Documenting what / where stuff is connected on UPS???

[Punkrulz]

Man, this has been plaguing me for quite some time now. We have recently installed 3 new UPS's in one of the server rooms, and have written down what port on each UPS is connected to each server. One of the things though that I'm being presented is to document the changes in a visual graphic, preferably something like a Visio diagram. I have been searching everywhere for the right APC Stencils and have been unable to find anything. Further more, I have not been able to even come up with a design plan on how something like this would look, as I'm not good at all with Visio.

So to you Server Administrators, have you ever had to document something like this? Would I be better off just making an Excel Spreadsheet based on what ports are going where for each UPS? I have a ticket that I need to get closed on this, but it's holding me up.

 

[Electronic Punk]

Prob easier to label the cables themselves, then you can just stick em in any power output you like.

 

[madmatt]

Visio doesn't have an image that resembles a UPS?

I would go with an Excel Sheet if you can't figure out how to make it look in Visio. I don't have any thing like this saved in Visio to help you out.

But, in your spare time I would recommend getting familar with Visio because it is perfect for this type of thing.

 

[Punkrulz]

You're absolutely right, I know it's perfect... but I still can't image how it would look. I mean, to me when imagining it, I see near the top of the page a picture of the UPS's, and on the bottom would be the servers... if the server has more than one plug, obviously I would label those particular plugs which PSU is what plug.

No, at least I haven't been able to find anything in Visio that resembles the back of a UPS... and my co-worker gave me a whole bunch of APC Stencils, but NONE of them are on specific UPSs, nor do any of them look like what I want... I think it's just the front of a rack UPS for Rack Server Usage.

Labeling the cables wouldn't be feasible. My superior needs a visual display on where everything is plugged, more so for the reason so he can show OTHER people what it looks like, without actually taking them to the server room and showing them.

 

[fitz]

why not just take a digital picture and drop it into a document with arrows.. if you don't want to go through the trouble of creating your own stencil for your specific model..

 

[Punkrulz]

I've never created stencils before, plus I'm graphically challenged. I could take a picture and drop lines... but unfortunately I'm going to knock it before trying it and say that it's not going to be efficient enough. Cramped server room, won't be able to get everything in at one shot and see how it's connected clearly.

I believe I'm just going to create a visio diagram, and label all individual connections inside the room just to be safe...