This chapter explains how to use Role entities in Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management (UIM).
You use roles to define the parts played by entities in an inventory. For example:
A Party entity could have the role of subscriber or employee
A Place entity could have the role of warehouse or data center
A Logical Device entity could have the role of customer edge (CE) or provider edge (PE)
A Logical Device or Party entity could have a network target role
An entity can play multiple roles simultaneously and its roles can change over time. For example, an entity based on a Party specification called Organization could be both a supplier and a customer, either at the same time or at different times.
Similarly, a role can apply to multiple entities and multiple entity types. For example, the role of customer could be assigned to both individual and organization entities.
An entity's role might be relevant to its involvements with other entities. In many cases, you can specify roles played by entities in their relationships with each other. This includes relationships to places, parties, and custom involvements where relationships are created between entities associated with roles. See "Involvements" for more information about involvements.
The following entity types can be associated with roles and are therefore role-enabled:
Custom object
Device interface
Logical device
Equipment
Network
Network node
Network edge
Party
Physical device
Physical port
Pipe
Place
Role-enabled entities include a Role section in their Summary pages. This section includes a list of the roles assigned to the entity, included the role type.
When you define a Role specification, you can optionally select one of the following role types:
Technology: This role defines the technology that an entity operates under or supports. For example, devices and connections that support a Frame Relay WAN could be assigned a Frame Relay role.
Function: This role defines the function that an entity plays. For example, a router can function as a CE device or a PE device.
Topology: This role defines the topology type for an entity. For example, you might want to associate a network entity with a topology role.
Target. This role identifies the entity as a target for activation systems. See "About Network Targets" for more information.
In UIM, the role type is displayed in the Roles section of an entity's Summary page.
When you design a specification for a role-enabled entity in Design Studio, you can specify that a Target role be automatically created for the entity in UIM.
For example, you could define a Logical Device specification for a voice mail server that includes a relationship to a Role specification named Voice Mail Activation Target of type Target. If you select the Auto Generate check box when you create the relationship, UIM will automatically create and assign the Voice Mail Activation Target role when you create a voice mail server based on the specification you designed.
See Design Studio Help for more information about creating specification relationships.
When you define a Role specification in Design Studio, you specify the entity types that can be assigned to that role. In UIM, only the selected entity types can add that role.
For example, you can define a Role specification called Subscriber and select the entity type as Party. In UIM, only Party entities can be assigned the Subscriber role.
You can add characteristics to a Role specification. Using characteristics with Role specifications enables you to record additional information about the entity as it applies to the role. Because each Role specification has its own characteristics, different information can be stored for each of an entity's roles.
For example, if you define a Business role and make it available to the party entity, you could add a characteristic to record the Dun and Bradstreet Number, Data Universal Numbering System, (D-U-N-S) of each company. In UIM, when you add the business role to an entity based on a Party specification, you would enter the company's D-U-N-S.
For a prospect role, you could define and add a characteristic called Primary Language to ensure that the party receives information in the appropriate language.
A network target is a resource on which services or other resources must be activated. For example, in a GSM network, a voice mail service must be activated on a voice mail server. In this scenario, the voice mail server is the target for the voice mail account.
In UIM, you use the Target role type to identify Logical Device or Party entities as network targets. This capability enables UIM to pass information about network targets to activation systems.
When you assign a Target role to a Logical Device or Party entity, it becomes a target for other entities associated with it in various ways.
Logical devices are network targets for:
Logical device accounts associated with them.
Logical devices in their hierarchies (unless those logical devices are themselves network targets).
Device interfaces in their hierarchies.
Any entities with which they have custom involvements based on the Manages (Oracle Provided) base specification.
Parties can be network targets for:
Any entities associated with them.
Any entities with which they have custom involvements based on the Manages (Oracle Provided) base specification.
You can see information about network targets in two places in UIM. The information displayed always reflects the current network target; no history is maintained.
In Logical Device and Party Summary pages. The Roles section includes a list of all roles assigned to the entity. The Type column in the list displays Target for network target roles.
In the Configuration Items section of Configuration pages. When a configuration includes a resource that has a network target, the Network Target column displays the ID of the target. For example, if a service configuration includes a configuration item for a voice mail account (a Logical Device Account entity), the Configuration Items hierarchy displays the ID of the voice mail server (Logical Device entity) associated with the account.