IT documentation ends at the rack. Power does not.
Server rooms are often documented down to the last rack unit. But the sub-distribution board in the hallway that the whole rack depends on lives in another world: the electrical binder. The NetBox community has been asking for DIN rails since 2018, most recently classified as out of core scope. isidaten now brings the distribution board into the model.
Many server rooms are documented exemplarily: every rack, every rack unit, every cable. But the sub-distribution board in the hallway that the whole rack depends on lives in another world. It sits in the electrician's plan, as a PDF in the "electrical" binder, at best in a spreadsheet. Yet every availability chain starts there: before the first server, there is always a breaker.
The blind spot is an architecture decision
Classic DCIM is built around the 19-inch rack: rack units, 42U, done. A distribution board counts differently, in DIN rail rows and modules of 18 millimeters. If your data model is constructed around racks, the DIN rail hardly fits in cleanly after the fact. In the community of NetBox, the standard tool for IT infrastructure documentation, exactly this has been requested since 2018 and was most recently in 2025 classified as outside the core scope ("closed as not planned"). For an IT DCIM, that is an understandable boundary. For operators, the gap between IT documentation and electrical documentation remains.
Why the gap gets expensive in an emergency
When a rack goes down, the first question is rarely an IT question: which breaker, which sub-distribution, which feed? If the answer sits in the electrical binder and the IT documentation ends at the rack, exactly this handover costs time when it matters. Add the inspection duties: electrical safety inspections take place at the distribution board, not at the rack. And in emergency management, the power chain from the feed through the sub-distribution to the PDU is the critical path every recovery plan depends on.
New in isidaten: the distribution board belongs to the model
isidaten now documents sub-distributions, meter cabinets and switch panels with their DIN rail rows and modular widths, in the same data model as racks. Modules are devices: cabling and power paths run continuously from the switch panel to the server, and electrical inspections attach directly to the cabinet instead of a separate binder. The impulse, by the way, did not come from our roadmap but as a customer request through the isidaten hub. Exactly how it should work.
What else the DCIM module covers is shown on the module page. Why data center documentation only helps if it is true was covered before: documentation that does not lie. And if you want to document your power chain, talk to us.
Questions about this update?
Talk to us – we are happy to show you this feature in a demo.