Now let's take a look at some vendor tools that can assist in the process of designing and documenting your racks. Figure A shows a preview of the rack diagram.Īfter you open the stencil, you can customize the diagram for your rack server environment. Many items from Visio's PC & Peripherals, Network Devices, and General Manufacturer Equipment stencils also have the correct size ratio to be placed into the rack. My Visio rack diagram contains a sample 34U rack with objects from the custom stencil, as well as some Visio default items. It would be worthwhile to label your rack in the same manner. The cabinets also provide you with a number to denote the position.
Generic rack servers in heights of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6U.The stencil (.vss file) contains common items that are used in rack environments.
My Visio diagram and the custom stencil are available for free download. In this article, I'll introduce some elements used in this diagram and discuss a few of the software solutions for documenting rack equipment that are offered by popular server vendors Compaq, IBM, and Dell. Today, however, organizations across the board are finding that rack servers are a good fit for their IT environment.īecause working with rack servers demands some special design considerations, I created a Visio diagram and a custom stencil to help you plan and document your rack equipment.
Historically, rack hardware was reserved for the largest IT enterprises and service providers.