DCIM Physical Relationships

The first DCIM design pass focuses on explicit physical relationships rather than operational workflows.

Physical Topology Rules

• a device may exist in a site without being racked yet
• a cable must terminate on two distinct endpoints
• front and rear rack faces are independent occupancy planes
• interface and power relationships are separate concerns and must not be conflated

Relationship Types

Rack Occupancy

• device to rack
• bounded by rack unit count
• face-aware

Data Connectivity

• interface to interface through a cable
• modeled as physical connectivity only

Power Connectivity

• power port to power endpoint through a power cable
• tracked separately from data ports

Deferred Concerns

Later chunks should add:

• modules and child device relationships
• port breakout modeling
• path tracing across cables and patch points
• structured power feeds and upstream source modeling