A Data Center Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a part of Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software that expands upon what is typically tracked in a traditional IT CMDB. It maintains an accurate representation of all IT equipment residing in the data center (e.g., servers, network, storage equipment) and supporting infrastructure assets (e.g., racks, rack PDUs, patch panels, structured cabling, patch cabling, UPSs, busways, branch circuits) with relationship mapping down to physical port levels and up to virtual machine and application levels.
While a Data Center CMDB and a traditional CMDB share similarities, they are typically used by different teams and, as such, track and monitor different information. A traditional IT CMDB is used by IT teams to track all corporate IT assets and their configurations as logical objects. The goal of using a CMDB is to better align IT with the business throughout the product or service delivery lifecycle.
By comparison, a Data Center CMDB provides a holistic view of all data center resources and capacity. It is used by data center operations teams and information can be shared across organizational functions to provide single pane of glass management. The information tracked in a data center CMDB supports a wide range of uses cases including asset management, power and environment monitoring, space capacity planning, connectivity and port management, and 2D/3D visualization and modeling. The primary goal of a Data Center CMDB is to enable real-time capacity and change management to optimize the availability, utilization, and efficiency of the data center.
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What is Typically Tracked |
Tracked in IT CMDB or Data Center CMDB |
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Asset identification |
Both |
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All corporate IT assets (Configuration Items) |
IT CMDB |
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Configuration Item relationships |
IT CMDB |
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Hardware/software configurations (e.g., server, memory, disk space) |
IT CMDB |
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Asset lifecycle (e.g., in service, out of service) |
IT CMDB |
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Hardware/software that resides in the data center, along with their configuration and asset lifecycle |
Data Center CMDB |
|
All physical data center infrastructure (e.g., racks, rack PDUs, patch panels, structured and patch cabling, UPSs, busways, branch circuits) along with their physical relationships/connections |
Data Center CMDB |
|
Detailed physical location of data center assets (e.g., site location, cabinet location, and U position) |
Data Center CMDB |
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Rack elevation views with high-fidelity front and back images |
Data Center CMDB |
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Measured power and temperature readings, trending, and alerting |
Data Center CMDB |
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Dimensional, weight, and physical data/power port information of assets |
Data Center CMDB |
|
Physical relationships and connectivity for power supply and network interface cards along with capacity of all physical port types |
Data Center CMDB |
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Utilization and capacity of data center infrastructure resources (e.g., power, space, cooling) |
Data Center CMDB |
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3D visualization of assets and logical connectivity between equipment |
Data Center CMDB |
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Related Images/Videos
Related Links
- What is a Data Center CMDB?
- DCIM Software and CMDB: Why You Should Consider Integration
- DCIM Software and IT Service Management - Perfect Together DCIM: The Physical Heart of DCIM
- Creating a Single Version of the Truth with DCIM Software and CMDB
- What is Data Center Automation?
- How Data Center Experts are Integrating DCIM with ServiceNow