Bulk update of an asset field

[jjones4773]

In the list view for Hardware assets, I would like to bulk update any particular field such as Location or Model Category.   Is this possible?

Thanks.

Jason

[Community Alums]

Jason,

Model category is locked down once an Asset record is created. This cannot be modified on the list or form views. This is important because the Model category is used to determine whether or not to create a corresponding CI. Changing this around could create some interesting scenarios. What is the business case to change the Model category?

You should be able to modify the Location on multiple records at once in one of a couple ways:

1. If you have the ability to list edit turned on in your environment, add Location to your list view. Hold shift and drag your cursor down the Location column for the records you want to update. Alternately, you can hold Control (or Command on a Mac) to select non-consecutive records. With the ones you want to adjust selected, double-click the empty area in any of the selected Location fields. This brings up an edit box you can use to select the new value and save.
2. If you do not have List editing capability, then check the items you want to update (the check boxes at the beginning of the row). Then right-click any column header and choose Update selected. This opens an empty form to identify a change you want to apply to all these records. Change just the location on this form and ServiceNow updates all those records.

Ben

[hien1]

Hello Ben,

I understand the model is locked down once the record created and guess that the field is protected due to table assignment and its relationship. I have seen other software got around this issue by the use of model ID number and the use of a key for the merge field (such as host, serial number, or unique id field). This somehow allow me to change the protected field to safely move the relation as model is changed from Latude D620   to Latitude D620.

modify is important for me to clean up say a messy database

1. The process to correct model name instead of delete-transfer attribute-create new record reduce risk of transferring the asset's attribute from old one to new one

2. An asset may have many attributes, dependency, and historical data

Thanks in advance for your help,

[Community Alums]

Hi Hien,

The asset field is locked down on the Asset, but you can update details on the Model record if that is what is incorrect. You can also change the Model via the CI record.

Ben

[jjones4773]

Ben,

I did find a way to update other fields besides Model Category, but I feel that it is critical to be able to update that.   The business case currently is that again, we have certain equipment that we identify as Loaners and I have already identified them as Laptops instead of Loaner Laptops, so I want to bulk change the Model Category, but the system doesn't allow this.

This also creates a problem when trying to import an asset list of hardware where you want to identify the Model category as it won't allow that either.   And it also doesn't allow you to update the parameter field after an import.     I know ServiceNow has their reasons, but I find this very frustrating. If there are dependencies with changing that parameter, then it should IMHO update accordingly.   As it stands, in order to get the correct value for Model Category, I'm going to have to delete and recreate 50+ records.

Any input to prevent this from happening would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Jason