RackTables. Where to begin?

Accounting in IT plays a very important role. Of course, knowing how to set up a Catalyst from scratch, build degraded RAID and set up a new Oracle DB Instance is very valuable and the person owning them is worthy of respect. However, when these Catalyst and other IBM Flex-s are several server racks, and not in the same room, the question: “Where is the server on which the RAID fell down?” Can confuse more than one specialist. Finding a specific server, I'm not talking about network cables, can turn into an exciting quest. And do not let you ping run into such a quest in the circumstances of the accident. It was in such a case that people created programs like RackTables .

Free translation from the site:
Racktables is an excellent and reliable solution for data centers and server rooms. RackTables helps you keep records of hardware, network addresses, server racks, network configurations, and more!
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When I first read about RackTables on Habré (now the article is here ), I thought: “Christmas trees are needles !!! Yes, this is what we lacked so much! ”A few minutes to install, I go to the web interface, I start poking in sections and I understand that I don’t understand the fig. Actually for those who, too, with the flight did not understand how and what is there where necessary, the article was written.
In the course of the article I will give the naming of objects that are taken from us. Therefore, if I commit a blasphemy against any guest, do not judge me.

The first rule of a fight club is that you need to understand - in RackTables many things are strictly interconnected. Server racks cannot be created while there is no server room, and it is impossible to build a server room yet, say, buildings. Therefore, let us imagine that we have the company Gorsvet, which is located in the city of Arkaim, and there is a branch in the city of Edo. In Arkaim we have two server rooms in the same building, and in Edo there is only one. And the first thing we do ...
Change MyCompanyName in the upper left corner of the page. Suddenly. True? :))
Go to the Configuration - User interface. Go to the tab Change, look for the line "enterprise Organization name (system-wide)" This is the name of our organization. We write the necessary.



Save the button at the bottom of the page.

The result is not long in coming.

Well, it's time to create a location . A location can be a city, a building, anything, just to make it clear to you. We have a city. From the main page go to Rackspace-Manage locations, enter the name of the location, click the icon with an asterisk.



Then, without departing from the cash register, we create a server room in the Manage rowse tab. In our case, ServerRoom 1 and ServerRoom 2 in Arkaim and Data Room in Edo.



On the Browse tab you can see the result.



We put the rack . We click on the name of the server room in the column Row - Add new rack. In the Name field, write the name of the rack Rack1-1; in the Height in units field, the height of the rack in units. Click the icon with an asterisk. Is done. Or you can create multiple racks in the bottom field at once. The name of each rack is written from a new line.



When done, the result will be waiting for you on the View tab.



Strange tab Files . I do not know what sense the creators endowed this tab, I place all sorts of pictures there.



Here, for example, why not put here a plan for placing the server room? You never know, suddenly we have an underground data center in the catacombs.



Well, the foundation is laid, We put the Equipment . First of all, you need to create it. From the main page, go to the Objects section, Add more tab. In the Object type, select the type of equipment. In the Commone name we write any name, the main thing is that it does not coincide with the other one being added. In the Visable label model of the equipment (optional field).



Fill out? Go! In the sense of the Go button, click.
Going to the Browse tab, you can see what you added. At the moment, all equipment is in Unmounted state.



Clicking on any object takes you to its properties and configuration page. And on the Rackspace tab, the equipment is mounted. We specify the location of the switch. Click on the name of the object - Rackspace - Select the rack.



After clicking on the rack name, its schematic image will immediately appear in the right part of the window. By clicking on the unit number, you can specify how much space the object occupies in the rack. At the end press the Save button in the center of the screen.



Result on the View tab.



Similarly, we mount everything else. Now, at any moment, you know where and what your lives.



Actually this is the base that will help start and further independently master all the features of the program. In addition, do not forget to label the equipment itself from the rack to the patch cords. This will help when moving objects and just convenient when you make visual contact on the spot. Also, do not be lazy to make changes to RackTables in the event of a switch or server relocation. Otherwise, after a while all your work will become a profanation.