An Update on Recently Archived Community Content

Best Practice for Managing reMarkable Tablets / Non-Discoverable Devices in ServiceNow

janicecoult
Tera Contributor

Friday

Hello ServiceNow Community,

I'm looking for recommendations on how other organizations manage devices such as reMarkable tablets that cannot be discovered through traditional discovery sources such as Intune, SCCM, JAMF, or ServiceNow Discovery.

Our primary goal is not configuration management, but rather asset accountability. We simply need to track:

  • Serial Number
  • Asset Tag (if applicable)
  • Assigned User
  • Purchase information
  • Asset status (In Stock, In Use, Retired, etc.)

Since these devices are not enterprise-managed and do not provide reliable inventory or configuration data, I'm questioning whether creating a corresponding Configuration Item (CI) provides any value.

My questions are:

  1. Is it considered a best practice to create a Hardware Asset without an associated CI for devices like reMarkable tablets?
  2. Have others created a dedicated hardware model category (e.g., "Digital Writing Tablet" or "Paper Tablet") to manage these types of devices?
  3. Is there a recommended ServiceNow pattern for non-discoverable end-user devices where the primary requirement is ownership and inventory tracking rather than configuration management?

I'd appreciate any insights, lessons learned, or examples of how you've implemented this in your environment.

Thank you!

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KPNow
Kilo Guru

Friday

Hi @janicecoult :

Yes, it is entirely aligned with ServiceNow best practice, specifically within the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) framework—to create a Hardware Asset without a corresponding Configuration Item (CI) for devices like reMarkable tablets. When your primary business requirement is financial and operational accountability (tracking serial numbers, ownership, assignment, warranty, and lifecycle state) rather than operational monitoring or change management, forcing CI generation adds unnecessary noise to your CMDB. In CSDM, the Asset layer exists precisely for financial, contractual, and inventory governance, whereas CIs exist for operational relationships and service impact.
For standalone end-user peripherals that don't emit telemetry or impact critical IT services, managing them purely as Hardware Assets keeps your CMDB lean and actionable.

To implement this cleanly, I would suggest to create a custom Model Category (e.g., "Digital Writing Tablet") and intentionally leave the CI Class field blank. When assets under this category are create whether imported via vendor CSV, added through a Service Catalog procurement flow, or manually entered—ServiceNow will generate a alm_hardware asset record without spinning up a dummy record in cmdb_ci_hardware. Most enterprise organizations manage non-discoverable, non-managed devices (like reMarkable tablets, specialized monitors, or e-readers) using this exact pattern: leveraging the standard Service Catalog for onboarding and offboarding workflows, relying on standard Asset State/Substate transitions for lifecycle tracking, and utilizing ServiceNow Mobile Agent or barcode scanning for inventory physical audits.

janicecoult
Tera Contributor

Friday

Thank you we will try to implement. 

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