Associating live data from an external system to the layout

Monitored devices from external systems, for example Data Center Expert, Data Center: IT Power Control or Data Center: IT Optimize, appear in Discovered Devices, available in Planning>Device Association. They also appear in the Unassociated Devices pane.

When the monitored devices are associated with the corresponding items representing them in the application, the device data supports the capacity planning process.

In the Unassociated Devices pane, a colored number indicates the number of matches found in the system for that item based on its properties. The color corresponds to the likeliness the device matches one or more items in the layout. For example, if a Data Center: IT Optimize asset matches the IP address of one server and the manufacturer of 100 servers, the number 1 will show in green; if the IP address does not match but the manufacturer does, the number 100 will show in yellow.

Associating individual items (Figure 1)

To associate any of the items one by one with the item that represents it in the layout, drag-and-drop the item from the Unassociated Devices pane into position over the corresponding items in the Navigation pane or Layout pane.
For example, drag a UPS on top of a UPS in the floor layout (Data Center Expert), drag an IT asset on top of a server in the rack layout (Data Center: IT Optimize), or drag a blade enclosure and its blades on top of a blade enclosure and blades in the rack layout (Cisco integration).
To ensure downloaded values for the monitored devices from the external systems are reliable and based on the correct data, verify the integration configuration in System Setup>External System Configuration. For example, make sure you have set the correct date range for collecting measured data.
Live data is shown for associated monitored devices, optimizing the planning when identifying how much maximum kW power is in use for each device or how much the CPU is utilized.
To remove the association between an item and the item representing it in the data center layout, right-click the device or IT asset in the layout and select Unassociate from equipment.

Figure 1

Associating multiple items (Figure 2)

To associate multiple assets at the same time, select an external system in Unassociated Devices, for example a Cisco UCS Manager or Data Center: IT Optimize server.
If there are perfect matches for items in that system, a Multi Associate icon will be enabled.
Click Multi Associate.
Select which associations to make and carry them out.

Multiple devices can be associated to one server in the layout, for example a server discovered through an ITO server, and a VMware host.

Figure 2

Configuring association match interval (Figure 3)

You can configure how often the system counts the association matches in Tools>Preferences>External Systems>Association Suggestions.

Continuous counting whenever a change occurs, for example if properties change on items (default).
Only count on request. This is recommended for large setups.

If the system has been configured to only count association matches on request, an icon appears in the Association Details pane.

Click this icon to initiate another count.

Figure 3

In this article

Associating individual items (Figure 1)

Associating multiple items (Figure 2)

Configuring association match interval (Figure 3)

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