Does CI identification rules apply when creating an CI manually from an Asset?

Morten Steenbac · ‎08-21-2017

When creating an Asset manually and a related CI is automatically created, is the identification/reconciliation process involved to check for duplicates.

Or is it only during Discovery?

Community Alums · ‎08-25-2017

Morten,

No. CI Identification rules are not used for the automated creation of a CI with an Asset record. It is designed to just create a new CI record.

Asset management processes should be creating the CI first. In a proactive manner. Then discovery sources should be updating that CI record (preferably using the Identification and Reconciliation engine).

When items are brought into ServiceNow from your discovery source, then one of two things happens:

A matching CI is found and updated. This happens when the Asset created the CI first or if the CI was discovered previously.
No match is found and a new CI is created. Based on the Model Category, a corresponding Asset record is also created. If you are adding asset details later, you should update this automatically created Asset record (coalesce if you are importing Asset data).
1. If you do not want to automatically create an Asset (because the Asset record should exist first), you can enable the Enforce CI verification option on the Model Category. This prevents the Asset creation until you either verify that you want an Asset or Merge the CI with an existing CI (perhaps something was off and it did not properly merge). This gives you more control about how Assets and CIs are coordinated.
2. If you do not want to automatically create an Asset (because you do not purchase a specific Model or the Model is virtual), you can set the Asset tracking strategy on the Model record to not create Assets.

Sorry, this is probably a lot more detail than you were looking for here, but Assets are meant to be created first, so there is not identification done when the corresponding CI is created. If the CI is already there, you should be updating an existing Asset instead of creating a new Asset, so you really should be identifying that on the Asset side.

Ben

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adilrathore · ‎08-21-2017

Yes CI identification rules are executed both during manual creation as well as during Discovery.

Morten Steenbac · ‎08-22-2017

Thanks adilrathore - I'm just wondering...

I create a new Computer CI with Model = 'Apple MacBook Pro 15"' and Serial number = '1234567MSJ'
Then I create a new Computer Asset with Model = 'Apple MacBook Pro 15"' and Serial number = '1234567MSJ'

Now SN creates a new CI instead of relating to the existing CI with serial number: '1234567MSJ'

Shouldn't the identification rules help match the existing CI to the new Asset?

alan_death · ‎08-23-2017

Depending on how your model is set up, the Asset should be created automatically when you create the CI, and vice versa. So if your 'Apple MacBook Pro 15"' has a model category of 'Computer', and that category has an asset class associated with it, then when you create the CI, the asset gets created at the same time.

Morten Steenbac · ‎08-25-2017

I found this community thread: How can I apply CI Identifiers to manually created CI's in SNOW; using CMDBTransformUtils() which suggests the CI identifcation rules doesn't apply when creating Assets manually.

bsweetser can you help clarify this one.

I guess a reframed version of my question is:

Are CI Identification rules involved when a CI is automatically created, when manually creating an Assets?
If yes, what happens when a CI Identification finds a matching CI during the Asset creation process. Does it only create a de-duplication task og does it actually try to relate the Asset I'm creating with the CI it has found, instead of creating a new CI?

The Manual Asset creation scenario isn't mentioned on docs (as far as can see): CMDB Identification and Reconciliation .