how should be a structure and CI relationship look like for a network device when we do integration

[souravlayek]

I am integrating ServiceNow with SolarWinds to pull network devices from SolarWinds to our ServiceNow Instance and we managed to established the connection and pulling the data as well but I wants to understand few below things.

We are importing these CI classes from SolarWinds.

1.How should be a structure and CI relationship look like for a network device when we do integration with SolarWinds and pull the data inti ServiceNow CMDB 

2. Why Firewall Devices are coming under Network Gear table although both Firewall Devices and Network Gear items are having different CI classes

3.Can Someone explain the parent child relation for all the network devices and how the CI structure or dependency view should looks like

[Mark Manders]

1. You can look at the suggested relationships already in place within the system. It is also depending on the network device type (class) and with which device you are relating. There's a different relationship between a network device and a server than between a network device and an IP Address.

2. Firewall devices are a type of Network Gear. They are extended from the table. If you check on the CI Class Manager (I suggest you do, because there you can also find information on (suggested) relationships), you will see that for Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper and Palo Alto Firewall devices, classes have been created under the Firewall Device class. That class is extended from IP Firewall, which is extended from Network Gear, which is extended from Hardware which (finally) is extended from CMDB_CI. 

3. See 1 (and also: 'all parent child relation' is not something we can tell you, because we don't know your network). Start at the CI Class Manager to get a grip on the OOB setup.

[souravlayek]

Hi Mark , The information you shared is really helpfull.I have one another question.

What is the difference in between Network Adapter and Network Gear . Also why both are separate entity in cmdb.

[Mark Manders]

Network Gear is a broad category of hardware devices that facilitate and manage network communication. They help connecting computers/servers/etc in a network.
A Network Adapter is a hardware component that allows a computer to connect to a network (enables communication by converting data into signals). 

Netgear is used to build (and expand) networks, while Adapters are connecting an individual device to the network.

The ServiceNow CMDB gets new classes with every release and not all choices they make are easy to explain.