Hardware Model Lifecycle Management?

[kjh1138]

We are currently on the London release.   What is the best practice for tracking hardware asset lifecycle at the model level?  For software there is sam_sw_model_lifecycle but there doesn't appear to be anything comparable on the hardware side ... thoughts/suggestions?

[Raj68]

Hi,

Hardware models are where information about the items in your environment would be contains such as Desktops or Server models. Sources such as SCCM or ServiceNow Discovery, to name a few, might be building these items for your or utilizing models you create to aggregate on common attribute that might be the same for any CI/Asset the is that model. Normally here we might add in attributes around form factor or end of life to help with tracking the lifecycle of models.

The other aspect of hardware models is the idea of publishing them to the Product Catalog to be leveraged in a End user catalog and allow someone to request a particular model or item. These concepts are best integrated with another plugin called Procurement that allows your Procurement team source based on what is potentially in stock or generate a PO directly in ServiceNow.

many aspects and concepts that can be covered in model management. Role Model, or Why Model Management is Important

NOTE: Mark correct or helpful if it helps you.

 Warm Regards,

Raj patel

[kjh1138]

I have a fairly good (I think) grasp of how models interact with CIs, assets, catalogue items etc. My question is specifically around lifecycle management.  On the software side I can capture general availability, sunset, end of support, end of extended support etc. roadmap dates and relate them to a software model.  My inclination is to simply create a hardware version of the sam_sw_model_lifecycle (eg ham_hw_lifecycle) table and use it for this purpose.  What I would like to know is if there is a more OOTB approach I might take to accomplish the same thing?

[akash_mehta]

kjh1138 - OOB we do not have a HW Asset Lifecycle table.  I don't know the ETA on having a hardware lifecycle table, but if you use the Software Lifecycle table as a baseline, you can create something that will fit your needs on the Hardware side.

Additionally, depending what your needs are - you can utilize the status and certified field on the  Hardware model table as well.

-Akash

[kjh1138 · Accepted solution]

With Orlando, the (free) Model Management plug-in which includes the hardware version of this table - cmdb_hardware_model_lifecycle - is available.