Asset tagging
What a field technician actually owes an asset database, and why most of what goes wrong is not the tagging. Covers the difference between an asset record and a configuration item — the distinction ServiceNow builds on and the one most site work gets wrong — what to capture at the desk, how to run a floor audit that produces a usable reconciliation, and what to do about the machines that are on the floor and in no system at all.
Doing it
What a technician owes the database, in the order the floor walk happens — and the handover that makes the audit worth what it cost.
- Barcode or QR scanner, or a phone with the client's app
- Label printer
- Torch
- Asset labels in the client's own scheme
- Isopropyl wipes for surface prep
- 01
Find out which system you are feeding, and which record
In ServiceNow the asset record and the configuration item are two different things pointing at the same physical box — the asset is the financial and lifecycle view, the CI is the operational one. They are related, not identical, and a tech updating one when the client meant the other creates a reconciliation problem rather than solving one. Ask which, and ask for a worked example before you touch a hundred machines.
CautionNever create new records on a live CMDB unless you have been asked to. Duplicate CIs are far more expensive to unpick than missing ones.
- 02
Agree the capture set before the first desk
Serial number, asset tag, model, location to whatever granularity the client uses, and assigned user. Anything beyond that is negotiable and anything short of it is a return visit. Confirm how location is expressed — building, floor, and a desk or grid reference — because a floor audit recorded to the wrong granularity is not usable.
- 03
Put the tag where it can be read without moving the machine
Consistent position on each model, flat surface, wiped clean first, and never over a vent, a label the manufacturer needs, or a screw somebody will have to remove. A tag on the underside of a desktop means the next audit involves crawling under two hundred desks.
CautionDo not tag over the manufacturer's own serial label. The day the machine goes to warranty, that label is what the vendor asks for.
- 04
Scan the serial rather than typing it
Transcription is where audit data goes wrong, and it goes wrong invisibly — a serial with an O for a zero looks correct and matches nothing. Scan the manufacturer barcode wherever one exists, and photograph the label where it does not.
- 05
Walk the floor systematically, not opportunistically
Take the floor in a fixed order and record every seat, including empty ones. An audit that covers the desks somebody pointed you at is a sample, not an audit, and it produces a reconciliation nobody can act on because they cannot tell absence from omission.
- 06
Record what does not fit
The machine with no tag, the tag with no machine, the device in a drawer, the monitor with a tag belonging to a different site. These exceptions are the entire value of the audit — a list confirming what everybody already believed is worth very little.
- 07
Hand back a reconciliation, not a spreadsheet
Three lists: found and matching, found and different, expected and not found. That is what lets somebody decide what to do. A raw export of what you scanned puts the comparison work back on the client, which is the work they were paying to have done.
- What is the difference between an asset and a configuration item?
- An asset is the commercial and lifecycle view of a thing — what it cost, who owns it, when it was bought, when it is due for replacement. A configuration item is the operational view — what it is, what it connects to, what depends on it. ServiceNow keeps both and relates them, and one physical laptop is represented in each. Which one you are updating changes what your data is for, so establish it before the first scan.
- Where should an asset tag go?
- Somewhere readable without moving or opening the machine, in the same place on every unit of the same model, on a flat surface that has been wiped first. Not over vents, not over the manufacturer's serial label, not on a removable panel. The test is whether the next person can audit the floor standing up.
- The CMDB is wrong about half the floor. Do I fix it?
- Report it, do not silently correct it. A field technician bulk-editing a live CMDB is how one bad assumption propagates into the system everybody else trusts. Deliver the discrepancy list and let the person who owns the data decide — that is exactly what the audit was for.
- What about a machine that is not in the system at all?
- Record it as found-unknown with everything you can capture — serial, model, location, who is sitting at it — and photograph the label. Untracked hardware is the single most useful thing an audit surfaces, because it is the category nobody could have queried for.
- Do we need a scanner, or is a phone enough?
- A phone with the client's own app is usually fine and often preferred, because it writes straight into their system rather than into an intermediate spreadsheet somebody has to import. A dedicated scanner earns its place on high-volume audits where battery life and speed start to matter.
The rest of the section
- 01RJ45 Wiring: T568A and T568BBoth colour codes, pin by pin, side by side.
- 02RJ11 Wiring and Phone PinoutsSix positions, three lines, two colour systems.
- 03Keystone Jack TerminationStrip, seat, punch, snap — without failing the certification.
- 0466 Block WiringFifty rows, four columns, and where the bridging clips go.
- 05110 Block WiringLay the pairs in, press the connecting block on.
- 06Cat5e vs Cat6 vs Cat6a vs Cat8Speed, distance, and power decide it — not the bigger number.
- 07Fibre Types, Connectors and PolishRead the jacket, read the connector, don't mate blue to green.
- 08Subnetting, ExplainedWhere the numbers come from, and the meaning behind them.
- 09PoE Standards and Why It Won't PowerThe switch reserves the class, not the draw.
- 10Camera Lens, Field of View and Pixel DensityCovering the room is not the same as identifying a face in it.
- 11Patch Panels and Labelling to TIA-606A label that survives is worth more than a tidy rack.
- 12Rack Planning: Units, Depth, Weight and HeatIt fits vertically. That was never the hard part.
- 13Writing a Switch ConfigurationFrom factory default to a switch you would hand over.
- 14Networking and Cabling GlossaryThe terms, and what they mean on a job.
- 15POTS to VoIP: What BreaksThe lines nobody remembers until they stop working.
- 16Testing an Analogue Phone LineTip, ring, and the four numbers that tell you whose fault it is.
- 17Toning and Tracing a CableFinding one pair in a bundle of two hundred.
- 18Reading a Cable Certifier ReportWhat PASS* actually means, and which number to look at first.
- 19Which Cable Tester Do You Need?Three tiers, and the one most people actually need.
- 20Running an Office Floor RestackEveryone sits down Monday and their machine works.
- 21Cable Management for Desks and RacksTidy is a by-product. Serviceable is the point.
- 22Cabling an Office Fit-OutHow many drops, run where, and what it takes to add one later.
- 23Parcel Locker Site SurveysWhether the unit fits, powers, connects — and gets in the door.
- 24VLANs and TrunkingAccess, trunk, tagged, native — and which one is the security hole.
- 25Spanning Tree and Switching LoopsWhy one patch cord can take a whole floor down in seconds.
- 26Reading a TracerouteWhich loss is real, and whose network it is in.
- 27DHCP, DNS and Helper AddressesWhy the new VLAN gets no addresses, and why it is always DNS.
- 28Wi-Fi Channel Planning and AP PlacementMore access points at lower power, not fewer at maximum.
- 29SMART Attributes That Predict FailureA drive can report PASSED while it is visibly dying.
- 30BitLocker: Keys, Recovery and EscrowThe key exists somewhere, or the data does not.
- 31Grounding and Bonding a Telecom RoomOne ground, one path, and no loops between rooms.
- 32UPS Sizing: VA, Watts and RuntimeThe number on the box is not the number you need.
- 33Mounting Displays on Any WallFind the structure. Everything else is a repair bill.
- 34Mounting IP CamerasHeight, angle, and the surfaces that ruin the picture at night.
We do this work
as well as document it
Anyone tagging hardware for a client who runs ServiceNow or a similar CMDB, and anyone asked to audit a floor and report what is actually on it.