ONE-STOP SOLUTION AND TECHNOLOGY

Benefits

• Reduce capital spending by optimizing capacity planning and improve power infrastructure provisioning.
• Reduce and control energy costs with real-time power usage monitoring and granular power usage breakdown.
• Prepare, plan and execute a data center relocation project into a new facility with confidence.
• Reduce costs by visualizing the data center floor and cabinet elevations remotely in a lights-out operation.
• Reduce costs by eliminating the need to manually trace circuits and connections.
• Reduce costs by eliminating the need to run new cables or add new equipment by easily identifying unassigned connections and unused equipment ports.
• Plan network, power and cooling requirements by reviewing current loads and future trends.
• Reduce the mean time to repair (MTTR) by accelerating the investigative process to identify the incident cause. Since about 80 percent of incident repair reflects time to track down and identify causes, dcTrack dramatically reduces both time and costs.
• Quickly identify user departments and applications that are affected by a server shutdown, a virus attack or a partial power failure.
• Control access to data center items by using a robust change management and work order system.
• Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act and FDA regulations; FDA regulation 21 CFR Part 11 establishes stringent standards of data security, data integrity and traceability.

Features

• Visualize AutoCAD® floor plan drawings in real time without the need for an AutoCAD license or software. Changes made to AutoCAD floor plans are immediately visible in dcTrack.
• Visualize color-coded floor plans that summarize low, medium and high utilizations of key data center attributes such as heat dissipation, power usage, weight and rack mounting space.
• Navigate interactive hyperlinked drawings for deep visibility of floor space, cabinet front and rear elevations, device images and ports.
• Drag and drop network and power port labels on the front and rear images of items to depict their exact physical locations.
• Visualize relationships and dependencies between user departments, applications, PDUs, cabinets, servers and networks.
• Visualize a group of cabinet elevations based on physical or logical groupings.
• Visualize end-to-end power and network circuit maps including all intermediate circuit points.
• Visualize PDU and RPP circuit breaker panels. The breakers are hyperlinked to trace the entire circuit downstream identifying all connected items.
• Use an extensive visual library of items and connectors depicting equipment front and rear views and attributes such as rack units and weight. Easily add to library by importing manufacturers' free Visio® stencils.

Multi Data Center Support

• Manage multiple data center sites regardless of their geographic locations.
• Store all sites in one ODBC-compliant, scalable SQL server database.

Data Center Asset Management

• Track financial asset information including purchase date, purchase price, department cost center, asset tag and maintenance contracts.
• Track physical asset information including rack units, dimensions, weight, manufacturer, model and serial number.
• Track logical asset information including function, operating system, administrators and user departments.

IP and Network Management

• Manage logical relationships and connections between servers and network switches based on IP subnet addresses.
• Define subnets using an intelligent IP address calculator that computes, among other things, the number of hosts in a subnet based on a subnet mask.
• Identify VLAN, color code and subnet's physical location based on an IP address.
• Manage VLANs by controlling the list of subnets served by each switch.
• Assign a new IP address automatically when a server is being moved to a location served by a different subnet.
• Configure a server port with multiple virtual IP addresses or implement port teaming for two or more ports.
• Manage network switches and ports whether they are stackable or chassis form factor.

SNMP Auto-Discovery

• Auto-discover dynamic server attributes such as processors, memory, disk utilization, processes and applications as well as IP and MAC® addresses.
• Load any third-party MIB, browse it and walk it to determine the exact OID fields to map to dcTrack fields.
• Scan the network with maximum flexibility by selecting subnets or IP address ranges.
• Use results of the auto-discovery scan to audit existing dcTrack items or use them to populate new items.

Servers and Host Devices

• Track and visualize the precise position of network and power ports on the front and rear of servers and devices. Visually track the server rack unit position in the cabinet.
• Track server network and power attributes including positions, labels, connector types, protocols, speed, MAC and IP addresses, voltage, phase, rated, derated and actual watts.
• Manage all server types including physical, virtual and blade servers.
• Manage virtual server information including clusters, datastore locations, virtual switches and ports.
• Automate conversion of physical servers to virtual servers.
• Track server applications including their criticality, dependency, user departments and user sites.
• Create unlimited number of user fields.
• Manage maintenance and support contract information.

Power and Environmental Management

• Monitor and track power loads and environmental data in real time throughout the data center, including intelligent rack PDUs (power strips), temperature/humidity probes, PDUs, UPS systems and CRAC units.
• Group and manage UPS and CRAC units in banks and define redundancy levels within each bank.
• Monitor power loads of all data center power feeds in order to maintain load balance across all feeds thus preventing overloads during feed shutdowns or failures.
• Manage power loads to achieve a balanced load across all three phases and sources.
• Manage power loads in rack PDUs down to branch circuit fuses.
• Determine the power loads at any point in the circuit path. The power readings are available for rack PDUs, power outlets, breakers, breaker panels, PDUs and UPS systems using derated values and actual readings where available.
• Track electrical busway distribution systems, including busway modules, circuit breakers and receptacle types with granular and graphical detail.
• Visually manage PDU and RPP redundancy and diversity feeding cabinets and racks.
• Receive alerts when power is being exceeded at any point upstream in the circuit path.
• Define and manage the CRAC units' zones of influence and track location of perforated raised floor tiles.

Data Cabling

• Track and manage virtually any cable infrastructure topology: centralized or distributed network racks, outlet port densities, cabling media, cable labeling scheme and port color coding.
• Track fiber and copper cabling including cable categories and connector types.
• Document and visualize cable routes within the data center on the floor plan.
• Document cable tray routes, whether under the floor or overhead, and associated cables.
• Data and Power Connectivity
• Provision data and power circuits using built-in automation and intelligence tools. End-to-end data circuits can be automatically provisioned based on user-defined rules such as color code, VLAN or simply the next available port.
• Provision power circuits to maintain best practices. The system will automatically select diverse power sources, maintain balance across all three phases and ensure circuit limits are not exceeded.
• Prevent connectivity errors. Alerts are generated if the connections are between two different media types, incompatible connectors, mismatched color codes or other improper practices. Warnings alert the user when a proposed connection requires further attention.
• Trace data and power connections by providing information on any item or port in the circuit path. The end-to-end connection trace result is visualized both graphically and in tabular text format.

Change Management

• Maintain best practices and improve operational efficiencies by using a well-defined change management process.
• Enable data center users to generate change requests to be reviewed and approved by authorized data center managers. Request forms support moves, adds and changes (MACs) of assets as well as connections and disconnects of power and data cabling.
• Generate, schedule and forward work orders based on approved requests to data center technicians to affect change.
• Send e-mail notifications automatically throughout all stages of the change process to requesters, approvers and technicians.
• Maintain a complete history of requests and work orders in compliance with internal and regulatory audit requirements. Time, date and user names of the persons who acted on each request stage are also recorded. Old requests can be archived.
• Automate device moves using built-in intelligence tools to determine suitable cabinet destination based on available resources. Resources include available rack units, power sources, data cabling, color codes, network VLAN and IP addresses.

Library

• Extensive library of the most popular data center items including blade servers, physical servers, network switches, SAN switches, rack PDUs and many other items.
• Library includes front and rear images, physical specifications and the manufacturers' recommended power supplies and network ports.
• Extensive library of the most popular power and network connectors. Out-of-the-box and customizable rules for mating connectors.
• Easily edit and add items to the library or synchronize with future updates.

Administration

• Utility to import user data in bulk from spreadsheets. The utility can be customized to allow for the import of non-structured spreadsheets by mapping spreadsheet column headings to specific dcTrack fields.
• Complete audit trail of item records and fields tracking the user making the change, timestamp, old value and new value of the changed field.
• Unlimited ability to add custom user-defined fields in all item screens.
• Access servers remotely via remote desktop, telnet and SSH sessions.
• Flexible search features allow exact or partial matches on any field. Search results can be easily exported to Excel® or text files.
• Dropdown lists are customizable by the administrator.
• Security features limit user access by administrator-defined four access levels.

Question

Answer

What is dcTrack?

dcTrack is a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solution providing powerful and intelligent tools for data center automation. dcTrack enables data center managers to maintain accurate views across the entire data center from servers, blades, virtual servers and applications, to data networks, IP addressing space and cabling, to real-time views of power consumption and heat dissipation, to raised floor space and rack elevations. dcTrack was designed from the ground up by data center professionals to provide broad and deep visibility into the data center. It empowers data center managers to plan for growth and change by optimizing their current operations, assets and infrastructure.

Who can benefit from dcTrack?

Data center managers, network managers and technicians, server managers and administrators, and facility managers and technicians can all benefit from dcTrack.

How many data centers can dcTrack manage?

dcTrack can manage an unlimited number of data centers.

Does dcTrack manage network infrastructure?

Yes. dcTrack can track the physical network layer of Ethernet and Fibre Channel switches, chassis-based and stackable switches, and MAC and IP addresses.

Can dcTrack manage VLANs?

Yes. dcTrack allows for the logical mapping of IP subnets to network switches or switch blades. It also allows for the assignment of VLANs to network interfaces.

Does dcTrack manage power infrastructure?

Yes. dcTrack supports single phase and 3-phase power distribution, traditional breaker panel-to-outlet distribution, busway distribution, variety of electrical socket types and standards. It supports all elements in the power chain, from a device power supply all the way up to UPS.

Does dcTrack manage the cable plant?

Yes. dcTrack can manage virtually any common architecture, including centralized network distribution, distributed end-of-row, network racks or top-of-rack switching. It can also manage multiple hops of patching and connectivity.

Can dcTrack auto-discover servers and host systems?

Yes. dcTrack can auto-discover systems that have SNMP v1, v2 or v3 enabled using the standard RFC 1213 MIB.

Does dcTrack do real-time monitoring?

Yes. dcTrack can monitor in real time the power and environmental readings from SNMP-enabled power and environmental devices, such as UPS, PDU, rack PDU, power supplies, CRAC units, and temperature and humidity probes. dcTrack can update these readings down to 1-second intervals.

What are the requirements for deploying dcTrack?

Microsoft® SQL server 2000 or 2005. Depending on the size of the database, the server may not have to be dedicated. dcTrack may run as an SQL database instance or on a virtual machine running an SQL server. The end-user installation requires MS Windows 2000 or XP with the latest service packs.

Is there a maintenance plan for dcTrack?

Yes. The plan includes telephone and email support, bug fixes, maintenance releases and library updates.

Automate Data Center Provisioning

Rapid change in the data center is the order of the day due to the enterprise's increasing reliance on IT services. Timely provisioning of the many data center resources to meet the corporation's service needs is a major challenge. Because data centers often suffer from inaccurate or incomplete inventory records, provisioning cycles are much longer than necessary, and can result in missteps, re-work, missed deadlines, and service outages.

Using Raritan's dcTrack Data Center Infrastructure Manager you will have an up-to-date view of all data center assets, a controlled change/workflow process and rules based tools to automate and accelerate the provisioning process.

An automated, well-managed provisioning process will lead to faster delivery cycles, increased staff productivity and reduced error-rates. You can meet your deadlines and SLA's, while minimizing the possibility of service outages. And on-time rollouts of reliable IT services will delight your internal and external customers.

Intelligent and Efficient Capacity Management

Your data center is likely the most expensive square footage in your company, with today's large data center builds costing tens of millions of dollars. With new builds so expensive, there are enormous incentives to make optimum use of existing capacity. Ad hoc management of capacity results in many issues: space and power shortages, stranded capacity and fragmented resources. On the other hand, over-provisioning can lead to an enormous waste of capital and expenses. Finding the right balance is difficult without the right tools.

The dcTrack Data Center Infrastructure Manager gives you the tools to do intelligent capacity management. dcTrack's powerful floor plan visualization tools and color-coded capacity views highlight the available space, power, networking and cooling resources. But it doesn't stop there – with dcTrack you can also drill down to the most granular level to view individual power and data connections. Plus, dcTrack enables complete power chain management, so that you can properly manage power distribution – even balance 3-phase power loads.

And the benefits are enormous – by carefully managing and utilizing existing capacity, and evenly balance power cooling and space to avoid stranded and fragmented resources, you can make full use of your existing resources. dcTrack will enable you to defer costly equipment purchases, delay costly, new builds and minimize capital expenditures.

And the benefits are enormous – by carefully managing and utilizing existing capacity, you can defer costly equipment purchases, delay new builds and make full use of your existing resources. By evenly balancing power cooling and space, you can avoid stranded and fragmented resources. You'll make optimal use of your data center assets, minimize capital expenditures and put an end to the constant reorganizations to free up resources.

Data Center Builds, Moves and Consolidations

Like it or not, major data center changes – whether new builds, moves or consolidations – are a continuous headache for data center managers. They are further complicated by the data center's multiple, inter-dependent organizations --IT, networking and facilities--needed to plan and construct the modern data center. Coordination of these "silos" is a major obstacle, especially with the multiple (often out-of-date) spreadsheets, databases, CAD drawings and systems that "document" the average data center.

dcTrack's integrated facilities and IT database can help you to plan and organize major data center changes. dcTrack provides detailed, real-world modeling of racks, servers, network, cabling, power cooling and floor space. And with its change and work-order management, you can control, coordinate and manage the many technicians and contractors involved in a major data center project. dcTrack's powerful visualization tools break down the barriers between the data center "silos" to enable a "shared, single version of the truth" that can unite your project team.

With dcTrack, you can accurately and efficiently plan, manage and complete your data center project. With the increase in productivity and quality, you will meet, or even beat, your project deadlines and budgets, to the delight of your internal and external stakeholders.

Reduced Manual Effort for Compliance and Audits

Most data center managers do not have an up-to-date inventory of the equipment in their data center, not to mention the connections between this equipment. And, if they do, then it is typically spread across multiple spreadsheets, drawings, files and systems. So, how do they respond to the constant requests for compliance, regulatory, financial and energy information, including requests related to Sarbanes-Oxley, FDA regulations, EU Code of Conduct, as well as internal regulatory organizations? The standard approach is time-consuming, periodic physical inventories as well as ad hoc trips to the supposedly "lights-out" data center.

Managers of data centers equipped with dcTrack have up-to-date inventory records of facilities, devices and their interconnection. This data can be used to generate accurate, timely reports which can help you to respond to internal and external requests for information – quickly and without trips to the data center.

The result is timely, accurate compliance and reporting with reduced staff effort. You will save money, increase productivity and be prepared for the next, last-minute request. And possibly even keep the lights out in your lights-out data center.