Configuration Item Reclassification

[Gopi22]

Hi,

We have got a requirement to remove couple of classes in CMDB and reclassify the CIs to existing classes. Also, OOB classes like Computer and Software needs to be removed.

Please let me know the challenges in doing the same.

Thanks,

Gopi

[Fabian Kunzke]

Hello,

I more or less accidentally stumbled upon a simpler solution:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/helsinki-it-service-management/page/product/configuration-managem...

I have not tested it, nor do i know if it can be used in a script. But it would skip the major pain of actually moving a record by just reclassifing it. Note: this is not recommended by service now, since this can result in some information lost due to the fact, that 2 classes have different sets of attributes. Therefore "moving" one ci by rerclassifying it, would probably only "move" the attributes which are from the same parent table. There is an example in there, which explains this pretty nicely:

Downgrade

The CI class is updated to a class that is lower in class hierarchy, and the newly assigned class is a parent of the current class and has less attributes than the current class. For example, reclassifying a CI from the cmdb_ci_server class to the cmdb_ci_computerclass.

For example, the cmdb_ci_server class has attributes that the cmdb_ci_computer class does not have. During the downgrade, these attributes and their respective values are not included in the new CI record that is inserted into the cmdb_ci_computerclass.

Upgrade

The CI class is updated to a class that is higher in class hierarchy, and the newly assigned class is a derived child of the current class and has additional attributes. For example, reclassifying a CI from the cmdb_ci_computer class to the cmdb_ci_server.

Switch

The newly assigned class is in a different branch in the class hierarchy and has a different set of attributes than the current class. For example, reclassifying a CI from the cmdb_ci_linux_server class to the cmdb_ci_win_server class.

A switch is a combination of a downgrade and an upgrade. For example if the CI is downgraded to the cmdb_ci_server, and then upgraded to the cmdb_ci_win_server class. Therefore, attributes are lost in the same manner as in a downgrade operation.

With this the pain might be to actually map the different attributes when moving from one class to another (which i don't see an easy way for.

Anyways, hope this might help.

Greetings

Fabian