Creating and updating assets
You can create and update an asset to represent a physical or logical entity in your environment that you want to track from a financial perspective. An asset has configurable attributes, such as location, status, and cost. Examples include computer systems, buildings, and software. To be able to create and update an asset, the system administrator must enable IT asset management, and assign you the required Remedyforce CMDB user permissions for Asset Management View. For more information, see Enabling asset management and Managing Remedyforce CMDB user permissions.
Note
You can also create instances of the type CI/Asset, which can be categorized as a CMDB record which is both a CI and an asset. To be able to create and update CI/Asset instances, the system administrator must enable both CI and asset management, and assign you the required Remedyforce CMDB user permissions for both CI Management View and Asset Management View.
To create or update an asset
Note
If you do not have the Create, Edit, and Delete permissions on the class of an asset, the New 
and Save 
toolbar icons on the Remedyforce CMDB tab are disabled. For more information, see Managing permissions for CMDB classes.
- Click the Remedyforce CMDB tab.
In the left navigation pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab list view page, select the class in which you want to create or update an asset.
Classes and related CMDB instances (such as CIs, assets, and CIs and assets) are displayed on Remedyforce CMDB list view page depending on the CI and asset management configuration set by the system administrator and the CMDB user permissions assigned to you. For more information, see Overview of the Remedyforce CMDB tab.Note
You cannot create assets of the abstract classes. For more information about abstract classes, see BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0 architecture.
- In the right panel of the Remedyforce CMDB tab, perform one of the following actions:
To create a new asset, click New.
To update an existing asset, select that asset on the right pane and click Edit
.Note
To access the Remedyforce CMDB tab, and create and update Asset and CI/Asset instances, the system administrator must assign you the required CMDB user permissions. For more information, see Managing Remedyforce CMDB user permissions.
On the General tab of the Attributes section in the CMDB Instance Editor, enter the attribute values for the asset.
The Class Name attribute indicates the class whose instance you are creating. For information about the other attributes on the tab, see Attributes on the General tab.Note
For a Rule Based Asset class, fields of the superclass based on which the rules criteria have been set are automatically populated in the CMDB Instance Editor of the Rule Based Asset class, and are not editable. For example, if a Rule Based Asset class A has been created by applying the rule criteria Model Name = B, in the CMDB Instance Editor of A, the Model Name field is automatically populated with B and is not editable.
- (Optional) On the Specifications tab of the Attributes section, enter more attribute values for the asset.
The Specifications tab contains attributes that are specific to the asset class. If you are creating an asset for the Base Element class, no attributes are displayed in the Specifications tab. For more information about the out-of-the-box attributes which are specific to a class, see BMC Remedyforce CMDB Common Data Model. - Click Save.
The following attribute fields on the Attributes > General tab are automatically populated:- Created Date–This attribute is set to the date and time at which the instance is created.
- Last Modified By–This attribute is set to the user who last modified the instance.
- Last Modified Date–This attribute is set to the date and time at which the instance was last modified.
- To return to the Remedyforce CMDB tab list view page, click Back
.
Attributes on the General tab
The General tab contains attributes that are common across all the CMDB classes. However, your system administrator can add more attributes to the form. The following table describes the attributes that are available on the General tab by default.
Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
Instance Name | Type a unique alphanumeric identifier for the current asset. |
| Model Name | Select the model of the asset. Other attribute values of the model you select are also applied to the asset. For example, if your system administrator has defined Manufacturer Name and Supported By attribute values in a model, these two attributes are also populated with the defined values when you select that model for a asset. When you move your mouse over the Note: If your organization was upgraded from BMC Remedyforce 20.15.02 (Spring 15) or earlier to version 20.15.03 (Summer 13), you might continue to see the Model attribute (data type: Text) and not the Model Name attribute in the Instance Editor. After upgrade, your system administrator has to manually enable the creation of models and hide the Model attribute. For more information, see Enabling models. |
Description | Type a description of the asset. |
Short Description | Type a short description of the asset. |
| Model Manufacturer | After you save the asset instance, this attribute automatically displays the manufacturer that is defined in the selected model. If a manufacturer is not defined in the selected model, no value is populated in this attribute. You cannot manually type the name of the manufacturer. Note: If your organization was upgraded from BMC Remedyforce 20.15.02 (Spring 15) or earlier to version 20.15.03 (Summer 15), you might continue to see the Manufacturer Name attribute (data type: Text) and not the Model Manufacturer attribute in the Instance Editor. After upgrade, your system administrator has to manually enable the creation of models and hide the Manufacturer Name attribute. For more information, see Enabling models. |
Notes | Type general notes about the asset. |
Version Number | Type the version number of the physical entity represented by the asset. |
| Serial # | Type the serial number of the physical entity represented by the asset. |
Supported | Select whether technical support is provided for the asset. If you select No, the asset is deprecated and support might not be provided for it in the future. If support is not required for the asset, select N/A. |
Asset # | Type the tag number of the physical entity represented by the asset. |
Warranty Exp Date | Select the date when the warranty expires for the asset. |
Token ID | Type a unique identifier that you want to assign to the asset. |
Site | Type the site where the asset is located. |
Priority | Select the priority of the asset from the list. |
| CI Status | Select the status of the CI. You can use this attribute to track the operational status of an instance, such as deployed, in repair, or decommissioned. This attribute is displayed only under the following conditions:
|
| Asset Status | Select the status of the asset. You can use this attribute to track the status of the instance in the asset lifecycle, such as ordered, shipped, deployed, in stock, in repair, or retired. |
Stage | Select the appropriate stage of an instance. This attribute is typically used to track the various stages of business service CIs in your organization. For example, for a business service CI that is available to your users, select the Operational stage. When your organization stops offering that business service, you can update the stage of that CI to Retired. |
Primary Client | From the list of all existing clients, select a client who primarily uses the asset. When you select a client in this attribute and save the asset, the asset is assigned to the client and the information is updated in the Details > Clients tab. In the list of clients on this tab, the (Primary Client) suffix indicates the primary client who uses the CI. When you move your mouse over the To view or update additional details about the selected primary client, click the username in the User Details pop-up window. The client record is opened on the Remedyforce Workspaces > Configuration > Clients tab in a new browser tab or window. However, if you do not have permissions to access the Remedyforce Workspaces tab or the Client form, the Remedyforce Self Service tab is opened in a new browser tab or window. |
| Supported By | From the list of all existing users, select the user who is responsible for supporting the asset. This user can be contacted if there is an issue with the asset. When you move your mouse over the To view or update additional details about the selected user, click the username in the User Details pop-up window. The user record is opened on the Remedyforce Workspaces > Configuration > Clients tab in a new browser tab or window. However, if you do not have permissions to access the Remedyforce Workspaces tab or the Client form, the Remedyforce Self Service tab is opened in a new browser tab or window. |
| Location | Select the appropriate location of the asset. Alternatively, you can type two or more characters in the Location attribute. Location records in which the Location Name, City, or Country field values start with the specified characters are displayed. When you move your mouse over the Notes:
|
| Mark As Deleted | Select this check box to mark the asset as deleted. When a asset is deleted, you can exclude it from searches and other activities by using the Mark As Deleted attribute in your conditions. Additionally, you can preserve its relationships if you want to reuse the asset at a later stage. Note: If this check box is selected, the assets are shown in the asset list views but not in asset lookups, Impact Analysis window, or CMDB Explorer. |
| Asset Age | Displays the age of an asset by calculating the difference between the current date and the asset birthdate. |
| Asset Birthdate | Select the date from when you want to start tracking an asset’s age. If you do not select a date, it is automatically calculated based upon the rules defined by your system administrator. For more information, see Configuring general BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0 settings. |
Updating the class of a CMDB instance
Updating the class name of a CMDB instance (CI, asset, or CI and asset) is not supported from the CMDB Instance Editor. In BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0, if you wish to update the class of a CMDB instance, you must perform one of the following actions:
- If the number of CMDB instances are few, you must note the details of those CMDB instances, delete those CMDB instances, and create new CMDB instances of the required class with the details you have noted.
- If the number of CMDB instances are high, you must first export those CMDB instances to a .csv file, update the class name on the .csv file, delete the existing CMDB instances on the Remedyforce CMDB, and import the CMDB instances from the .csv file to the Remedyforce CMDB using an import tool (for example, Data Loader). For more information about importing data using an import tool, see Importing data into BMC Remedyforce using data import tools other than Pentaho packages.
Related topics
Linking supporting information to an asset
Managing relationships between an asset and other CMDB instances
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