The Basic Message: When in doubt whether a change is in-scope for openDCIM, the safe action is to let the ITS EI Data Centers team know.

Background: The implementation of a Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software system enables real-time asset management information for computing resources and supporting infrastructure in UI enterprise data centers. Where authorized and security enabled, DCIM data will be available on a read-only basis to existing data center tenants, including colocation partners.

We have implemented an open-source DCIM software tool called openDCIM.

The DCIM change management process is designed to ensure that openDCIM database accuracy is maintained and, in some cases, be the authoritative source of data center inventory information.

Change Process: The requirement is to keep openDCIM current with the actual state of data hall physical and logical, in-scope inventory. For a full list of in-scope fields captured and maintained by openDCIM, see Appendix A.

1. If the ITS Data Centers team makes a change to a/your device, then your work is done. The DC team will ensure that applicable changes get applied to openDCIM.
2. If you propose to make a change to a field that is in-scope for openDCIM, the DC team’s preference is to be notified in advance to coordinate the updating (timing and content) of openDCIM.
   1. The Data Centers team can be contacted by sending an email to the ITS-EI-DC-Team distribution group.
3. Confirmation of the change will be returned to the initiator in the form of a report, screen shot, or, at minimum, an email that the change has been made.
4. The goal is to review this DCIM CM document annually, at a minimum.
5. When in doubt whether a change is in-scope for openDCIM, the safe action is to let the Data Centers team know.

Requirement: In order to maintain accurate and consistent data in openDCIM, the authorization to modify openDCIM data is closely held to a limited number of staff on the ITS EI Data Centers team.

If you utilize the ITS EI Data Center Hosting team for your data center device support needs, then most of the implemented and applicable changes will be kept current in openDCIM by that team. However, there are some changes that do not require DC Hosting team interaction that Data Center Hosting will still need to know about. An example would be a change to the primary or secondary systems administrator.

If, however, you are an individual or group that implements systems changes independently, then following this change process is critical to maintaining an accurate representation of what is hosted in the data halls.

Reasons and objectives:

1. Data Center equipment and infrastructure asset/inventory tracking
2. Intuitive asset tracking with improved accuracy and reliability
3. Shared workload to track, audit, and provide guide services for colocation partners
   • Serves as a guide to quickly and easily find the equipment’s data center, rack location, primary contact, and other useful information.
4. Better capacity planning for infrastructure and equipment deployments
   • Cabinet and data hall space, power, and cooling
   • CDU, KVM, and Network port capacity and availability
5. Professional and audit ready handling of colocation partner assets
6. Real-time visibility to floor plans and cabinet deployments
7. Ad hoc reports of what our enterprise data centers are hosting for each colocation partner
8. Improved decision making based on near real-time information

In Scope: The following are guiding statements of what is considered in-scope for the openDCIM Change Management Process:

• Data centers ITF & LC.
• Data hall layouts (including Bingo grid labels) will be visible and kept current using openDCIM
• The following cabinets in all “in-scope” data centers are in-scope:
  • Production, Colo, Storage, and Research (including research rows at ITF & Argon at LC)
• The contents of all “in-scope” cabinets, including servers, storage, top of cabinet networking, automatic transfer switches, UPS, in cabinet CDUs and any other device that takes up “U” or other space within the cabinet.

DCIM fields: The follow list of data fields/categories are considered in-scope for maintaining accurate openDCIM records:

• Equipment changes (replacing a server, for example)
• Label, aka server name (the name of the “box”)
• Physical location changes (within a cabinet or between cabinet and/or data centers)
• Serial number
• Asset tag
• IPv4 and/or IPv6 addresses
• Primary Admin
• Secondary Admin
• Departmental Owner
• Customer contact (prefer an email address)
• OS changes (From WIN to UNIX for example, not version upgrades from say Win 2012 to Win 2016)
• Operational log notes (DIMM swaps, HDD replacements, other repairs/upgrades)
• Any notes (i.e. what the server is used for, if it is SAN attached, etc.)

Out of Scope: There are a few, very specific categories that are out of scope at this time:

• Virtual Machines (VM). The Physical VM host servers are in-scope
• Power & Environmental Monitoring/Reporting
• Networking (Only the floor footprint of the following is captured):
  • End of Row Cabinet (minimal details captured)
  • Data Hall networking distribution
  • Boreas
  • Campus network delivery infrastructure within data halls
  • Other network distribution not listed in the In Scope section
• ICN at LC14 (footprint only)
• Telecom at LC14 (footprint only)