How do you track configuration of hardware assets (software, printers, etc.) without discovery?

[Casey23]

We had a request recently to track details for software installations, printer, AD Groups, and Epic Build with ability to add custom details for the purposes of configuring PCs. Some of this could probably be tracked in the Application CI, but some would need to be tracked against the Hardware CI / Hardware Asset.

We know that Hardware CIs will show installed software in the cmdb_sam_sw_install table that is populated by our SCCM integration. However, these records don't link to the actual Application CI. This also doesn't help us with tracking AD Groups and Printers on a device.

In an Application CI record, we can add fields or track information in the Description/Comments fields, but because there isn't really a way to link the Application CI to a Hardware CI, that's still a problem. Also tracking information under the Hardware CI is harder just because of sheer volume. Currently deployment/configuration information is saved in Knowledge Articles that the teams use for more complicated software. We thought of linking KB articles, but because of versioning they would also need to maintain those reference fields. This would also really only apply to the Application CI, since again the volume of Hardware CIs wouldn't make sense to have articles for.

We don't have a discovery tool or Service Mapping, and so I'm curious what others in our situation are doing? How do you track documentation against user endpoints or CI records without a suite of tools at your disposal?

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @Casey23 

Hope you have seen this KB: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB2745117 

Support for the alm_asset table has been removed from IRE due to design and ownership considerations. Attempts to create asset records through IRE is leading to unintended system behavior like resulting in recursive IRE calls that create code conflicts. , so this integration is no longer supported.

Additionally, the alm_asset table is owned and managed by the IT Asset Management (ITAM) team, and IRE is not the recommended method for ingesting data into this table. To ensure reliable performance and scalability this change was implemented as part of defect PRB1877916.