Modelling network devices down to cards & ports in the CMDB

[mbourla]

In our CMDB we have CIs representing network devices like routers, switches etc.   Our network team now want to model their devices more granularly, so they can record & track issues down to the level of the component of the device.   So they'd need to have CIs to represent the different levels and types of components.   That's because faults at different levels will impact different users or customers.

I'm yet to gather and document the requirements, but the types of components mentioned so far are shelves, cards, slots, sub-slots and ports (apparently different manufacturers and/or device types refer to types of components by different names, which complicates things 😞 ).

There is a CI class for network adapter, but nothing OOTB for the other things, and I don't know how well cmdb_ci_network_adapter would meet the requirements as is.

Has anyone used their CMDB to model network devices down to e.g. port level, and if so would you be able to share how you decided to do it?   That's the CI types you used and/or created, how you related CIs together (OOTB or custom relationship types etc), and any lessons learnt.

Many thanks,

Michael

[hps]

Virtual and physical port representation in CMDB OOB addresses the same issue, to a lesser extent.