8 Resource Entity Management
This chapter explains how you use the resource management features in Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management (UIM). UIM includes several different types of entities that you use to manage resources in various ways:
Inventory Groups
You use inventory groups to organize and correlate entities in your inventory. You can define inventory groups to organize entities based on criteria such as:
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Geographic area, such as country, district, community, or location on a machine room floor
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Resource pools
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Serving area
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Billing area
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Service types offered by serving area
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Resources identified for a particular purpose
You can write rulesets to control the behavior of entities in inventory groups. See UIM Developer's Guide for information about rulesets and extending the product.
The following entity types can be included in inventory groups:
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Custom Network Addresses
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Custom Object
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Equipment
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Flow Identifier
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IPv4 Address
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IPv4 Subnet
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IPv6 Address
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IPv6 Subnet
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Logical Device
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Logical Device Account
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Party
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Physical Device
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Pipe
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Pipe Termination Point
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Property Location
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Service Specification
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Telephone Number
You are not required to define an Inventory Group specification to create inventory groups in UIM. You can define Inventory Group specifications to include characteristics or to associate specific entities with specific inventory groups in UIM.
About Inventory Group Types and Resource Pools
In Design Studio, you can optionally associate Inventory Group specifications with Inventory Group Type specifications. Inventory group types define specific entities or groups of entities that can or must be included in the inventory group. Inventory groups with inventory group type associations are called resource pools. They are used to manage the assignment of resources in UIM.
For example, you can create a Telephone Number Resource Pool Inventory Group Type specification in Design Studio, define that only Telephone Number entities can be included, and specify that these entities are required. You can then associate the Inventory Group Type specification with appropriate Inventory Group specifications to define telephone number resource pools. In UIM, you add telephone numbers to these resource pools and use them to manage assignments.
Two Inventory Group Type specifications are included in the Base Specifications base cartridge:
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IP Resource Pool
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Flow Identifier Resource Pool
Creating Inventory Groups in UIM
In UIM, you can build inventory groups and add entities to it in two ways: you can create an inventory group and add entities to it, or start with an entity and add it to an inventory group.
Network Address Domains
Network address domains define a context for the uniqueness of network addresses. For example, in the public domain, an IP address must be unique among all IP addresses on the Internet. In contrast, an address can exist in more than one private routing domains. You can use network address domains to define those private routing domains. When you search for an IP address, you can use the network address domain as a search criterion to ensure that you select from the correct addresses.
In UIM, you can use network address domains with the following entities:
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Flow identifiers
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IPv4 addresses
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IPv6 addresses
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IP subnets
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Telephone numbers
Network address domain entities are based on specifications that you define in Design Studio. Predefined specifications are included in some sample cartridges, such as the Carrier Ethernet cartridge.
See Design Studio Help for information about defining Network Address Domain specifications. See "IP Address Management" and "About Flow Identifiers" for information about how you use network address domains in those contexts.