Enabling asset management

BMC Remedyforce Configuration Management Database (CMDB) 2.0 enables you to store information about the configuration items (CIs) and assets in your environment. An asset is a corporate resource that you need to manage from a financial and contractual perspective (for example, laptops and mobiles).

Based on your requirements, you can enable and configure the applicable asset management capabilities in BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0. The following features become available when you enable asset management:

Tracking the asset lifecycle: The Asset Status attribute is available only for assets and enables you to track the complete lifecycle of an asset. The asset lifecycle typically starts with the request order or receipt all the way through until retirement or disposal.
Tracking the asset age: The Asset Birthdate and Asset Age attributes are available only for assets. The asset age is automatically calculated based on the asset birthdate.
Simplified classification: New asset and Rule Based Asset classes are available out of the box in the BMC Remedyforce CMDB Common Data Model to store asset-related data. A Rule Based Asset class enables a CI instance to be also classified as an asset that inherits the attributes of the CI class that it is based on. System administrators can also create and manage asset classes.
CMDB Views: On the Remedyforce CMDB tab, users can view, create, update, and delete instances of the out-of-the-box and custom asset classes based on their access level. System administrators can use the CI Management View and Asset Management View fields in the User and Client forms to control this access.
Asset management dashboard: This dashboard enables users to view key metrics related to asset management. For more information, see Viewing the asset management dashboard and reports.

System administrators can also enable attribute history tracking for asset classes and create models for asset classes.

The following diagram and table outline the steps that you must perform to enable and configure asset management in BMC Remedyforce CMDB.

Step	Details
1. Enable IT asset management in BMC Remedyforce CMDB.	To enable IT asset management: Click the Remedyforce Administration tab. On the Home page, click the Configure CMDB 2.0 tile, and from the menu, select General CMDB Settings. On the General CMDB Settings tab, select the Enable IT Asset Management check box. Click . By default, the out-of-the-box Rule Based Asset classes are activated in a new installation, and deactivated in an upgrade. After upgrading, when you enable IT asset management, you are prompted to activate all out-of-the-box Rule Based Asset classes. To activate all the out-of-the-box Rule Based Asset classes and synchronize existing CIs in BMC Remedyforce CMDB at this stage, click Yes. Synchronization of the CIs may take several minutes to complete depending on the number of records. When synchronization completes, an email is also sent to Remedyforce Administrators. To activate the out-of-the-box Rule Based Asset classes at a later stage, click No. To activate the out-of-the-box Rule Based Asset classes later, you must manually activate each of the required Rule Based Asset class. For more information see, Activating Rule Based Asset classes. Notes: After upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.03, the class type of the `BMC_BusinessService`, `BMC_Monitor`, `BMC_Mainframe`, and `BMC_Printer` is automatically updated from CI to CI and Asset. If you have existing custom CMDB classes with the same name as the new asset classes, after upgrading to version 20.15.03 (Summer 15), you see the following behavior: Class type of these classes is not automatically changed to Asset or Rule Based Asset. New out-of-the-box attributes for these classes are not displayed in the Instance Editor. For more information, see Troubleshooting BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0 issues.
2. Review the out-of-the-box asset classes that are available in BMC Remedyforce CMDB.	Review the out-of-the-box asset classes, their position in the class hierarchy, and their attributes. For more information, see the BMC Remedyforce CMDB Common Data Model. If the out-of-the-box asset classes do not meet your requirements, perform the following actions: Create new asset classes. Convert out-of-the-box CI classes into asset classes. For more information, and Managing CMDB classes.
3. Review the out-of-the-box attributes that are available for asset classes.	Review the out-of-the-box attributes that are available for asset classes. For more information, see BMC Remedyforce CMDB Common Data Model. To customize attributes for asset classes, perform the following actions: Create a custom attribute. Add the custom attribute to the appropriate field set in the `Base` `Element` object. To make a custom attribute available for all asset classes, add that attribute to the Asset Common Attributes field set. Remove an attribute that you do not want to display in the Instance Editor. For more information, see Adding or removing fields on the Instance Editor in CMDB 2.0.
4. Customize columns displayed in the CMDB list views on the Remedyforce CMDB tab.	To customize columns in out-of-the-box list views, create a customized list view for the appropriate asset class. For more information, see Customizing fields shown in the CMDB list view.
5. Configure the appropriate Asset Management View for users.	Assign the appropriate asset management view to users to control what they can view and manage on the Remedyforce CMDB tab. For more information, see Managing Remedyforce CMDB user permissions.

Note

If you do not want to use BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0 to manage your company's assets, you can clear the Enable IT Asset Management check box (Remedyforce Administration > Configure CMDB 2.0 > General CMDB Settings). No additional steps are required to disable asset management.

When you disable asset management, the out-of-the-box and custom asset classes are no longer available in BMC Remedyforce CMDB. System administrators can also no longer create and manage asset classes, enable attribute history tracking for asset classes, or create models for asset classes.

Enabling asset management

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