DCO: Half-racks or quarter-racks - best practices?

[DCIM_Support]

This question was originally posted on DCIM Support by Christian Riis on 2017-10-11

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A customer is asking how we can model half-racks or quarter-racks in Data Center Operation?

I am aware that it is not currently supported, but what are the most optimal workaround and/or best practice?

In the example above we add 4 12-U quarter-racks to a single rack floor position - this kind of works, but it is eating up rack licenses quickly.

Another option might be to apply some manual procedures, like "Customer A owns position 1-12, customer B owns 13-24". This method will not enable the customers to view their assets from the Tenant Portal.

Any other methods we have overlooked?

Thanks!

Christian

(CID:126162472)

[DCIM_Support]

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by Jef Faridi on 2017-10-11

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Hi Christian,

You can customize any rack size in the Genome -> your selected rack -> Properties -> Physical settings:

Here is an illustration/3D-view of 3 different rack size (quarter rack, half rack and a 42 U rack):

Kind regards

(CID:126162532)

[DCIM_Support]

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by Christian Riis on 2017-10-11

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Yes, I knew that much 😉 

But by "quarter-rack" I mean a rack with four doors and four separate enclosures - in the same rack:

... and since it is not yet 😉 possible to stack items on top of other items in DCO, we need some sort of workaround.

(CID:126162536)

[DCIM_Support]

This answer was originally posted on DCIM Support by Ed Tarento on 2017-10-11

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Christian

As you say, not supported.  If you haven't already, perhaps log a feature request?   I know of at least one CoLo operator who sells half racks (although they try to avoid it)

I've tried to do something similar to what you describe with (DCO:Capacity) tags (assets and blanking panels depicting "RU rather than rack ownership) but that was for an owner occupier where it didn't really matter if one "customer" saw another's assets.  I'm assuming you're in a CoLo environment so I think you have to "suck up" the licenses - perhaps an "energetic" discussion with the sales team might help.   Are all the racks shared like that?  Just a small percentage?   I haven't tried but I assume you can't place one rack on top of another?

Another option I used was to duplicate the rooms, so in your example, you have 4 rooms covering the same room but each with different customer racks.  Doesn't solve the rack licensing issue but does solve the customer security issue.  When I did this, I half a room for the per rack customers, and a room for each of the part rack customers as some customers owner full as well as half racks.  All of the power and cooling config was in the "full rack" room.  it's pretty dirty but at least you can consider it

Cheers

Ed

(CID:126162527)

[DCIM_Support]

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by Christian Riis on 2017-10-11

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Hi Ed,

Thanks for your suggestions!

Nice touch with the duplicate rooms (haven't thought of that) - I am not sure I want to venture down that road 😉

Cheers

Christian

(CID:126162552)

[DCIM_Support]

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by Jef Faridi on 2017-10-11

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Hi Christian,

Sorry my bad - many thanks for the clarification.

Kind regards

(CID:126162539)

[DCIM_Support]

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