Populate drawing of racks in a data center

[johndoro]

I have been tasked with coming up with a way of improving the
documentation of our data center. We have a SQL database that stores
the information I want to capture, and I am trying to find a way to
automatically populate the drawings using that information.

Ideally, I would like to start with rack #, rack location, size (in
U's), and server name. Once I get that information inserted, I should
be able to figure out a way to fill in the remainder based on
queries.

I have Visio 2003, and I'm having trouble getting a drawing to work
well. Has anyone tried doing this? We currently maintain the
information via a manual procedure, but I figured that if we store the
info in a database already, we should be able to populate the racks
via an ODBC connection.

 

[Al Edlund]

The task is two fold creating a drawing and then linking the data to the
drawing. Both of these require custom coding.
Unless you're willing to do a lot of data coding you should consider using
v2007 pro with data linking.
al

 

[johndoro]

The task is two fold creating a drawing and then linking the data to the
drawing. Both of these require custom coding.
Unless you're willing to do a lot of data coding you should consider using
v2007 pro with data linking.
al








- Show quoted text -

I downloaded a demo of Visio 2007. Will I still have to create the
diagram of each rack, then link it to the database? If so, the task
seems daunting, as I have 177 racks to contend with.

 

[David Parker]

Al will be able to tell you about his own great work on automating rack
elevations from a database, but I also have some simpler examples in my book
http://www.visualizinginformation.com/ and you may find the downloads at
http://bvisual.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3350D61BC93733A9!338.entry
interesting
(Note that my ISP is currently resolving an issue with the web server for
the book, so please retry later)

The task is two fold creating a drawing and then linking the data to the
drawing. Both of these require custom coding.
Unless you're willing to do a lot of data coding you should consider using
v2007 pro with data linking.
al








- Show quoted text -

I downloaded a demo of Visio 2007. Will I still have to create the
diagram of each rack, then link it to the database? If so, the task
seems daunting, as I have 177 racks to contend with.

 

[Al Edlund]

There are several things that should be decided up front (generic
shapes/vendor shapes, platform for developing, user interface, data schemas
for topology, etc.). We should probably do this one off-line. edlund60014
over on the yahoo site (com edition).
al

The task is two fold creating a drawing and then linking the data to the
drawing. Both of these require custom coding.
Unless you're willing to do a lot of data coding you should consider using
v2007 pro with data linking.
al








- Show quoted text -

I downloaded a demo of Visio 2007. Will I still have to create the
diagram of each rack, then link it to the database? If so, the task
seems daunting, as I have 177 racks to contend with.

 

[johndoro]

There are several things that should be decided up front (generic
shapes/vendor shapes, platform for developing, user interface, data schemas
for topology, etc.). We should probably do this one off-line. edlund60014
over on the yahoo site (com edition).





I downloaded a demo of Visio 2007. Will I still have to create the
diagram of each rack, then link it to the database? If so, the task
seems daunting, as I have 177 racks to contend with.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Shapes are easily defined, as I have the HP shapes available to me.
(we are almost exclusively HP) Populating them in the racks and
location in the racks is what concerns me the most.