The different fields

It's common to use the ServiceNow CMDB to denote the kind of environment that a CI is in. I've found most companies will have entire separate networks for production and non-production systems.

"This server hosts the DEV instance of Sharepoint."

"This database is used for training."

"That router is in the non-production network."

In the ServiceNow CMDB, there are 3 fields you would think will allow you to do this:

• Used for
• Classification
• Environment

They look the same but which one should you use?

You should use the "Environment" field. This is the field ServiceNow recommends you use to denote to denote a CI's environment

ServiceNow describes the Used for field as a legacy field. I wouldn't recommend using it.

• SN Support KB1115829
• SN Community - Difference between Classification, Environment, and Used For

The Classification field is intended to be used in combination with the Environment field.

For example, you could have a Server CI in "Development" Environment the is Classified as "Disaster recovery".

However, I must admit that I don't understand how a Server CI could have an Environment of "Production" and a Classification of "Development", that doesn't make sense.

Custom environment choice

What if you want to have more types of environment choices in the "Environment" field? Just add them!

First, consider copying from the existing choices on the Used for field. Chances are good that the environment name you are after is one of those out-of-the-box choices.

Otherwise, there shouldn't be an technical issues caused by creating additional environment choices. Normal rules apply: don't create choices whimsically, make sure it fits your own Data Governance.

Comparing the fields

-	Environment	Used for	Classification
Table	Available on any CI class	Only available on CI classes that extend from:

• Application [cmdb_ci_appl]
• Server [cmdb_ci_server]
• Service [cmdb_ci_service]

| Only available on CI classes that extend from Server [cmdb_ci_server] |
| Choices |
- Production
- Development
- Test

|
- Production
- Staging
- QA
- Test
- Development
- Demonstration
- Training
- Disaster recovery

|
- Critical Infrastructure
- Development
- Development Test
- Disaster Recovery
- Production
- UAT

|
| Introduced | Orlando CSDM release | Pre-Orlando release | New York CSDM release |
| Description by ServiceNow | (not documented) | Used for: Business service supported by the server, such as production, staging, or quality assurance (QA). This attribute uses the Used for choice list field from the Service [cmdb_ci_service] table.

Link | Classification: Type of server, such as production, development, disaster recovery, or user acceptance testing (UAT).

Link |
| Support | Supported | Legacy, use not recommended | Supported |