Manually creating and reviewing your network asset instances

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Manually creating and reviewing your network asset instances

    The Network Inventory Workspace in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application enables you to manually create and review detailed digital models of your network assets. This manual process supports provisioning new services, modifying existing ones, maintaining the network, and planning for future growth by accurately defining each network asset and their relationships.

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    You can access forms directly from the workspace landing page to create specific network asset instances such as interface cards, equipment, cables, connections, and sites. This approach gives you granular control over your network inventory, although automated methods are available for less labor-intensive creation.

    Key Processes for Manual Asset Creation

    • Create network site and data center records: Define physical locations housing your network equipment, including detailed attributes like buildings, floors, and rooms.
    • Define telecommunications equipment and equipment holders: Record individual assets such as racks, cabinets, shelves, and slots that physically contain your equipment.
    • Create instances for interface cards, network interfaces, cables, strands, and connections: Establish both physical and logical relationships between assets to represent the true network architecture.
    • Define power circuits and facility hardware: Model power and environmental components in your data centers to manage overall asset connectivity and dependencies.
    • Establish network topology records: Visualize how network elements are organized and interconnected for operational clarity.
    • Define inventory groups: Aggregate configuration items (CIs) to apply collective actions efficiently.
    • Decommission inventory records: Remove outdated or retired assets from your inventory accurately.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By manually creating and reviewing your network asset instances, you gain precise control over your telecommunications inventory, which is critical for accurate service provisioning, maintenance, and network planning. The comprehensive forms and structured approach ensure detailed tracking of physical and logical components, helping you maintain a reliable and up-to-date digital network model. This foundational data supports downstream network operations and forecasting, empowering you to make informed decisions about network growth and changes.

    For efficiency, consider complementing manual entry with automated instantiation methods available in the platform, especially for large or complex networks.

    A key function that you can perform in the network inventory workspace is to manually create your network assets and a digital model of your network in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application. With this information, you can provision new services, modify existing services, maintain the network, and plan the forecast for your network growth.

    To manually create and to review your individual network inventory records, and define the relationships between each asset, you can easily access the appropriate forms from the workspace landing page. For example, you can select the Interface cards count in the Network entities by categories widget on the Network Inventory Workspace landing page to create an interface card instance.

    Note:
    As an alternative to manually creating individual network asset instances, you can instead use a more automated, and potentially less labor-intensive method to do so. To learn more, see the following:

    Process

    To manually create a comprehensive digital model of your telecommunications network, access the following forms from the Network Inventory Workspace landing page and the Lists view. To learn more, see Reviewing and updating your network inventory with the Network Inventory Workspace.
    1. In the Network Site or Data Center form, create the site records for the individual locations that house your network equipment. To learn more about network site, see cd03bcf4100b78f7354f66e143b9aa86a2b8a05b.dita. To learn more about data centers, see Define the datacenter details.
    2. In the Telco Equipment form, create the individual network asset instances for your telecommunications equipment. To learn more, see 783b9843bc4b7a88e2e60f49d46b68317ec4cc4b.dita.
    3. In the Equipment Holder form, create the individual network asset instances for your equipment holders. To learn more, see 087c6f8691cefa281d143bdc34fb8dfcc3662262.dita.
    4. In the Interface Cards form, create the individual network asset instances for your interface cards. To learn more, see Define the card details.
    5. In the Network Interface form, create the individual network asset instances for your network interfaces. To learn more, see Define the network interface details.
    6. In the Physical connection form, create the individual network asset instances for each physical or wired connection. To learn more, see Define the physical connection details.
    7. In the Logical connection form, create the individual network asset instances for each logical connection. To learn more, see Define the logical connection details.
    8. Create the logical and physical relationships between each asset in your network inventory.
    9. Define the numbering for your virtual local-area network (VLAN) or link aggregation group (LAG) connections in the Telecommunications Network Inventory application. To learn more, see Define your inventory numbering.