HP Insight Control Software for Linux - Manual (Page 64)

the flow of current from the panels to the device. Defining the nodes and relationships well is essential to
proper data center design, growth, analysis, and control. To make definition convenient, HP provides a set
of conversion tools to go from an existing format to a common, simple, unambiguous text format. Once in
that common format, any user can be permitted to combine or edit these files on any platform. Then users
can convert back to any other supported data format, including an update of the HPSIM configuration
database via ipmimport. Data can then be viewed and moved more easily in the intuitive IPM graphical
editor.
These command line tools are meant for new specifications only, not for modifying existing rack configurations.
One may reference devices already in IPM, but for modifying any existing relationships, the IPM rack editor
must be employed.
Supported formats include (name, to text tool, from text tool):
( ipmexport, ipmimport )
HPSIM database.
IPM
( ipmxml2txt, ipmtxt2xml )
HPSIM markup language, see mxnode -lf for sample
XML
( ipmvis2txt, ipmtxt2vis )
Spreadsheet visual representation of rack and row, with device U
locations and height specified by cell positions. This view represents
spatial relations that a person might see actually standing in the
data center.
VIS
( ipmtab2txt, ipmtxt2tab )
Spreadsheet tabular representation produced by a Configuration
Management Database (CMDB) where the column headings are
the attribute names and each line is a separate device.
TAB
Examples of each format and assorted use cases appear in /opt/ipm/examples. Details of each tool
appear in separate man pages, but here are some highlights. The text or XML outputs go to standard out
and can be redirected to a file. Error messages are routed to standard error, but the tools will attempt to
generate as complete a conversion as possible in spite of problems. Corrections may be applied to either
the original input and reconverted or the result can be amended, whichever is easier. Only the users with
database write permissions may execute ipmimport. XML files could be imported directly into HPSIM with
mxnode -af
but relationships such as device to rack mapping can be lost in this process. Although both
produce spreadsheets, the text to TAB tool creates a tabular format, and text to VIS creates a visual
representation. Print outs of both formats together may be thought of as a lab notebook, or a quick data
center reference document when a computer screen is not available.
COMMON FORMAT
The common text format expresses information in terms of attribute:value pairs. Attribute names are not case
sensitive.
Attributes that are accepted in every format are listed below, along with their type. Unsigned integers are
always 0 or greater. String values may contain any alphanumeric, space, colon, apostrophe, parenthesis,
dash, period, underscore, tilde, Hiragana, Katakana, or the unified CJK character set.
TYPE NAME
String DataCentreID
String DeviceType
Unsigned enclStartU
Unsigned HeightU
Unsigned ipmMaxPower
Unsigned StartU
Unsigned PositionRow
Unsigned rackHeight
String RackName
Unsigned RowNumber
String SerialNumber
64 Command reference