Ask the Expert: Live Chat | Assets and Models and CIs, Oh My!

[ServiceNow]

Original Air Date: Thursday, July 9, 2015 | 10:00 AM (PDT) | 1:00PM (EDT)

Do you struggle with the difference between Assets and Configuration Items? And why do we need Model records? Isn't that just another thing to maintain? Get a better understanding of these items, how they are different, and how they work together in this session with Ben Sweetser.

Ben Sweetser is a ServiceNow "old timer" with experience on the full platform with focus on Asset and Configuration Management and Automation, such as Orchestration and Discovery.

[Ryan Gladwyn-Na]

Ben - We noticed you list the CPU name in the Model short description. Our models created by Discovery contain computers with varying CPU names, such as both i5 and i7. Should Discovery be creating separate Models for these?

[Community Alums]

Discovery sources (including ServiceNow Discovery) may create Models in different ways depending on how the device reports itself. You can use the Field Normalization plugin to standardize the values created.

[dklimas]

Ben -

What is your recommendation on tracking virtual servers?   Do not create an asset and only create a CI and expose the install_status field on the CI for status tracking?

[Community Alums]

David,

Yes, this is a good way to handle this unless you have a scenario where you want to work with chargebacks for the virtual servers. Just track the operational data in the CI. This will get you what you need for both Configuration Management and Software Asset Management.