Identification and reconciliation along with asset entries

[nayanthara]

When an entry is made in the Asset table, there is an out of box business rule that creates a corresponding entry in the CMDB. Does this business rule also invoke the identification and reconciliation engine? If not, how can we make sure the entries/updates from the inventory goes through the identification and reconciliation process?

[Chuck Tomasi]

Good question. bsweetser is pretty sharp when it comes to Asset. Any thoughts Ben?

[Community Alums]

Hi Nayanthara,

If there is already a CI for the item, then you likely have an Asset record already (unless you have Enforce CI verification enabled on the Model Category). Your process to add the Asset record should coalesce (merge) with that existing Asset created with the CI. Then it will be appropriately matched.

If there is not already a CI, then you are fine to allow it to create a new CI.

Ben

[nayanthara]

Hi Ben,

Here is our use case —

We have some in-house discovery sources that may, at times, populate the CMDB before the asset is inventoried. Our asset teams do not want a corresponding asset entry to be created at that instant. Many of our discovered CIs do not need an asset entry either. Therefore, none of our discovery sources for CMDB populate the "Model ID" field which ties the asset with CMDB. When the asset is inventoried, we want the corresponding CI created to merge with the CI created by the discovery source in accordance with the identification and reconciliation rules.

Our initial solution —

Tweak the business rule that creates CIs from assets to call the identification and reconciliation engine or write a separate business rule to do the same. However, I'm not sure how to do this and I did see several articles in the community that warn against using business rules to call the identification and reconciliation engine.

Please advise how to proceed further..

Thanks,

Nayan

[Community Alums]

Nayan,

A couple thoughts here:

• If you are just beginning to work with Asset Management, it is normal that you might have items discovered by a discovery source first.
• As you implement processes around request and sourcing, it should become less and less likely to find a CI in the environment that was not already created with the Asset.
• The best way to address not creating Assets automatically from the CIs is through the use of Model Categories:
  • If you do not have corresponding Assets, be sure the Model Category only identifies a CI Class.
  • Enable Enforce CI verification on Model Categories where you want more control over the creation of related Assets. With this turned on, you tell it when to create the corresponding Asset.
  • Enforce CI verification also gives you the option to merge with an existing CI in those situations where the CI created by the Asset does not match up for some reason.
• How are your Assets created? What have you identified as the fields to coalesce? You should be able to find the same fields to use, whether the Asset was originally created from the Asset process or from the CI.

Ben