Difference between the CI Attributes "Classification" and "Used for" on the OOTB Server Class

[Simon P_]

Hi Community,

can anyone clarify the difference between the two attributes "Classification" and "Used for" and how they should be used? And is there any documentation for OOTB attributes? (could not find any for the server class).

Many Thanks

Simon

[Simon P_]

Hi David, you are correct with both statements. While the choice list of "Used for" is indeed empty it does have choices derived from the choice field used for on the business service class (See attachment).

[Simon P_]

Hi David, you are correct with both statements. While the choice list of "Used for" is indeed empty it does have choices derived from the choice field used for on the business service class (see picture).

[Simon P_]

Interesting, I've upgraded my dev instance to check if it changed but i still have both classification and used for but not classifier.

[tana_stewart]

The attributes section here, https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-servicenow-platform/page/product/configuration-management..., describes them but it is still odd...

The Server class adds the following unique attributes:

Attribute	Description
Classification	Type of server, such as production, development, disaster recovery, or user acceptance testing (UAT).
Firewall status	Internet or intranet facing server.
Host name	Use the Name attribute to store the host name of the server instead of the Host name attribute.
Used for	Business service supported by the server, such as production, staging, or quality assurance (QA). This attribute uses the Used for choice list field from the Service [cmdb_ci_service] table.

So you could have a Server that is classified as disaster recover and is being used for a testing service - this makes sense. 

A Server that is classified as development and is being used for a testing service - this does not make sense, unless your testers are developing test cases on a server that they will then use for the testing service - that is why it is odd. It may be helpful us use the business justification or description fields to give context to these 2 values. 

[Will Patterson]

@tana.stewart@sas - this response is perfect! This is exactly what my organization and I have been looking for as an answer to the question of which attribute to use to describe the environment of the CI in question. The table from the referenced article is particularly useful.

I've argued that Servers should use Classification and that the Application and Business Services running on those Servers, should use the Used For attribute. I'm trying to build a use case for either the population of both, or perhaps testing synchronization between Used For on a Server and the Application/Business Service that runs on it.