HP Insight Control Power Management 7.3 User

Figure 4 Power configuration information in a Microsoft Excel worksheet
For a small data center, the data can be maintained manually in VIS format, where a column in
the Excel worksheet represents a rack, and each cell is a slot position for a system. The VIS format
is limited to only the physical hierarchy of the systems and devices in a data center. To convert
data in the VIS format to text format, you can follow the instructions included in the ipmvis2txt
manpage.
For a larger data center, the data is normally maintained in the TAB format because of the volume
of the systems and devices. The TAB format includes both the physical hierarchy and power
hierarchy supporting additional complex information. The Excel worksheets in TAB format often
begin with output from other software vendors, even if they are maintained manually over the long
term.
To import data from the TAB format into power management:
1. Collect the required physical device descriptions for racks and rack devices in an XLS file. For
example, bnb2ipm.xls.
2. Collect the required power device descriptions for PDRs, PDUs, Breaker Panels, Branch Circuits,
and Rack PDUs.
3. Collect the powered–by associations information between power strips and breakers.
4. Verify the bnb2ipm.xls file for any errors, duplication of entries, or missing information
using this command:
ipmtab2txt bnb2ipm.xls > /dev/null
After verification, create a new text file with the results from this step. For example, name the
file bnb.txt.
5. From the command line utility, log in into power management and import the bnb.txt text
file into power management using this command:
ipmimport bnb.txt
For more information on this task and information on importing data from text formats, see the
Importing existing data center configuration data into power management white paper available
at http://www.hp.com/go/insightcontrol/docs.
Task: Importing power configuration from external databases 19