How to link a new CI to an existing asset automatically

[bovial1]

We have turned on 'Enforce CI verification' on our Model Categories so that new CIs do not automatically create assets. This is due to the fact about 90% of our CIs do not require assets.

We are looking to add assets manually at the start of the process ie. before the device is actually on the network and discovered.

What I would like to do, is that when the device is turned on and automatically discovered and a CI created, that the system tries to find a previously manually created asset based on matching serial number.

Would I need to wright a new Business Rule with some javascript to try and match to an existing asset based on serial number when a new CI is inserted?

Not sure if there is a more out-of-the-box way to do this as it seems it would be a fairly common use case.

[Community Alums]

What is your discovery source? Regardless of what it is, it should be either creating or updating CIs, not Assets directly. No need to write JavaScript anything. If you are using ServiceNow Discovery, it should update based on your active Identifiers. If you use other discovery sources, set the imported recoreds to coalesce on Serial number. The records these sources match should be the CIs created with your assets.

[bovial1]

Thanks Ben. Just begging with our SN deployment.

We are not using ServiceNow Discovery. We are automating the input of our CI data using the APIs to create import sets and then run transforms.

I was thinking to not automatically create a CI when entering an asset manually into the system (if this is even possible without having to edit the 'Create CI on insert' business rule?). My thinking is that a CI should only be created when a device is actually turned on and discovered on the network.

If the above is not possible, and a CI is created when the asset is entered, I still don't understand how the coalesce would work when the CI is discovered.

For example, our current transform coalesces on 'ip_address' to prevent duplicate CIs. If I add 'serial_number' as another field to coalesce on, does that mean it would need to match BOTH 'ip_address' and 'serial_number'. I won't be entering an ip address when creating the asset manually. Is it possible to set the coalesce to match EITHER 'ip_address' OR 'serial_number'?

[Community Alums · Accepted solution]

The coalesce would be AND if you added one, so it would only coalesce if both match. How are you setting the IP Address to coalesce on? Is everything in your environment running with static IPs? My initial thought is that this sounds dangerous. If any IP address changes, suddenly you've replaced a CI with a different device. I would recommend using something that doesn't change, like a Serial number or Asset tag to uniquely identify items for your coalesce.

When the Asset is created, the CI is created. You can use the CI Status (install_status) and the Asset State to indicate when the device is active.

[bovial1]

We are using SN in a Service Provider environment and don't use DHCP etc. so IP addresses are all static.

The main field we are coalescing on is a customer 'Service ID' field that we have created which ensure uniqueness across our environment.   I will at removing IP address as a coalescing field.

We are using a lot of server and network virtualization, hence the vast majority of our CIs will not be assets. They are essentially software configurations without serial numbers or asset tags.

I think what I may need to do is create a new import table for 'physical' devices that will require an asset created and then coalesce that just on Serial Number.