Patent ID: 7857214

Claim:
A system for indicating the presence of electronic equipment, shelving, blanking panels, or a combination thereof, comprising: a rack having a plurality of mounting spaces adapted to mount a plurality of electronic devices, shelving, or blanking panels; a plurality of sensors coupled to the rack along a length of the rack in alignment with the spaces, at least one sensor having a characteristic uniquely identified with the sensor to differentiate the sensor from other sensors coupled to the rack, and a location of the at least one sensor is known relative to the rack; at least one communication link coupled to the at least one sensor; and an electronic processor coupled to the communication link and adapted to receive information from the at least one sensor and determine a location of at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel mounted to the rack by correlation to the location of at least one sensor when the at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel is mounted to the rack; wherein the electronic processor is further adapted to automatically evaluate one or more mounting spaces for mounting an electronic device in the rack based on one or more predefined criteria, the electronic processor configured to exclude a mounting space as a possible location for the electronic device if the mounting space fails the one or more predefined criteria, and include a mounting space as a possible location for the electronic device if the mounting space passes the one or more predefined criteria, the one or more predefined criteria including at least one of a predefined power limit and a predefined thermal limit.