rackoracle
10-18-2011, 04:42 PM
We are very excited and happy to announce the release of a new website - www.RackOracle.com - that allows managers of collocation sites the ability to easily visualize and maintain their racks of computers, systems, components and connections. Free registration of RackOracle is now open. We are looking for companies/individuals to use our website and comment on its effectiveness and help us improve it. (Contact us via the website or at sales@rackoracle.com)
FAQ!
Q: What is RackOracle?
A: RackOracle is a valuable tool used by IT professionals to assist themselves in managing their company's collocation sites, servers, systems, switches, routers and voice/data connections. In fact the best feature of RackOracle is that it gives users the ability to create their own frameworks for whatever systems, servers or connections they have.
Q: Who created RackOracle?
A: RackOracle was created by a small team of dedicated engineers who saw a specific IT need - keeping track of all aspects of a company's technical infrastructure especially in the context of today's complex rackable co-location environments. Historically, many people have tracked their IT assets and connections through Microsoft Word, Visio or Excel - applications which were not developed with that need in mind so they are very limited. RackOracle has been designed from inception as a fully web-enabled application, specializing in modeling the rackable co-location environment, which means it's accessible wherever an Internet connection is found.
Q: Why should I use RackOracle compared to other solutions in the marketplace?
A: Firstly, RackOracle is much more cost effective compared to other solutions in the industry. Another benefit is that it is fully web-enabled so it can be accessed anywhere, compared to other solutions which are host-centric. Finally, many other solutions are lacking when it comes to more esoteric connections and systems found in collocation centers today. For example, RackOracle can model telecom systems, DSLAMs, ISDN PRIs, Ethernet connections, fiber links, analog lines - in fact, any system with any combination of cards and connections can be successfully modeled by RackOracle.
Q: How does RackOracle allow a user to create a framework to model any system or connection?
A: To explain how RackOracle works - how frameworks, instances and rackable environments are made - it's best to view the RackOracle Videos. Basically, a framework is created for any device by concatenating a series of field types (if you have any knowledge of SQL it's similar to creating a table) including: bit, datetime, decimal, integer, money and strings (varchars). From these building blocks frameworks or components can be made. A component is a framework that can be used as a field in another framework - and by creating and joining components any system or connections can be modeled. Furthermore, files such as pictures, warranty information, contracts, configuration settings can be saved along with any instance for increased depth of information.
Q: Can you outline an example?
A: For example, let's say you have a 5U voicemail server with 2 telephony cards that allows 2 ISDN PRI connections each - for a total of 4 connections. First off you have to create the lowest-level subcomponents for the system: the ISDN PRIs. One of the other benefits of RackOracle is that it allows you to track only those aspects of the systems you actually care about. For ISDN PRIs it can as simple as just creating a framework with a single text field for the circuit ID name or as complex as keeping track of the circuit ID, framing, signaling, telco provider, telco provider contact information, billing number, local vs. toll-free, etc. As the ISDN PRI framework is a part of a bigger framework it should be added as a component framework to the RackOracle system. You can now create instances of the ISDN PRI framework – say 4 instances for the dual-port telephony cards, which is the next level framework that needs to be created. Once again the telephony card framework can include any number of information fields – including serial number, manufacturer name, warranty information, support phone number, etc. – but to allow the previously created ISDN PRI instances to be linked to an instance of a telephony card requires adding two ISDN PRI frameworks to this framework. After saving the new framework you can create an instance of a telephony card and select any two ISDN PRI instances to populate the card. Lastly, you need to create a voicemail server framework that contains at least two telephony card instances. Along with the above information the system should have a RackableHeightInU field added and set to 5 so it can then be visualized and dragged into a rack in the graphical view. Please see the relevant RackOracle video for a more thorough demonstration.
FAQ!
Q: What is RackOracle?
A: RackOracle is a valuable tool used by IT professionals to assist themselves in managing their company's collocation sites, servers, systems, switches, routers and voice/data connections. In fact the best feature of RackOracle is that it gives users the ability to create their own frameworks for whatever systems, servers or connections they have.
Q: Who created RackOracle?
A: RackOracle was created by a small team of dedicated engineers who saw a specific IT need - keeping track of all aspects of a company's technical infrastructure especially in the context of today's complex rackable co-location environments. Historically, many people have tracked their IT assets and connections through Microsoft Word, Visio or Excel - applications which were not developed with that need in mind so they are very limited. RackOracle has been designed from inception as a fully web-enabled application, specializing in modeling the rackable co-location environment, which means it's accessible wherever an Internet connection is found.
Q: Why should I use RackOracle compared to other solutions in the marketplace?
A: Firstly, RackOracle is much more cost effective compared to other solutions in the industry. Another benefit is that it is fully web-enabled so it can be accessed anywhere, compared to other solutions which are host-centric. Finally, many other solutions are lacking when it comes to more esoteric connections and systems found in collocation centers today. For example, RackOracle can model telecom systems, DSLAMs, ISDN PRIs, Ethernet connections, fiber links, analog lines - in fact, any system with any combination of cards and connections can be successfully modeled by RackOracle.
Q: How does RackOracle allow a user to create a framework to model any system or connection?
A: To explain how RackOracle works - how frameworks, instances and rackable environments are made - it's best to view the RackOracle Videos. Basically, a framework is created for any device by concatenating a series of field types (if you have any knowledge of SQL it's similar to creating a table) including: bit, datetime, decimal, integer, money and strings (varchars). From these building blocks frameworks or components can be made. A component is a framework that can be used as a field in another framework - and by creating and joining components any system or connections can be modeled. Furthermore, files such as pictures, warranty information, contracts, configuration settings can be saved along with any instance for increased depth of information.
Q: Can you outline an example?
A: For example, let's say you have a 5U voicemail server with 2 telephony cards that allows 2 ISDN PRI connections each - for a total of 4 connections. First off you have to create the lowest-level subcomponents for the system: the ISDN PRIs. One of the other benefits of RackOracle is that it allows you to track only those aspects of the systems you actually care about. For ISDN PRIs it can as simple as just creating a framework with a single text field for the circuit ID name or as complex as keeping track of the circuit ID, framing, signaling, telco provider, telco provider contact information, billing number, local vs. toll-free, etc. As the ISDN PRI framework is a part of a bigger framework it should be added as a component framework to the RackOracle system. You can now create instances of the ISDN PRI framework – say 4 instances for the dual-port telephony cards, which is the next level framework that needs to be created. Once again the telephony card framework can include any number of information fields – including serial number, manufacturer name, warranty information, support phone number, etc. – but to allow the previously created ISDN PRI instances to be linked to an instance of a telephony card requires adding two ISDN PRI frameworks to this framework. After saving the new framework you can create an instance of a telephony card and select any two ISDN PRI instances to populate the card. Lastly, you need to create a voicemail server framework that contains at least two telephony card instances. Along with the above information the system should have a RackableHeightInU field added and set to 5 so it can then be visualized and dragged into a rack in the graphical view. Please see the relevant RackOracle video for a more thorough demonstration.