Data center monitoring is the process of collecting, trending, and reporting on data collected from power and environmental sensors within the data center to provide insights and visibility into the health and status of data center infrastructure. Data center monitoring is typically done via Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software which stores, analyzes, and displays live measurements from sensors in business intelligence and analytics dashboards and visual reports to help make data-driven data center management decisions.
Data center monitoring can encompass anything from an entire data center floor, a single outlet on an intelligent PDU, different “lights-out” enterprise locations, or cabinets in a colocation data center.
Although the specific devices and sensors that are monitored will vary based on the data center environment and objectives, many organizations monitor:
- Meters
- UPSs
- Intelligent rack PDUs
- Environmental sensors
- Floor PDUs
- Branch circuits
- Busways
- Remote power panels (RPPs)
- CRACs
- Door locks
- Card readers
- Rack transfer switches
The variety of sensor data involved in data center monitoring can include:
- Power
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Water
- Air flow
- Pressure differential
- Contact closures
- Smoke
- Door locks
- Vibration
- Motion
- Proximity
Data center monitoring works by connecting to, collecting data from, and configuring devices via SNMP, HTTPS, and other protocols for IP-based networks. Deploying a data center monitoring solution like DCIM software helps improve uptime, optimize capacity utilization, increase people productivity, and reduce risk.
Leveraging a data center monitoring solution enables you to:
- Automatically collect real-time data from all your devices down to the individual out level through a single interface
- Set power and environmental thresholds on collected data and receive alerts so you’ll be the first to know about potential issues before they become bigger problems
- Configure polling frequencies to your intervals that provide meaningful data while maintaining efficient network traffic
- Forward and filter traps to receive only the notifications that matter to you
- Analyze and trend collected data to uncover insights around your data center operations, including capacity forecasting
- Gain peace of mind about your data center physical security with door locks and card reader permissions that let authorized users in and keep intruders out
- Use protocols such as SNMP, HTTPS, Modbus, BACnet, Wiegand, RF, etc. to communicate with data center monitoring software
Want to see why Sunbird is the world leader in data center monitoring? Get your free test drive now!
