Hardware life cycle
Summarize
Summary of Hardware life cycle
The Hardware life cycle in ServiceNow aligns with the CSDM framework to help you track the life cycle of hardware assets and configuration items (CIs). This lifecycle represents the stages hardware assets go through—from procurement to end of life—enabling consistent management and visibility across your IT environment.
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Life-cycle values and management
Hardware assets such as servers, monitors, and keyboards are tracked using life-cycle value pairs, which combine a life cycle stage (broad phase) and a life cycle stage status (specific status within the stage). For example, a hardware CI in the Operational stage may have statuses like In Use, In Maintenance, or End of Support. These values are specific to hardware-related tables in Asset Management and the CMDB.
The lifecyclecontrol table dynamically determines which stage statuses apply based on the CI type, ensuring accurate tracking across different hardware classes.
Hardware-related CMDB tables
Multiple CMDB tables represent different hardware classes, enabling detailed lifecycle tracking for various asset types. Key tables include:
- cmdbcihardware (general hardware)
- cmdbcicomputer (computers)
- cmdbcinetworkadaptor (network adapters)
- cmdbcistoragedevice (storage devices)
- And others covering accessories, communication devices, racks, printing hardware, etc.
This structure supports detailed asset management aligned with your operational needs.
Relationship between service instances and hardware CIs
Service instances represent logical groupings of hardware and software CIs that implement business applications or systems. Service instances are managed using logical life-cycle value pairs, distinct from the physical life cycle of hardware CIs.
Key scenarios include:
- Hardware not retired with service instance: When a service instance retires, the associated hardware CI may remain active or idle for reuse elsewhere, rather than being retired immediately.
- Shared hardware across service instances: Hardware such as a shared database host can support multiple service instances. Retiring one service instance does not retire the hardware or database service if others still depend on it.
Understanding these relationships helps ensure accurate lifecycle management and resource allocation without prematurely retiring hardware still in use.
The CSDM framework provides standard fields and values that you can use to track the life cycle of an asset or a CI. The hardware life-cycle states represent the overall life cycle of hardware assets and CIs as related to their products.
Life-cycle values for hardware
Hardware assets are physical items that are stocked, for example servers, monitors, and keyboards. A life-cycle value pair is the combination life cycle stage and life cycle stage status values for a CI, asset, or IBI over the life cycle of a product instance. The stages and statuses for the hardware life-cycle process are visible only in hardware-related tables in Asset Management and the CMDB.
- A life cycle stage is one of the broad phases that a CI moves through, from inception or procurement to operation and then to end of life.
- life cycle stage status is the particular status of a CI within its current life cycle stage.
For additional information on how you can benefit from implementing life-cycle value pairs for CMDB entities, see the 'Map existing status values to CSDM life-cycle value pairs' section in the 'Foundation domain' topic.
Holistic life cycle: CMDB hardware tables (from cmdb_ci)
| CMDB hardware tables | CMDB hardware table name |
|---|---|
| Accessory | cmdb_ci_acc |
| Communication Device | cmdb_ci_comm |
| Computer Peripheral | cmdb_ci_peripheral |
| Computer Room AC | cmdb_ci_crac |
| Display Hardware | cmdb_ci_display_hardware |
| Facility Hardware | cmdb_ci_facility_hardware |
| Hardware | cmdb_ci_hardware |
| Imaging Hardware | cmdb_ci_imaging_hardware |
| IP Device | cmdb_ci_ip_device |
| Monitoring Equipment | cmdb_ci_monitoring_hardware |
| Network Adaptor | cmdb_ci_network_adaptor |
| Printing Hardware | cmdb_ci_printing_hardware |
| Rack | cmdb_ci_rack |
| Storage Device | cmdb_ci_storage_device |
Example hardware classes
View attributes, identification rule, and other important schema structures for the CMDB Computer [cmdb_ci_computer] class. See .
How retiring a service instance might affect a hardware CI
A service instance is the logical representation of the underlying hardware and software CIs that work together to implement a business application or system. The service instance represents an instance of the business application or system.
Hardware and software CIs are managed using the physical life-cycle value pairs. Because a service instance is a logical representation, it is managed as using the logical life-cycle value pairs. The physical hardware CIs that are part of the service map under a service instance have their own life cycle, but they are related through the service instance as a specific set of dependencies or decomposition.
- Example 1: A hardware CI is not retired when the service instance is retired
When a service instance is retired, the associated hardware might not be retired. For example, the hardware might remain idle, unrelated to any service instance, until it is reallocated for use by a different service instance.
- Example 2: A hardware CI is shared by multiple service instances
In the common scenario of a shared database, multiple service instances (each with a unique database schema) share a single database service. The database service runs on a single physical host.
When one of the service instances is retired, the database service and host cannot be retired. All other service instances still depend on the database service that is running on the host.
See Monitor the health of application services on the Application Services dashboard.