Telecommunications Network Inventory release notes
Summarize
Summary of Telecommunications Network Inventory release notes - Xanadu Release
The ServiceNow Telecommunications Network Inventory application supports network planners in modeling physical, logical, and virtual networks. It enables design and service assignment based on these models. The Xanadu release introduces significant enhancements to improve visualization, capacity planning, import/export capabilities, and TMF 639 Resource Inventory API conformance. This release is available via the ServiceNow Store with activation through the Network Inventory Advanced plugin.
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Key Features
- Circuit Visualization: View circuits and their underlying connection elements, including revisions and protection paths, in a dedicated window with selective layer collapsing for easier navigation.
- Rack and Cabinet Visualization: Enhanced capabilities to view, edit, and update racks or cabinets. Users can add, reserve, move, or remove equipment directly and access new KPIs related to power, weight, and capacity for improved planning.
- Revision Comparison: Perform comparative validation between planned revisions and original connections to detect changes, supported by a Validate Revision button within configuration items.
- Import/Export Models and Templates: Export equipment models and templates, including related hardware, to Excel and import them into other ServiceNow instances for consistent inventory management.
- Cable and Network Topology Management: Create cable records using templates and modify network topology by adding or removing nodes and edges via a new change model.
- Capacity Function Management: Define and prioritize capacity functions using category and order attributes, accessible from Workspace list views.
- Network Inventory Workspace Updates: A new landing page to view team workload; removal of the Map widget; and relocation of the Usage metric widget to the Inventory management view.
Important Upgrade Considerations
After upgrading to Xanadu, both legacy and new product model tables appear in the Network Inventory Workspace. Customers must migrate legacy product model data to the new Enterprise product model tables to maintain data integrity and usability. Detailed migration procedures are available in the referenced knowledge base article.
Activation Information
The Telecommunications Network Inventory application requires activation of the Network Inventory Advanced plugin (snniadv) to enable the features introduced in this release.
Related Applications
This application integrates with the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), which helps build logical representations of assets, services, and their relationships to maintain infrastructure stability and operational continuity.
The ServiceNow® Telecommunications Network Inventory application enables a network planner to model the physical, logical, or virtual network and perform design and assign services based on those network models. Telecommunications Network Inventory was enhanced and updated in the Xanadu release.
Telecommunications Network Inventory highlights for the Xanadu release
- Provide a visualization of the circuit and its underlying connection elements with revisions and protection paths on a dedicated canvas.
- Get enhanced rack and cabinet visualization capabilities, including viewing, editing, and updating features, along with new KPIs for better capacity planning and prioritization.
- Archive current configurations while operationalizing a planned revision and compare them with original connections to detect changes.
- Export equipment models and templates along with related hardware to an Excel data source, and import them to another ServiceNow instance.
- TMF conformance for TMF 639 Resource Inventory API.
See Telecommunications Network Inventory for more information.
Important information for upgrading Telecommunications Network Inventory to Xanadu
If you are an existing user of previous releases, both legacy and new product models will be available in the Network Inventory Workspace menu after upgrading to Xanadu. To rectify this issue, you must migrate your legacy product model data to the new product model tables in your current instance. For more details about the procedure, see KB1695167.
New in the Xanadu release
- Visualization of a rack or cabinet
- Gain visibility of your data centers infrastructure through advanced rack and cabinet insights. Edit a rack or cabinet to add, reserve, move, and remove any equipment. This enables you to create equipment from the rack or cabinet view.
- Revise a configuration item
- Perform a comparative validation between the revision and the original connections to identify any changes between them.
- Import Models and Templates
- Import the models and templates from an external system via XLS template.
- Visualization of circuits
- Provide a visualization of the circuit and its underlying connection elements on a dedicated window. View the revisions and protection paths of a logical connection, and selectively collapse expanded layers instead of collapsing the entire structure.
- Create a cable record by using design and assign
- Instantiate cables and associated strands using a cable template.
- Modify a network topology record using design and assign
- Modify a network topology for adding or removing the nodes and edges by using a new change model.
- Create capacity function
- Identify and prioritize the capacity function by using the category and order attributes. Access the capacity management forms from the Workspace lists view.
- Network Inventory Workspace
- View your and your team's work in the new landing page.
UI changes
- Revise a configuration item
- The Validate Revision button is implemented within the revised CI to facilitate comparison with the modified CI (Configuration Item) and revision history tracking of the modified CI.
- Export hierarchy of models and templates
- The Export button is added to export the hierarchy and all related records of a model or inventory template.
- Optimizing rack and cabinet usage
- Create equipment, edit rack or cabinet, calculate capacity, and perform other actions from the new rack or cabinet visualization.
- Visualization of circuits
- The View connection button is introduced to replace the tab-based experience of the circuit diagram in the logical connection record, allowing the diagram to open in a dedicated window.
- Network Inventory Workspace
- The Map widget is removed from the Workspace landing page. The Usage metric widget is moved from the Workspace landing page to the Inventory management view.
Changed in this release
- Visualization of a rack or cabinet
- The new rack visualization provides new power, weight, and capacity metrics.
- Creating your inventory models
- The legacy product model tables are deprecated and they are migrated to Enterprise product model app.
Activation information
The Telecommunications Network Inventory application is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is available with activation of the Network Inventory Advanced plugin (sn_ni_adv). For details, see Install Telecommunications Network Inventory .