Assets and CIs – Understanding the Difference

[Dave Aiken]

Asset Management and Configuration Management are distinct areas of focus, and yet it can be very difficult to differentiate assets from configuration items.  Understanding the difference will facilitate the creation of well-defined Asset and Configuration Management processes enabling well-informed decisions for asset spend and operational support.

What is both an Asset and a CI?

Items can meet the criteria for being both an asset and a CI.  Anything that needs operational support, as well as financial tracking, should be considered an asset and a CI.

Classify your devices

The table below can be used to identify and classify assets and configuration items.  Regarding the item in question, read the statement on left and decide it if applies.  If so, the check marks in the Asset and CI columns will tell you the most likely classification.

Leading Practice

Once you have identified your assets and configuration items you will be on the path to a healthy CMDB and ITAM repository.  ServiceNow implementation experts provide the following guidance to keep you on that path and ensure quality data to drive meaningful decisions.

Guidance from the Experts

• Refer to your program’s scope first: Always refer to your ITAM or CMDB program scope before deciding if a device type should be tracked.
• Don’t overextend by tracking unnecessary device types: If still defining your ITAM scope, focus on critical items.  Consider what will provide the most value or prevent hefty penalties and start there.
• Automate asset and CI data updates: Assets and CIs can change rapidly.  Prevent stale data wherever possible through automation and discovery tools
• Make sure asset and CI records stay in sync: Important updates to an asset should also propagate to the associated configuration item. Similarly, updates to a CI should be reflected in the asset record.
• Make any supportable asset a CI: Support records such as Incidents and Change Requests are linked to a configuration item, not to an asset.
• Keep non-asset configuration items out of Asset Management: While these devices may be important to your organization, they typically do not require financial tracking.  Examples:  Ports, IP Addresses, VLANS, Clusters, and Virtual Devices.

[Luiz Lucena]

Awesome article, Dave!

Would you have more information on how we should proceed to make sure Asset and CI data are in sync?

Few months ago, we imported almost 1000 computers into Asset table and those were not replicated to Workstation table, now we have duplicated records in Asset table. 
We are trying to find the best way to sync both tables.

Thank you for sharing that!

[Mary Vanatta1]

@Luiz Lucena  I am assuming you meant they were not replicated on the "Computers" table in the CMDB? Did you then use an automated means to populate the CMDB and that is when the duplicate records were created? 
Here are some guidelines from product documentation on Asset and CI synchronization.
Make sure you are discovering or populating the Product Model (IBM ThinkPad T14S), the
Asset Tracking Strategy is allowing the sync Assets and CI


What information is being shared between the CMDB and Asset Mgmt modules

That we use the new Lifecycle Stage and Status, and avoid customizing the choice lists in Asset Management, this can break alignment and reporting between CMDB and Asset Management.

[Luiz Lucena]

Hi @Mary Vanatta1, 

Yes, they were not replicated to "Computers" table and then, when the computer were allocated to users, it was updated in Azure Intune and imported back to ServiceNow, to the Computers table, creating a new record in hardware asset table (alm_hardware). 
I don't see the tab Configuration Item as shown in your first screen, should I create or is something that should be there OOTB?

EDIT: Maybe that is part of the plugin Hardware Asset Management (sn_hamp), which I don't know yet if we are licensed to. We have a Pro subscription though. 

Need to figure out how to get rid of the duplicated ones. 

[Jens Damhoej]

My input:

When you build a CMDB then you should use the PACMAN (my own term) approach..

PACMAN is just a rule to remember the order of creating a solid CMDB.

Product management (model management, you create the model before you buy it)

Asset Management (you buy, recieve and store it)

Configuration management (you deploy it and related to the other things it connects to)

MANagement (you need to link the above processes in every solution you create that uses the CMDB.

Doing it that order has helped me a lot to build a solid working CMDB (and ServiceNow has some "one way" actions that only happens when you go from asset to CI and not the other way around.

[jgovea]

Dave- Thank for sharing this amazing article. 

New to the ServiceNow platform. This was definitely a great explanation of relationship between the asset and the CI. 

[maricielo]

Thanks a lot to share the information. It helps me a lot to know the difference. Very difficult to understand previous this article.

Thanks!

[chavdarbg]

Dave, thank for sharing this knowledge on the relationship between the asset and the CI.

In ITIL v3 2011 there is a statement that "All CIs are service assets, but many service assets are not configuration elements". Do you think this statement is correct? Can you explain the contradiction between your understanding of the difference (CI vs asset) and the above statement?

[AJ2025]

If someone creates an asset manually or through bulk upload into the alm_asset table; can it create a CI automatically?

We have a situation where come CIs have a correct model category assigned while others do not.

Not sure if this is something not found by discovery or due to a manual creation of an asset.

Thanks

[Rob Barnett]

Model Categories and Asset tracking strategy are key.

Model Category determines if the model is to be considered and Asset and/or a CI and if so which class it should sit in.

On the Model record, an Asset Tracking strategy set to 'Leave to Category' will follow the classes set in the Model Category, which when set to be an Asset AND and a CI will automatically create a corresponding record in the CI table/class when the Asset is created, or vice versa if the CI is created first which is not the normal chronological way for physical kit - Product first, then Asset then CI).

NB - Asset Tracking Strategy set to 'Don't Create Assets' is typically used when a Model Category (e.g. Linux Server) can be associated with both a Physical and Virtual Model - Virtual Servers not being Assets as they are not physical, you cant stick a label to them and you cant store them in stockrooms etc.