Adding Specification Options to Configuration Items

Specification options enable UIM users to associate entities to configuration items. There are two kinds of specification options:

Assignments (or allocations) mean that a resource (such as a logical device or pipe) is consumed by the configuration.
References indicated the interest in or significance of an entity to the configuration. The entity is not consumed, but referenced.

In Design Studio, when you add specifications as reference or assignment options to a configuration item, entities based on the specification will be available for assignment or reference in UIM. The entities that are available to assign or reference depend on the specification type. For example, you can use a service configuration to allocate telephone numbers, but you cannot use a network configuration to allocate telephone numbers.

You can add existing specifications as specification options to configuration items or create new specifications in process of adding them. See the following topics for more information: