Visualizing Racks

Posted by YellowOnline@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 34 comments

So often, the question "what ticket system do you use?" is asked in this sub. For a change, my question is "how do you visualize racks?"

We're moving our data center, and I would really love to use something more intuitive/visual than spreadsheets to document which device goes where and which port is connect to where and with what colour cable.

For the visualization, I could use Microsoft Visio, which I have a license for, and has (third party) templates for many devices. It doesn't really help much with metadata however. I'm sure there are better solutions, but all I find are DCIM tools that do much more than just this and, therefore, for a premium price. But I don't want agents, voltage monitoring or asset discovery. I just want to document relatively small server rooms (max 4 racks) in many locations (50+).

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AmiDeplorabilis@reddit

That's not where the title took me.

That said, I'm going to be moving racks this summer, so I'll be visualizing racks.

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ntwrkmstr@reddit

Netbox is the usual go to, but if you want something else Racktables - https://github.com/racktables/racktables

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ITBadBoy@reddit

I have a long running racktables instance going, I appreciate its severe simplicity. use simpleSAML for SSO integration with our Entra Tenant. Fun stuff.

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YellowOnline@reddit (OP)

I think i checked out Racktables once in the past. Will re-check it out.

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chickibumbum_byomde@reddit

NetBox is a good call here and probably why so many people recommend it. It hits a sweet spot between simple diagrams and fullblown DCIM without dragging in agents or unnecessary complexity.

Visio ...Sure why not..works for visuals, but it falls apart once you need to track metadata, connections, and changes over time. tools like NetBox give you both structure and visualization, so you’re not maintaining separate sources of truth.

all good, but without monitoring centralised in combination to some visulaization (highly recommend NagVis), i wouldn't go any further (currently using checkmk, used Nagios for a good while) to check whether everything is actually up and healthy, which is usually what’s missing from pure documentation. For your use case, though, NetBox alone is already a big upgrade from spreadsheets.

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SudoZenWizz@reddit

I’m using idoit for cmdb inventory with direct integration to checkmk for monitoring. After move is easy to check if everything works properly

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PointyWombatReborn@reddit

Netbox

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chesser45@reddit

Huh having used Visio for site discovery I think doing it for rack visualization might make me start drinking.

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maziarczykk@reddit

GLPI

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Master-IT-All@reddit

Ok, I'm really disappointed that no one has commented on 'visualizing racks' with some bad boy humor.

I like visualizing racks while playing with my Netbox. :P

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narcissisadmin@reddit

I am also now disappointed. In myself.

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narcissisadmin@reddit

I started with a spreadsheet that had info for what was in each RU of each cabinet, ended up with a MySQL DB driven web page using the manufacturers' stencils as images. I threw in model number and serial information and even links to given management consoles.

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RustyU@reddit

Patch Manager

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Generico300@reddit

Instagram

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violet-lynx@reddit

GLPI with rack plugin.

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Mustade@reddit

Agree, but with GLPI 11 you don't need the plugin, it's built-in. Not sure if it is "datacenter" grade but we use it for our couple racks in my org and it's pretty slick.

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firestorm_v1@reddit

Netbox is love, netbox is life. Netbox is how you keep things organized. Also, it's free.

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dchit2@reddit

https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox

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Snowmobile2004@reddit

I recently found Nautobot and it looks like a super nice fork of net box with more automation

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Whosthatguy7590@reddit

Jap, double Netbox. Currently in the process and adding everything from the office to Netbox

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graph_worlok@reddit

Netbox will also document your contacts, groups , ipam, network topology.. Best thing is, it’s incredibly easy to integrate with anything else - at it’s core it does nothing but store a representation of your IPAM and physical infrastructure, but being able to use that as a reliable data source makes everything else easier. And there’s a community-sourced database that contains a massive amount of device types to import, complete with pictures.

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The_NorthernLight@reddit

Visio

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ProgressBartender@reddit

Visio for management, excel spreadsheet for me.

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The_NorthernLight@reddit

No spreadsheet for me, i use dell ome for that data.

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ProgressBartender@reddit

I get it. It’s an individual choice. I’ve tried all those tools and I found I spent more time trying to fit how the management program was handling the data than any benefit.
Granted my environment isn’t hundreds of physical boxes, so maybe that’s why It was easier to just use spreadsheets.
I have a spreadsheet for each site, first sheet is a simple floor plan of racks and crac units. Second sheet just breaks server inventory down into individual racks. And sometimes I’ll just take a couple of sheets and draw out a rack map with the server/switch locations in the rack.

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SevaraB@reddit

A rack is just a (usually) 42x\<num_of_racks> table. NetBox if you don’t feel like making anything yourself. If you’ve got an inventory field with the rack and RU coordinates, you could also scrape that inventory with Python or whatever and fill a Jinja template to make a markdown table for each row of racks. (Infra as code and doc as code are goals, not tools, lots of ways to tackle this one).

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Doctorphate@reddit

We used Excel up until a few years ago and switched to net box.

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DonkeyTron42@reddit

I use Netbox. It also has a nice API you can use for for other tools.

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graph_worlok@reddit

Netbox

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scor_butus@reddit

Winner winner

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travelingnerd10@reddit

If you are willing to self-host it, I would give NetBox a go. Yes, it has evolved to contain a lot of data and its data model takes a bit to get used to if you are coming from spreadsheets and Visio (i.e., manufacturers, device models, module modules, devices, modules, cables, etc.).

We use it (self-hosted) and have never had any issues with it. It takes into account both rack spaces in use as well as the ability to reserve rack spaces for future use and have it visible, visually.

The tool also has front and back elevations of racks to account for either full-depth devices or for rear-mounted powerstrips or other equipment.

NetBox does have a paid-for SaaS version, if self-hosting is out the window for you.

https://netboxlabs.com/docs/netbox/

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