to identify, it will be inbetween which appliances, max 2 above & below)
Network Cable Labling & Connectivity to the Next Hop

Fourth Benefit:

The Exit Process

Identify where is a safe location to leave the old firewall IF it’s NOT to bring it back upon completion of work.
Identify the disposal of the carton box in which the new firewall is being delivered in
1. Find out from the escort of how to dispose the carton box and dispose it gently, not in a rough manner.
The signing out process - THIS IS MANDATORY. To ensure, the work is completed & signed out from the location.
Ensure NO belongings are left. Place is tidied and organized neatly. - To ensure, no further feedback is given, as you should know, this is their office area and we must respect it.
Leave with a smile and say thank you. After all, they also gave their time to help us with the site survey and to answer our questions patiently.

One of my experiences:

I have been a situation where I know site survey is needed but I was hestiating to even empahsise on it due to various factors such as running out of time, performing a straightforward approach (on the day of implementation, unmount the old & mount the new one) which is understandable, however running a mid-large scale project is not feasible.

Hence, DO NOT repat my mistake, instead be brave and voice it out. Even if you cant voice it out, be brave and send an email out emphasising the importance of it.
DO YOUR PART RIGHT.
Here I am helping you out not to repeat my mistake and also the success of doing this step (I have done both).