Hi Chris- No problem, glad you could make sense of my ramblings :) It's just so nice to know that we're not alone in our "gee, we really want to figure this out" dilemma.
In terms of the DVD drives - IMO your requirements and setup should help you determine which of the options (lump in CDROM class, create new attributes in CDROM class, or create new subclass) you should select. For example - are there different reporting needs that are required where you have to break them out; are there attributes that you track on one that you do/don't track for the other; how do you get the info into the CMDB - autodiscovery or will "data entry" be an issue in terms of people knowing how to create a dvd vs. cd drive? Remedy suggests a good rule of thumb is if a class has the attributes you need - use it; if there's only a few attributes missing, add them to the existing class; if you need a layer of specific categorization, see if an abstract class (no instances in that class, and attributes are stored at parent class level) will work; create a subclass. They also suggest not going more then 5 levels deep in terms of classes. If you've ever looked at the sql on the back end, there are lots of nested views and joins, so weigh your classification needs against the potential performance hit you might see. And I totally agree - the whole mandatory 3 tier categorization drives me nuts; I hope it is something they can continue to improve upon to make it more flexible and less "I need to stick a word in here...let's call it....Monkey" :) Keep me posted on your setup, I'm always looking to share ideas! Best Regards, Cindy _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.wwrug.org
