Working with Resource Management Entities

4 Working with Resource Management Entities

Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management (UIM) provides several different kinds of entities that you can use to organize and manage resource entities:

Inventory groups enable you to organize resources for a particular purpose, such as allocation by geography. An Inventory Group specifications can include an optional inventory group type that defines it as a resource pool limited to particular resources. See "Working with Inventory Groups" for more information.
Network address domains a context for the uniqueness of network addresses such as IP addresses. flow identifiers, and telephone numbers. See "Working with Network Address Domains" for more information.

Working with Inventory Groups

You use inventory groups to organize entities for a particular purpose. For example, telephone numbers can be grouped into blocks that correspond to particular geographic areas. These inventory groups could be used with rulesets to determine which telephone number to assign to a new phone service.

Inventory groups are defined by specifications. For example, you could have specifications for telephone number pools or DSLAM serving areas. See UIM Concepts and the Oracle Communications Design Studio Help for more information about specifications.

In Design Studio, Inventory Group specifications can optionally be associated with Inventory Group Type specifications. An inventory group type determines which entities can be included in inventory groups of that type. Inventory groups with inventory group types are called resource pools. For example, the VLAN ID Resource Pool specification defines a resource pool for managing VLAN IDs.

Inventory groups share many of the same features as other entities. They can include hierarchies of other inventory groups. For example, an inventory group for a service area could be broken into groups for smaller areas. You can also associate places with inventory groups.

See the following topics for more information about working with inventory groups:

Adding Entities to an Inventory Group

You can add entities to an inventory group from the group's Summary page. Inventory groups can include the following types of entities:

Custom Network Addresses
Custom Object
Equipment
Flow Identifier
IPv4 Address
IPv4 Subnet
IPv6 Address
IPv6 Subnet
Logical Device
Logical Device Account
Party
Physical Device
Pipe
Pipe Termination Point
Property Location
Service Specification
Telephone Number

Inventory groups can limit the types of entities they can include. If the specification of an inventory group includes related child specifications, only entities based on those child specifications can be added to the group.

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.

Two Inventory Group Type specifications are include in the ora_uim_base_specifications cartridge:

IP Resource Pool
Flow Identifier Resource Pool

You can add entities to inventory groups in the following ways:

From the Summary page of the inventory group. See "Adding Entities to Inventory Groups from the Inventory Group Summary Page".
From the Summary page of the entity you are adding to the inventory group. See "Adding an Entity to an Inventory Group from the Entity Summary Page".

Adding Entities to Inventory Groups from the Inventory Group Summary Page

You can add entities from an Inventory Group Summary page.

To add entities to an inventory group:

Open the Summary page of an inventory group.
Click the Associated Resources tab.
In the Items section, click the Items menu.

A list of available entities appears.
Select an entity type to add to the inventory group.

An entity Search page appears.
Search for or create an entity of the type you selected.
In the Search Results section, select the entity to add.
Click OK.

The Items section is updated with the entity you added.

Adding Entities to an Inventory Group

Adding an Entity to an Inventory Group from the Entity Summary Page

You can add an entity to an inventory group from the entity Summary page. Entities that can be included in inventory groups include an Inventory Groups section in the Summary page. If this section does not appear in the page, the entity cannot be included in an inventory group.

To add an entity to an inventory group from the entity Summary page:

Open the Summary page of the entity you want to add to an inventory group.
Click the Groups and Infrastructure tab.
In the Inventory Groups section, click Associate.

The Associate Inventory Groups dialog box appears.
Search for or create an inventory group.
In the Search Results section, select the inventory group to which to add the entity.
Click OK.

The inventory group is added to the list in the Inventory Groups section.

Adding Entities to an Inventory Group

Removing Entities from Inventory Groups

You can remove an entity from an inventory group from either the Inventory Group Summary page or the entity's Summary page.

See the following topics for more information about removing entities from inventory groups:

Removing Entities from an Inventory Group Summary Page

You can remove entities from an inventory group in the group's Summary page.

To remove entities from an inventory group:

Open the Summary page of the inventory group.
Click the Associated Resources tab.
In the Items section, select the entity you want to remove.
Click Delete.

The entity is removed from the list.

Removing Entities from Inventory Groups

Removing Inventory Group Associations from Entity Summary Pages

You can remove one or more of an entity's inventory group associations from the entity's Summary page.

To remove an inventory group association:

Open the Summary page of the entity.
Click the Groups and Infrastructure tab.
In the Inventory Groups section, select the inventory group from which you want to remove the entity.
Click Delete.

The inventory group is removed from the list.

Removing Entities from Inventory Groups

Inventory Group - New Page

You use the Inventory Group - New page to create new inventory groups.

Note:

The fields that appear on this page are determined by the specification used to create the entity. The specification is created in Design Studio. The fields in the following table are common to most specifications of this type.

Field	Description
Specification	Select a specification. You are not required to use Inventory Group specifications to create inventory groups. You can use Inventory Group specifications if you want the new inventory group to include specific characteristics or if you want to associate specific entities with specific inventory groups.
Name	Enter a name for the inventory group.
Description	(Optional) Enter a description of the inventory group.
Start Date	Enter the date on which the inventory group becomes active.
End Date	(Optional) Enter the last date on which the inventory group is active.
Inventory Group Type	Displays the inventory group type (if any) associated with the selected specification.

Related Topics

Creating Entities

Searching for Entities

Inventory Group Summary Page

Inventory Group - Information Page

You use the Inventory Group - Information page to edit the information that appears in the Summary page Information section. Some data elements, such as the ID, cannot be changed after the entity is created.

Note:

Field	Description
Specification	Displays the specification used to define the inventory group. This field is read only.
Name	Edit the name for the inventory group.
Description	Edit the description of the inventory group.
Start Date	Edit the date on which the inventory group becomes active.
End Date	Edit the last date on which the inventory group is active.
Inventory Group Type	Displays the inventory group type (if any). This field is read only.

Related Topics

Creating Entities

Searching for Entities

Inventory Group Summary Page

You use the Inventory Group Summary page to define the content for an inventory group. The page is arranged into tabs, each of which is used for a different purpose:

See "Entity Summary Page" for information about Summary page fields that are common among all entities.

General Information Tab

Use the General Information tab to view basic information about the inventory group and to view and maintain the inventory group hierarchy.

Section	Description
Inventory Group Information	Displays basic information about the entity, most of which was defined when you created the entity. Click Edit to change this information. Some data elements, such as the ID, cannot be changed after the entity is created. See "Creating Entities" and "Inventory Group - New Page" for more information.
Inventory Group Hierarchy	Displays a tree view of the inventory group and any child inventory groups. Inventory groups can include hierarchies of other inventory groups. For example, an inventory group for a service area could be broken into groups for smaller areas. Options available in the View menu enable you to control how the inventory groups appear in the Hierarchy section. See "Working with Entity Hierarchies" for more information.

Section

Description

Inventory Group Information

Displays basic information about the entity, most of which was defined when you created the entity. Click Edit to change this information. Some data elements, such as the ID, cannot be changed after the entity is created. See "Creating Entities" and "Inventory Group - New Page" for more information.

Inventory Group Hierarchy

Displays a tree view of the inventory group and any child inventory groups. Inventory groups can include hierarchies of other inventory groups. For example, an inventory group for a service area could be broken into groups for smaller areas. Options available in the View menu enable you to control how the inventory groups appear in the Hierarchy section. See "Working with Entity Hierarchies" for more information.

Associated Resources Tab

Use the Associated Resources tab to add or remove items to the inventory group and to view information about the parent inventory group.

Subtab	Description
Items	Do one of the following: Click Items to add an item to the inventory group. You can search for existing items or create and add new items. See "Adding Entities to Inventory Groups from the Inventory Group Summary Page" for more information. Select a row and click Delete to remove the item from the inventory group. See "Removing Entities from an Inventory Group Summary Page" for more information.
Parent Inventory Groups	Displays the parent business interaction if the business interaction is a child of another business interaction. Click the value in the ID field to navigate to the Summary page of the parent business interaction. See "Adding Parent Entities" for more information.

Subtab

Description

Items

Do one of the following:

Click Items to add an item to the inventory group. You can search for existing items or create and add new items. See "Adding Entities to Inventory Groups from the Inventory Group Summary Page" for more information.
Select a row and click Delete to remove the item from the inventory group. See "Removing Entities from an Inventory Group Summary Page" for more information.

Parent Inventory Groups

Displays the parent business interaction if the business interaction is a child of another business interaction. Click the value in the ID field to navigate to the Summary page of the parent business interaction. See "Adding Parent Entities" for more information.

Groups and Infrastructure Tab

You use the Groups and Infrastructure tab to view any places that are associated to the inventory group. See "Associating Places to Entities" for information about creating new place associations.

Working with Network Address Domains

Network domains provide a context for the uniqueness of network addresses. For example, in the public domain, an IP address must be unique among all IP address on the Internet. That same address can also exist in one or more private routing domains.

Similarly, network address domains provide a uniqueness context for VLAN IDs. Flow identifiers must be unique within their network address domain.

In UIM, you can use network address domains with the following entities:

Flow identifiers
IPv4 addresses
IPv6 addresses
IP subnets
Telephone numbers

See the following topics for more information about working with network address domains:

Network Address Domain - New Page

You use the Network Address Domain - New page to create new network address domains.

Note:

Field	Description
Network Address Type	Select the type of network address domain you are creating: IP Subnet or Flow Identifier.
Specification	Select a Network Address Domain specification on which to base the new entity. The list is filtered by your selection in Network Address Type.
Name	Enter a name for the network address domain.
Owned By	Click to search for a party to assign as the owner of the domain.
Managed By	Click to search for a party to assign as the manager of the domain.
Description	Enter a description of the network address domain.

Network Address Domain - Details Page

You use the Network Address Domain - Details page to view and edit information about Network Address Domain entities.

Note:

Field	Description
Name	Enter a name for the network address domain.
Network Address Type	Displays the type of network address domain you are creating: IP Subnet or Flow Identifier. This field is read only.
Specification	Displays the Network Address Domain specification on which the entity is based. This field is read only.
Owned By	Displays the party assigned as the owner of the network address domain. Click to search for a different party to assign as the owner of the domain.
Managed By	Displays the party assigned as the manager of the network address domain. Click to search for a different party to assign as the manager of the domain.
Description	Displays a description of the network address domain. Enter or modify the description.