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Raritan Introduces First-of-its-Kind Intelligent Asset Tags and Sensors to Keep Track of Data Center Servers and Supporting IT Infrastructure

08 сентября 2011

Raritan announced the general availability of the first intelligent Asset Management Tag and Sensor solution for improving data center asset management by providing accurate, real-time information on all IT assets and their locations.

With a large number of devices and a great variety of equipment, data center equipment moves, adds and changes are challenging.  Accurate records on where servers are located in racks and the power chain associated with servers are not always available.  In fact, in larger data centers up to 25 percent of IT assets can go missing because of difficulty tracking IT assets.  This translates into underutilized rack space and capacity, contributes to ghost servers, as well as wasted time locating equipment.

 

Raritan's new intelligent Asset Management Tag (AMT), the size of a small mailing label, is attached to a server and then connected to an Asset Management Sensor (AMS) attached to a rack rail.  The Raritan solution tells operators the unique ID of the server and exactly where that server is located in the data center, down to the 1U level in a rack.  The solution also indicates any moves or changes.  If the server is moved to a new location in the same rack or to a different rack, its new location is automatically recognized when the AMT is connected to the sensor at the new location.   

 

Raritan's new asset management solution provides visual guidance to help with equipment adds, moves, changes, reconfigurations or repairs.  The sensor has RGB LED lights at each one rack unit (1U) to indicate what action should be taken.  For example, a green light might indicate the available location for a server installation.  This location could have been chosen by asset management software, such as Raritan's dcTrack®, which takes into account not only open space in a rack but also sufficient electrical power, cooling and network connections.  An installer can quickly find the correct space by looking for color-coded indication lights among rows of racks.  Different colors can be used for other change-management processes.  For example, a red blinking LED could be used to indicate a server maintenance request.

 

According to Director of Raritan's Energy Management Business Herman Chan, "Even modest-size data centers have an enormous number of IT assets, from servers to storage to networking equipment, that need to be tracked.  Often this is done ad hoc, using Excel® spreadsheets and Visio® diagrams, and becomes very labor intensive.  There are some software programs available that are designed for the purpose of tracking IT equipment.  However, if just a few moves, adds or changes are not recorded it can make the asset tracking system inaccurate and not useful.  It quickly becomes challenging to know which assets exist in the data center and where they are located.   Efficient data center management begins with smarter racks.  Our new intelligent asset management tag and sensor solution automatically detects asset moves, adds, and changes, which improves accuracy and minimizes the hours needed to track IT assets or conduct audits."

 

How Raritan's Intelligent Asset Management Solution Works


Raritan's Asset Management Tag attaches to Asset Management Sensor.  Customizable RGB color LED for each 1U space.

 

Raritan Asset Management Tags (AMT) adhere to servers and other IT devices.  Each tag contains a unique ID chip and scannable ID barcode.  Associated with the unique ID is the IT device's asset record -- where a variety of information can be stored, including serial number, repair records, maintenance agreement and lease terms.   At the rack, the Asset Management Tags are connected to Asset Management Sensors (AMS), which "senses" the tag's unique ID, as well as the connected asset’s physical location within a rack, and provides that information to Raritan’s dcTrack (DCIM) software or third-party asset management tools.   A SNMP-based communications protocol is available for standards-based open communications.  AMS bars support a variety of rack sizes, and can be installed on the left- or right-hand side without tools.     

 

Inventory information collected by the new Asset Management Tag and Sensor system can be updated in Raritan’s dcTrack database (CMDBs).  dcTrack not only tracks data center assets, but it also maps physical relationships between devices to easily see how everything in the data center is physically connected.   With its new “Search, Place and Reserve” capability, dcTrack users can quickly and easily search for and reserve space, power and network connectivity for all IT assets.   

 

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