While the Servers component does not provide any new reports in Cost Transparency, it is used to provide better visibility into the cost of your applications. It is also a prerequisite used by the Server Insights component (which is part of the Business Insights application).
Common source systems
Some common source systems for Server data are:
Server data typically comes from an IT operations analyst or whoever manages your CMDB.
Questions to consider
As you begin researching your Server data, here are some questions to consider:
- How will you differentiate physical servers, standalone servers, host servers, and virtual servers?
- Are the server location codes aligned with the data centers in which they are located?
- Do you have a way to identify what storage volumes are tied to which servers?
- Can you associate your standalone servers and virtual servers with the supported application?
- Do you have contacts in mind for requesting the required data?
- Do you anticipate any struggles with acquiring the data?
- How clean is your data?
Required columns
The table below lists the data sets and specific data elements from those data sets that are required. There are many other data elements you may wish to include. Please refer to your Configuration Workbook for more details on all data elements.
Required data sets | Required data elements |
Physical Servers Use this data set as the basis for all the physical server information. This should include standalone servers as well as all host servers. | - Physical server ID
- OS
- Location
- Status
- CPU cores (optional but may be used for weighting values)
- Total memory (optional but may be used for weighting values
|
Virtual Host Servers Use this data set as the basis for all virtual host servers. | - Server ID
- Location
- Status
- CPU cores (optional but may be used for weighting values)
- Total memory (optional but may be used for weighting values
|
Virtual Servers Use this data set as the basis for all virtual servers | - Server ID
- Location
- Hosted on
- Status
- CPU cores (optional but may be used for weighting values)
- Total memory (optional but may be used for weighting values
|
The Hosted On data element is used to specify the physical server/hypervisor hosting the virtual server.
Server Identifiers
The identifiers for all the server objects on the model (Physical Servers, Hypervisors, and Servers) is based on the Server ID.
Columns Required to Link Data Sets
You will also need to consider the ways in which you'll link Servers Master Data, Physical Server Master Data, Hypervisor Master Data to other data sets. The table below highlights some specific data elements needed for linking data sets together.
Link to Master Data Set | Required data elements |
IT Resource Towers Master Data | - IT Resource Tower
- IT Resource Sub-Tower
|
Server Master Data (from Physical Servers Master Data) | |
Server Master Data (from Hypervisors Master Data) | |
Hypervisors Master Data (from Physical Servers Master Data) | |
Application Master Data (from Servers Master Data) | |
Storage Master Data | |
Data Centers Master Data | |
If you do not have sufficient data for allocating between IT Towers and Physical Servers, you may use assumptive allocations. For IT Towers to Physical Servers, this means you should allocate costs evenly across the Physical Servers.
If you do not have sufficient data for allocating between Hypervisors (virtual hosts) and virtual Servers, you may use assumptive allocations. For Hypervisors to virtual Servers, this means you should allocate the hypervisor costs evenly across the virtual servers.