Revision, operationalization, and decommission of a Configuration Item

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Revision, operationalization, and decommission of a Configuration Item

    The Revision, Operationalization, and Decommission processes for Configuration Items (CIs) in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application enable ServiceNow customers to safely and efficiently update network-configured attributes, connection elements, and relations of operational CIs. This functionality is specifically designed for logical and physical connection CIs, allowing you to revise these CIs without disrupting the network.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • CI Revision: Allows modification of network attributes and connections by cloning the selected CI along with its related tables (attributes, connection elements, relations).
    • Customizable Cloning: You can specify which related tables to include in the cloning process to tailor the revision scope.
    • Modification of Cloned CI: Changes are made on the cloned CI to ensure updates do not affect the live network during the revision process.
    • Operationalization: This process merges and finalizes changes from the cloned CI back into the original CI, ensuring updated configurations are applied seamlessly.
    • Decommission: After operationalization, the cloned CI is automatically decommissioned to maintain inventory integrity and workflow efficiency.

    Practical Use Cases

    • Updating a Logical Connection (LAG) with Additional ENET: Clone the existing LAG CI, add the new ENET in the cloned version, and operationalize to merge changes. This method increases link aggregation capacity without network disruption.
    • Changing a Router’s IP Address Safely: Duplicate the router CI and related data, modify the IP address on the cloned CI, then operationalize to apply the change safely to the original CI, preserving network stability.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    This capability ensures network infrastructure updates are performed safely and efficiently by isolating changes in a cloned environment before applying them. It minimizes risks of disruption, simplifies complex updates, and maintains accurate inventory records by automatically decommissioning obsolete cloned CIs.

    Revision of Configuration Item (CI) enables you to update the network attributes of a Configuration Item, such as attributes, connection elements, and relations using the Telecommunications Network Inventory application. You can make a safe and efficient update to your network infrastructure by using the CI revision.

    CI revision overview

    CI revisions enable you to modify network-configured attributes and connection elements of an operational Configuration Item. The CI revision is applicable only to logical connection and physical connection CIs. So, you can update all configuration items of a connection, as required with the help of revise CI and its subflows.

    CI revisions enable you to modify network-configured attributes and connection elements of an operational Configuration Item. The CI revision is applicable only to logical connection and physical connection CIs. So, after a logical connection or a physical connection configuration Item is created, you can update it as required with the help of revise CI and its subflows.

    Operationalization and decommission flow

    Infographic showing the flow diagram of operationalization and decommission. See the following steps for more information
    The following process guides you through the flow for a Configuration Item (CI) record after a request is created.
    1. Initiate Revision Request: Once you create a revision request, the selected CI is automatically cloned. This cloned CI includes all its related tables such as, attributes, connection elements, and relations.
    2. Customize Cloning Process: You can customize the cloning process and specify which related tables are included. To learn more, see ../task/clone-and-revise-a-ci.html.
    3. Modify cloned CI: After successful cloning, you can perform changes on the cloned Configuration Item record, as required.
    4. Finalize and apply changes: Using operationalization process merge and finalize the changes. This process integrates the revisions into the original CI record. To learn more, see Revise a configuration item using design and assign.
    5. Decommission: After operationalization, the cloned CI record is automatically decommissioned, ensuring an efficient workflow. To learn more, see Decommission an inventory record.
    .

    Use case

    Let's say, for a logical connection having two ENETs, you want to add another ENET to increase the LAG capacity. So, in this scenario, for a safe LAG update, use the CI revision.

    With the help of revise CI, the LAG and all of its connections are cloned. Then, in the cloned LAG Configuration Item, add the desired ENET member and merge it back into the original CI with the help of operationalize CI. After successful operationalization, all three ENETs are added to the original CI without disrupting the network. To learn more, see Revise a configuration item using design and assign, Operationalize a configuration item. Here, the cloned CI is decommissioned automatically. To learn more, see Decommission an inventory record.

    Let's say, you must update the IP address of a router in your network. This router is part of a complex network, and you aren’t sure how changing the IP address affects the rest of the network. So, in this scenario, for a safe update of the router's IP address, use the CI revision.

    With the help of revise CI, you firstly, duplicate the router CI and all of its related data. Then, you change the IP address of the duplicated router and merge it back into the original CI with the help of operationalize CI. As a result, the changes are applied to the original router without disrupting the network. To learn more, see Revise a configuration item using design and assign and Operationalize a configuration item.