About data centers

A data center represents a physically contiguous area in which racks containing IT equipment are located. For example, you have IT equipment in two rooms or on separate floors. You could create a data center for each of these areas.

Each server, enclosure, or power distribution device in your data center can report its power requirements, but it can be difficult to understand the power and cooling requirements for your data center as a whole. The appliance enables you to bring power and cooling management of your servers, enclosures, and power delivery devices together in a single management system.

The Layout view of the data center is color-coded to depict the peak temperature recorded in the last 24 hours.

Default data center: Datacenter 1

When you initialize the appliance for the first time, it creates a data center named Datacenter 1. The appliance provides this data center as a place to visualize your racks. You can rename or edit this data center to match the values and layout of your data center, you can use it as the basis for a planned data center model, or you can delete this data center without adverse effects.
NOTE:

Racks that are not yet positioned in any data center, are shown at the end of the last row of each existing data center (including Datacenter 1, the default data center). A warning message is displayed to notify you that there are racks that need to be positioned in the appropriate data center.

Default rack placement

When you add a rack to the appliance for management, the appliance displays the rack in all data centers even though its actual location is not known. If you view a data center that displays unpositioned racks, a warning appears to alert you that unpositioned racks are being displayed. When you assign a rack to a data center, it is no longer displayed in other data centers.

If no resources are listed, you must add a resource. The following information appears on the Data Centers screen:

  • A list of your data centers.

  • Power and cooling data.

  • A 3D visualization of the racks in the data center.

  • The peak temperature of the racks and the devices in them.

More information

About cooling and power data display

Add a data center

About monitoring data center temperature