Where should mobile devices (cellphones, smartphones and air card) be added, assets or CIs?

[JLeong]

Hi all.

Just a general question. I know the definition of Assets vs CI but still torn if mobile devices such as smartphones, cellphone phones, and AirCard should be entered as Assets or CIs. For anyone who has done this, please let me know and provide some insight.

Thank you!

[Ashok Sasidhara · Accepted solution]

Mobile devices should be managed as CIs in cmdb_ci_handheld_computing table. Whether you need to manage those also as assets depends on your organizational requirement. If the organization wants to manage any of the aspects like financial information, warranty details, end of life, contract details etc. for those devices, then they should be considered as assets also. In that scenario, they will be managed as both CIs & assets. The CI record should be linked with their corresponding asset record for all mobile devices which are managed as both. 

[JLeong]

Thank you Ashok

[JLeong]

Hi Ashok, is it ok if we use the cmdb_ci_comm class instead of cmdb_ci_handheld_computing ?

[Ashok Sasidhara]

cmdb_ci_comm is also suitable for mobile devices. But cmdb_ci_handheld_computing is the recommended CI class especially if you are using Service Graph Connectors to populate data. Even if you are not using Service Graph Connectors currently, it would still be better to consider cmdb_ci_handheld_computing as that will be more convenient if use of Service Graph Connectors becomes part of your future roadmap [As Service Graph Connector is the recommended method for 3rd party integrations which follows Identification & reconciliation engine(IRE).]