Creating inventory template relationship

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Creating inventory template relationship

    This guide outlines the process for creating inventory templates and establishing their relationships within the Telecommunications Network Inventory application. Properly creating these templates and relationships is essential for accurate equipment instantiation, which generates network asset instances from the inventory templates.

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    Equipment instantiation relies on a specific sequence of creating inventory models, default templates, and inventory templates to ensure correct equipment relationships and functionality.

    Key Steps and Sequence

    • Establish a Default Template: Start by creating a default template that captures default attribute values for a configuration item (CI) class. This template applies default values to resources instantiated from inventory templates.
    • Create Inventory Template for Equipment Model: Use the Inventory Template form in the Network Inventory Workspace Lists view to create the primary equipment template.
    • Create Inventory Templates for Related Models: Build templates for interface card models and network interface models associated with the equipment template.
    • Add Slots and Interfaces: Add related slot templates and network interfaces to the equipment inventory template using the Related Templates tab.
    • Add Interface Cards and Subslots: Include interface card templates in slot templates and add subslot templates to interface card templates, especially when adding new card models.
    • Establish Interface Relationships: Link network interface templates to interface card templates and add interface cards to subslots as needed.
    • Add Network Interfaces to Child or Daughter Cards: Optionally, add network interface templates to child or daughter card templates.
    • Create Inventory Templates for Cable Models: Create templates for cable models to instantiate cable records and related stand records within the application.

    Important Details

    • When creating equipment or card templates, associated slots and interface templates are automatically generated from model relationships, unless those relationships are missing—in which case manual creation is required.
    • Names for associated templates are derived from naming patterns defined in the Equipment Model or Interface Model forms.
    • Following the prescribed sequence ensures accurate relationships and successful equipment instantiation.

    Next Steps

    After establishing your default template, proceed to create inventory templates for your equipment models and associated components in the prescribed order. This structured approach enables seamless equipment instantiation and accurate network asset management within ServiceNow's Telecommunications Network Inventory application.

    Use this sequence as a guide when creating inventory templates for your equipment and establishing the proper template relationships in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application.

    Sequence for creating template relationships

    Equipment instantiation, or the task of generating network asset instances from the inventory template relationships that you create, is a key function in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application. To operate properly, it depends on you creating accurate inventory models, default templates, and inventory templates, in a certain sequence, to establish proper equipment relationships.

    Note:
    To learn more about equipment instantiation, see Telecommunications design and assign.

    When you create an equipment or card template, the associated slots and interface templates are automatically created by using the data from the model relationship. If the model relationships aren’t made, it doesn't create the associated templates. In this case, you must create the templates manually. To learn more about the model relationship, see Creating inventory template for network asset instantiation. For example, when you create a template for an equipment model, the associated templates, such as the Telco equipment holder (slot) and interface, are automatically created.

    The names for these associated templates are mapped from the Slot naming pattern or Interface naming pattern fields in the Information tab of the Equipment Model or Interface Model forms.

    To establish the proper relationships between these elements for your equipment, perform these tasks in the following order.

    Establishing a default template

    The first step in this process is to create an appropriate default template for use in your inventory template relationship sequence.

    Default templates capture the default attribute values for a configuration item (CI) class. A template defines the set of attribute values for any resource (equipment, card, and so on). When this default template is associated with an inventory template, it adds these attribute values to the resource that is instantiated using that template.

    To learn more, see Create a default template.

    What's next

    After establishing a default template, begin the sequence by creating an inventory template for the equipment model. To learn more, see Creating an inventory template for the equipment model.