Hi all,
I’m trying to understand how others are tracking operating system / firmware versions for network devices (e.g., routers, switches, firewalls) in ServiceNow.
From what I can see:
- Discovery is able to identify and classify network gear and sometimes capture version details
- However, the Network Gear CI class doesn’t appear to have a dedicated OS/version field out-of-the-box
- In some cases, OS/firmware data seems to land in the Description field or requires customization
This has me questioning how others are approaching this from an ITAM + CMDB + governance perspective:
A few things I’d love to hear:
- Are you tracking router/switch firmware versions in CMDB today?
- If so, where are you storing it? (custom field, model, attribute, etc.)
- How are you managing the lifecycle of network device firmware (e.g., upgrades, end-of-support tracking, standard versions)?
- Are you extending Discovery patterns (SNMP/OIDs) to capture this?
- Do you treat firmware as:
- configuration data (CMDB)
- or something closer to “software” for compliance purposes?
- Has anyone implemented standard firmware baselines (e.g., by model)?
It feels like this is a bit of a gap in the out-of-box data model—but I may be missing something.
Appreciate any guidance or examples of what’s working in your environment!
Thanks!
