Network Inventory Cascading Lifecycle Update Support Overview
Network Inventory Cascading Lifecycle, new feature available as part of the Washington release, is focused on the decommissioning of a Configuration Items (CIs) for both associated assets and non associative assets.
Network Inventory Resource Types
Network Inventory can create two different types of resources:
- Items such as equipment, interface cards, and software defined network functions are acquired and stored to form an asset, which subsequently initiates the creation of a corresponding configuration item (CI).
- Components such as physical connections, logical connections, slots, interfaces, etc. Assets are not created for these resources but they are directly established as CIs.
Decomissioning of Network Inventory Resource Types
The decommissioning approach needs to adjusted depending on the type of asset that is stored within Network Inventory as mentioned earlier. As part of the Cascading Lifecycle feature, the decommissioning approach for the two distinct resource types is as described below:
- CIs that have associated Asset : This scenario depicts a situation in which an equipment or card has been acquired, stocked, deployed and is currently in operation. For instance, if an operational interface card malfunctions, the user must decommission the card and replace it with a new one. In this scenario, the below implementation details are executed as part of the decommissioning process.
- The Life Cycle Stage (LCS) or Life Cycle Stage Status (LCSS) of the old card must transition to a state indicating its non-operational status.
- Removal or deletion of the CI will initiate the deletion of the entire hierarchy and all the associations linked to the CI. For example, all ports/SubSlot/daughter card hierarchies associated with the failed card must be removed, along with removing all references in the TNI CI attribute along with all the packs.
- The CI itself won’t undergo deleted but as with any retired asset, the Interface Card CI may be subject to deletion in the future based on ITAM workflows.
- CIs that do not have an associated Asset: These will follow a similar process as CIs that have an Asset with a minor difference
- Deletion/Archival will ensure
- Removal of associations ( CMDB Rel CI, Packs, TNI CI Attributes)
- Removal of CI itself.
- Deletion/Archival will ensure
The following sections will be detailed description of our ServiceNow implementation of cascading lifecycle updates.
ServiceNow Implementation of Cascading Lifecycle Updates
- This example selects an exiting logical connection that has been created between the following two ports: Ge8/4 (Tx)/2 and Ge7/1 (Rx)/2
- Click on the CI by clicking on the “i” for each of the ports
- When examining the ports, note that these ports don’t have a corresponding Asset ID
- There is a “Decomission” UI action that has been added
- There is a validation action that takes place if the “Decomission” button is selected – an error will occur indicating that it will not be decommissioned since there is an existing corresponding dependent logical connection.
- Return to the original logical connection – notice that the Life Cycle Stage is Operational and the Life Cycle Stage Status is In Use
- Click on “Decomission” – this triggers a validation and since there are no dependancies then it will decommission this particular logical connection
- Once the decommission button is selected, a pop up window will appear and “OK” is selected if you wish to move forward and decommission the logical connection.
- The Validation of the decommissioning is inidicated on the screen
- The Life Cycle Stage is moved to “End of Life” and the Life Cycle Stage Status is moved to “Retired”
- Return to the port Ge7/1 (Rx)/2 form that was previously displayed and click on “Decommission” in the UI Action
- Select “OK” from the pop up Decomissioning Confirmation
- The Validation of the decommissioning is inidicated on the screen
- The Life Cycle Stage is moved to “End of Life” and the Life Cycle Stage Status is moved to “Retired”
Decommissionning of CIs is currently supported for below inventory categories:
- Equipment
- Equipment Holder
- Card
- Network Interface
- Physical Connection
- Logical Connection
- Network Site
If a user attempts to decommission any other CI, an error will appear.
Error Message Descriptions
The following are three error message descriptions along with workarounds to manage the decommissioning of CIs.
- If the CI which is decommissioned has any downstream relation, then user will see the below error. As a result, the user must first complete the decommissioning of all the downstream CIs and before attempting to decommission the original CI.
- The CI {0} cannot be decommissioned since there is a related CI {1}
- When there is a technical error during the decommissioning process, the user will see the following error. Logs should be collected for more details
- Failure during decommission of the CI ({0}). Please contact system administrator
or
- Failure during decommission of the CI. Please contact system administrator
