Solution - Communication/Data Circuits in CMDb

[cyked]

Our Network and Telephony teams wanted a way to manage their circuits in the CMDB and be able to use them for things like Incident/Problem/Change Management.  The existing circuit table in CMDB is for power circuits (contains fields like phase, max amps, and voltage) , so I created a new table with some additional fields to meet their needs.  The new table is extended from cmdb_ci.

Below the process requirements are most specifics like field choice list detail.

Process Requirements

• Fields which are required to be populated to create a new record or update an existing record:
  • Name
  • Circuit type
  • Circuit category
  • Circuit ID
  • Terminating device
  • Support group
• Ability for members of IT Network Engineering or Telecom support groups to create new records
• Members of the set support group will have write access to the CI
  
  • Users who are not members of these groups will have read-only access and will not be able to create records
• Circuit ID field is read only unless Lifecycle status is "In build"

Technical Requirements

• There are a few required fields that are custom to Circuits that were added from the base table. Those fields are:
  • Circuit Type – Choice List with following values
    • MPLS
    • Internet
    • P2P
    • SIP
    • PRI
  • Circuit Category – Choice List with following values
    • Corporate
    • Partner
  • Circuit ID – String field (text)
  • LEC ID – String field (text)
  • Port speed – Choice List with following values
    • 10 MBPS
    • 100 MBPS
    • 1 GBPS
    • 10 GBPS
  • Circuit CIR – Choice List with following values
    • 20 Mbps
    • 30 Mbps
    • 40 Mbps
    • 50 Mbps
    • 60 Mbps
    • 70 Mbps
    • 80 Mbps
    • 90 Mbps
    • 100 Mbps
    • 200 Mbps
    • 250 Mbps
    • 300 Mbps
    • 400 Mbps
    • 500 Mbps
    • 600 Mbps
    • 700 Mbps
    • 800 Mbps
    • 900 Mbps
    • 1000 Mbps
    • 2000 Mbps
    • 5000 Mbps
    • 10000 Mbps
  • Terminating Device – Reference field to allow a Network Gear CI to be referenced on a Circuit CI record
    • Reference field is a lookup to Network Gear where the class is Router, Switch, Media Gateway, or WAN Accelerator
  • Device Interface – Reference field to allow a Network Gear CI Network Adapter CI to be referenced on a Circuit CI record
    • Reference field is a lookup to Network Adapter table. Is filtered to ONLY records related to the selected Terminating Device if one is selected
  • Circuit Provider - re-labelled company field on this table

[Ashutosh Munot1]

Hi,

My thoughts are as below:

• Fields which are required to be populated to create a new record or update an existing record:
  • Name
  • Circuit type
  • Circuit category
  • Circuit ID
  • Terminating device
  • Support group

Answer: Only for this class you can create your own form layout which will show only above fields.

• Ability for members of IT Network Engineering or Telecom support groups to create new records

Answer: I want you to create a Create ACL on this table which you create and check is logged in user is member of this groups or not. IF yes then true or else false. 

Use below line for reference: gs.getUserID().isMemberOf('sys id of group');

• Members of the set support group will have write access to the CI
  
  • Users who are not members of these groups will have read-only access and will not be able to create records

Answer: Create Write and Read ACL as well, See whether logged in user is member of support group or not. If yes then true or else false. Here you can slide record to sys_user_grmember table to check membership.

• Circuit ID field is read only unless Lifecycle status is "In build"

Answer: Two options, ACL and UI Policy. Use whatever you want. Third can be Client script as well.

UI Policy condition will be Status is InBuild then Readonly False.

Rest i think fields and choices you can create on Custom table which you created.

Thanks,
Ashutosh Munot

[DaveRodda]

How many CI's and components do I ned, and how do I relate them?For example: 1 Router, with interface 1/15 has an 150MB ethernet curcuit with ID 12341.6452.2345 provided by verizon.I know I need a Computer System with PC of Router.   But after that it is unclear if I need a networkport, protocal enpoint, connectivity segment etc.   Can anyone share some experience?  The above information is all that we have, so I don't want to create a lot of unnecessary CI's but I want it modeled correctly.

complete pcb

[cyked]

Hi Dave, the solution we implemented was to enable the ability of our Network and Telephony teams to manage their circuit information on the platform.

The "terminating device" is a reference field to the Network Gear table in the CMDB.  This will contain things like routers and switches, which are discoverable.  Additionally, there is a reference field "device interface" which will ONLY display the discovered interfaces of a discovered device on the Network Gear table (e.g. the set "terminating device" on the Communication Circuit table.

Hope that helps

[gwolfkill]

I am curious of how everyone is setting this up as well. This post is 2-3 years old. Is the only way still to create a custom table?