Methods and apparatus for designing the racking and wiring configurations for pieces of hardware

A method comprising:

• obtaining, by a computer, information regarding physical attributes of boxes to be assigned to racks and of a set of available racks, the boxes including networked electronic devices;
• identifying, by the computer, particular racks to use, from the set of available racks, by solving a rack select optimization sub-problem using the obtained information;
• assigning, by the computer, each of the boxes to one of the particular racks by solving a rack assign optimization sub-problem using the obtained information, the rack assign optimization sub-problem being solved after the rack select optimization sub-problem has been solved;
• at least one of:
• (1) outputting an assignment solution to a user interface, the assignment solution including results of the identifying and the assigning, or (2) placing the boxes into the particular racks based on the assignment solution;
• and
• determining a physical location of each rack that will hold at least one box by solving a rack layout optimization sub-problem, the solving of the rack layout optimization sub-problem including solving for a plurality of decision variables to determine if a rack is to be assigned to a given location, wherein solving the rack layout optimization sub-problem includes:
• solving for a decision variable X (r,L) to determine if a rack (r) is to be assigned to a location (L), and
• solving for a decision variable X (s,M) to determine if a rack (s) is to be assigned to a location (M);
• and
• solving for a decision variable Z (r,L,s,M) which is a quadratic term X (r,L)*X (s,M).

An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing a computer program, said computer program upon execution causing a computer to:

• obtain information regarding physical attributes of boxes to be assigned to racks and of a set of available racks, the boxes including networked electronic devices;
• identify particular racks to use, from the set of available racks, by solving a rack select optimization sub-problem using the obtained information;
• assign each of the boxes to one of the particular racks by solving a rack assign optimization sub-problem using the obtained information, the rack assign optimization sub-problem being solved after the rack select optimization sub-problem has been solved;
• output an assignment solution to a user interface, the assignment solution including results of the identifying and the assigning;
• and
• determine a physical location of each rack that will hold at least one box by solving a rack layout optimization sub-problem, wherein solving the rack layout optimization sub-problem includes:
• solving for a decision variable X (r,L) to determine if a rack (r) is to be assigned to a location (L), solving for a decision variable X (s,M) to determine if a rack (s) is to be assigned to a location (M), and solving for a decision variable Z (r,L,s,M) which is a quadratic term X (r,L)*X (s,M).

An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing a computer program, said computer program upon execution causing a computer to:

• obtain information regarding physical attributes of boxes to be assigned to racks and of a set of available racks, the boxes including networked electronic devices;
• identify particular racks to use, from the set of available racks, by solving a rack select optimization sub-problem using the obtained information;
• assign each of the boxes to one of the particular racks by solving a rack assign optimization sub-problem using the obtained information, the rack assign optimization sub-problem being solved after the rack select optimization sub-problem has been solved;
• output an assignment solution to a user interface, the assignment solution including results of the identifying and the assigning;
• and determine a physical location of each rack that will hold at least one box by solving a rack layout optimization sub-problem,
• wherein solving the rack assign optimization sub-problem includes:
• solving for a decision variable X (a,r) to determine if a box (a) is to be assigned to a rack (r);
• solving for a decision variable X (b,s) to determine if a box (b) is to be assigned to a rack (s);
• and
• solving for a decision variable Z (a,r,b,s) which is a quadratic term X (a,r)*X (b,s).