In every story there is always an unsung hero, the one who does a great deal of job and pushes the course of action forward but remains unnoticed and receives little or no recognition. Would you agree that in the data center world the role of such a gray eminence is performed by PDU devices? The EasyDCIM v1.7.3 release that we have the genuine pleasure to trumpet today, places the PDU devices much in the foreground and widens the selection of PDU drivers you now have the full convenience to choose from.
New PDU drivers suite
Here’s a quick reminder on what the PDU is for those who need their memory refreshed: PDU stands for Power Distribution Unit, and simply put, is a device for distributing and managing large amounts of electricity within a data center environment. PDU Management For EasyDCIM v1.1.0 received a solid update to include drivers to such two intelligent PDU devices.
One of them is Sentry Switched PDU which offers SNMP traps delivering automated alerts for power and environmental conditions via Syslog and email as well as the possibility to add extra outlets under one IP address. The second one is PowerAlert PDU which, thanks to free NMS software, aims at reducing troubleshooting time by providing a color-coded alarm history in an easy-to-read list format.
PDU devices under close guard
The red-hot 1.7.3 version of EasyDCIM has a much wider repertoire of novelties in the realm of PDU management. It grants you the power to handle the status of power outlets and control the electricity supply just with the use of these no-sweat actions: Outlet On, Outlet Off and Outlet Reboot. Feeling a shiver of excitement down your spine already?
Sit down comfortably in the armchair and watch carefully for more because the Auto-Discovering process will automatically detect devices which are connected to the network. That is still not enough because the PDU Management extension is at the ready mode to present you with a whole lot of information about the detected devices. It may give you a sense of being a data bank or a sort of a fact file for a while when the Auto-Discovering process will reveal the type, model, series number, label and producer of the piece of hardware it has just detected.
And know what? There are still more experiences that come with the just-out EasyDCIM 1.7.3 because the freshly added feature will not let you guess the levels of power usage during the device’s polling process as it collects the information automatically for you.
API-based PowerDNS 4 support
The special requests of our clients encouraged us to stretch the list of available DNS submodules. DNS Management For EasyDCIM v1.4.0 has been tuned to connect with PowerDNS 4 via API, and this substantial change brings about a wide range of handy tools to you. They are meant not only to import the existing DNS zones, but also add and later on edit them whenever the need arises – without leaving the device view. The creation of rDNS records can be performed just as easily.
To work up your curiosity for more, let’s also give a mention to new advanced filtering options that are now available in the extension’s tables to facilitate the search of DNS zones and records.
Although the extent of improvements waiting to be discovered is much larger than what can possibly be covered here, there is one last feature deserving a spotlight – KVM console support for Dell PowerEdge C6100 and C6220 devices introduced to IPMI Integration For EasyDCIM v1.3.1. But not to spoil you the fun of exploring the remaining details of EasyDCIM v1.7.3, you are more than warmly invited to treat yourself to the full changelog!