Capture physical server data
Physical servers are devices and hardware that are tangible assets owned by an organization . Virtual servers are run on top of physical servers which are located in different locations around the world. Documenting physical servers and their virtual servers and where they are located is critical for disaster recovery management.
In the navigation panel, click Technical Architecture > Physical Servers. Per default, the data workbench displays only a set of basic attributes. You can add more columns to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench or you can navigate to a physical server's content area and define it in more detail there. Click to learn about how to use data workbenches.
Add a new physical server. Click the New button. The edit panel opens on the right where you can define basic data.
Edit an existing physical server. Edit the physical server directly in the data table. Or select the checkbox 
for the physical server you want to edit and click the Edit 
button to open the edit panel.
Define the physical server's basic data. All mandatory fields must be defined to create the physical server and save it.
- Name: (Mandatory) Enter a unique name for the physical server.
- Version: (Mandatory) Enter a version number for the physical server. The name and version number of the physical server should be unique.
- Start Date and End Date: (Mandatory) The start and end date captures the period when the physical server is actively running and can be used in the company. This is also when the Object State attribute should be specified as Active. Click the calendar icon to select the date or enter the date in the date format Month/Day/Year. For example: 4/30/2023
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Release Status: (Optional) This is an approval status and typically indicates the level of quality of the information about the physical server. The release status determines whether a physical server can or cannot be deleted. Possible values are:
- Draft: The physical server has only mandatory data defined.
- Under Review: The physical server is documented and being reviewed. A physical server with this release status cannot be deleted.
- Approved: The physical server has been approved by the responsible stakeholders. A physical server cannot be deleted when it has an approved release status. A physical server with this release status cannot be deleted.
- Data imported: The data regarding this physical server has been imported from an external system. Additional changes may be required to improve the data quality. A physical server with this release status can be deleted.
- Trash: The physical server is no longer valid and can be deleted.
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Object State: (Mandatory) The object state describes the use of the physical server in the real word. This can be understood as the operational status of the physical server. Possible values are:
- Plan: The physical server is proposed to be used and still in the stages of planning and building.
- Active: The physical server is currently and used now. The active period begins with the physical server's start date and ends with the end date.
- Retired: The physical server is no longer used.
The object state should be changed from Plan to Active once the physical servers start date is reached. It should be changed to Retire when the physical server's end data is reached.
- Serial Number: Enter the physical server's serial number.
- Location: Select the location where the physical server is.
- Description: Enter a meaningful description that will clarify the purpose of the physical server.
- Authorized Access tab: The user who creates the physical server is the authorized user per default. This can be changed. Select one or more authorized user groups that shall have write permissions to the object. All users in the authorized user group can edit the physical server.
In Alfabet, responsibilities are documented via the concept of roles , whereby each role is based on a preconfigured role type or a custom role type defined by your company. In contrast to an authorized user who has read/write permissions, a person assigned a role for an asset will not have read/write permissions based on the role definition. The role is primarily for documentation purposes to provide information about stakeholders interested or responsible for the asset. If the user should have read/write permissions, they must either be the authorized user of the asset or assigned to an authorized user group associated with the asset.
Alfabet provides out-of-the-box role types that enable you to understand who is responsible for your IT assets in your IT portfolio. Additional role types that are relevant for your company can also be added.
Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?
To define the users and organizations that have a role for an asset, click the navigate 
button of the asset you want to define. Go to the Overview page and scroll to the Responsibilities view and open it. Click in a column cell to open a selector to define a role for the asset. Depending on the role column, you may be able to select a person or an organization. Switch between Person or Organization in the selector.
A person can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:
- Architect: A person who is responsible for the governance of the asset.
- Business Owner: A person or organization that owns the asset and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
- IT Owner: A person or IT organization that owns the asset and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
- Stakeholder: A person or organization that has an interest in the asset and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
An organization can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:
- Business Owner: A person or organization that owns the asset and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
- IT Owner: A person or IT organization that owns the asset and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
- Operations: An IT organization responsible for the operations of the asset.
- Stakeholder: A person or organization that has an interest in the asset and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
You can attach documents to objects in Alfabet in the Attachments view available in object profiles.
To define document or URL for an asset, navigate to the data workbench where the asset is defined. In the data table, click the navigate button of the asset you want to define. Go to the Overview page and scroll to the Attachments view and open it.
Upload a document to the asset. Click New > Add Document. Select the file from your local drive and click Upload. The document is displayed in the data table.
- Note that when you upload a document, you must ensure that the document is not encrypted. Encryption might be caused by Microsoft™ Information Protection. Only documents with the sensitivity label "Public" can be uploaded. Other reasons for encryption might also apply due to your company's security policies.
- The following file types are allowed: .xlsx, .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, .zip, .png, .jpg, and .json
The following file types are not allowed: .exe, .bat, .cmd, .ps1, .txt, .xml, .wsdl, .html, .svg
Add a URL to the asset. You can define a URL for the selected object. The user must have access permissions to the document and have access to the network path specified in the link and, typically, be in the same network domain.
- Title: Enter a meaningful title for the URL link to help users understand why you included this URL with the selected object.
- URL: Enter a valid URL starting with the prefix https://www. or http://www. The URL link may contain up to 511 characters. The user’s Windows® environment must be able to identify the document extension and identify the correct asset to open the document. A validation will be executed to ensure that a new URL is well-formatted and does not contain a period <.> without a leading or trailing blank space.
The following browsers support opening the files via the Web link definition in Alfabet: Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 11.0 and Microsoft® Edge® in conjunction with Windows® 10. Mozilla® Firefox® 24.0 or higher including Mozilla® Firefox® Quantum are also supported but require additional configuration in the browser settings.
The following business questions are relevant for the analysis of physical servers: