Network Sites and Locations: How to Use Them in TNI
The Telecommunications Network Inventory application stores the physical network connections, the logical network connections, and the resources that contain the overall network and the services provisioned on the network. The TNI data model adheres to a hierarchical structure. The foundation is the Network Site .
The Network Site class represents the physical locations on the network where the equipment and resources are stored and maintained, and where the network connections originate and terminate. The network site has a reference to a physical location and derives the key attributes like the address, latitude, and longitude from it, allowing network sites to be displayed on a map.
Although the network sites and locations are similar, their differences are important within the context of the TNI data model. A network site, stored in the table cmdb_ci_ni_site, is a configuration item (CI) in TNI. It has an operational status, which is derived from the equipment and connections within the network site. As a CI, a network site can be mapped as an inherent aspect of your service topology, and incidents and changes can be created against it. The network site and location complement one another, which provides more value to your organization.
Locations are stored in the common table cmn_location which exists outside of the CMDB. Therefore, locations have no operational status, but they include attributes such as latitude, longitude, street address and others that are relevant to a network site. Creating a reference from network site to location allows the network site to use the latitude/longitude coordinates and be displayed on a map, as well as leverage the other identifying attributes without having to duplicate them on the network site table.
Parent/Child Network Sites
It may be necessary to establish a hierarchical relationship between network sites to accurately model a network. The following example shows a 3-story building representing a central office. Each level of the building contains network equipment and connections. In this example, we will create a location representing the physical building located at the street address, then create a network site representing the central office and establish a reference to the location for that building. This links the address, latitude, and longitude to the network site. Finally, we will create 3 network sites, each representing a floor in the building.
As of December 2023, TNI users must navigate to the classic platform UI to create the CI relationships between the network sites because full platform functionality is migrating to Network Inventory Workspace in a staged manner. The ability to create CI relationships from Network Inventory Workspace will be supported in a future release. Until then, users should navigate to the platform UI to perform the following actions.
Example: Location and Parent Network Site with Child Network Sites
Once you have created the location, parent network site, and child network sites, you can create the CI relationships between them. Start by creating a new location.
After creating your location, start creating your network sites and reference the location you created. Start with your parent network site.
Now create your child network sites.
Open the parent network site record to create CI relationships between the parent site and child sites. Scroll to the bottom of the form and click on the “+” in the CI Relationship section.
Set the suggested relationship to “Contains (Parent)” and set your filter criteria to search for "Class" = "Network Site" and "Name" to whatever is appropriate to find the network sites you just created. All of my child network sites had the word “Floor” in the name, so I filtered on network sites where "Name" contains “Floor”.
Once you have the list of child network sites you want to relate to the parent network site, click the box next to each then click the “+” sign, then click the “Save” or “Save and Exit” button to add the relationships. Navigate to Network Inventory Workspace and open the parent network site.
You will see the Child Site tab lists 3 children. Click on the tab to show the list of child network sites.
This best practice document is based on a common use case where multiple network sites exist within a single network site. The NOW platform and TNI have the flexibility to allow customers to model their network locations and sites in many different ways. Both network sites and locations can have parent/child relationships. In TNI, we generally recommend creating a single location for a single parent network site with 1 or more child network sites. This will reduce the complexity of the model and ensure TNI leverages the related location data accurately.
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