--- title: Assets description: An Asset is what you actually monitor (equipment, a utility, a facility), organized around business meaning rather than the Device collecting the data. source: https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/assets --- # Assets An Asset represents the thing you actually care about (a generator, an HVAC unit, a utility service, a pump, a facility), independent of the Device that happens to be measuring it. Assets let you organize data by business meaning, not by which Device collects what. ## Overview A single Asset can pull data from multiple Devices and Variables, and a single Device can serve multiple Assets. That decoupling is the point: the instrumentation can change (a controller replaced, a sensor rewired to a different gateway) without the operational view changing with it. The [Platform Overview](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/overview#component-relationships) walks through a concrete example: one boiler room controller reports five variables, three of which combine into a boiler asset and two into a feedwater pump asset. In practice Assets take shapes like physical equipment (generators, HVAC, pumps, motors), utility connections (electrical, water, gas), logical groupings of related equipment, spaces such as buildings and rooms, and infrastructure such as panels and distribution systems. The Assets list shows every Asset with its type, Location, linked Dashboard and coordinates. ![The Assets list in ControlCom Connect showing generators, chillers and utility services with their types and locations](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/images/assets/01-assets-list.png) *The Assets list: equipment organized by business meaning, each with its type and Location* ## Properties | Field | Type | Notes | | ------------------- | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Name | string | Required. | | Description | string | Optional. | | Classification | enum | Optional. Unlocks classification-specific features. | | Attributes | key-value | Custom metadata. | | Devices / Variables | references | The data sources backing this Asset. | | Location | reference | Optional. See [Locations](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/locations). | | Parent / children | references | For hierarchical groupings. | | Tags | string\[] | For flexible filtering. | ![The Settings page of an Asset in ControlCom Connect showing its name, visibility and Location fields](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/images/assets/03-asset-settings.png) *An Asset's Settings page, with the Classification and Variables tabs alongside* ## Creating an Asset Click **New Asset** on the Assets list. The **Create Asset** dialog asks for the Asset Name, whether the Asset is visible on pages, an optional Location, and an optional image. Only the name is required, so it is fine to create the Asset first and wire up its data sources as they come online. ![The Create Asset dialog in ControlCom Connect with a name entered and a Location selected](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/images/assets/02-create-asset.png) *Creating an Asset: a name and, optionally, the Location it belongs to* Opening an Asset from the list leads to its administration page, with tabs for **Settings**, **Classification**, **Variables** and more. Settings edits the same fields as the create dialog, Classification marks what kind of equipment the Asset is, and Variables is where the data sources are wired up: **Attach Variables** picks the Device Variables that report on this Asset. ![The Variables page of an Asset in ControlCom Connect listing the generator variables attached to it](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/images/assets/04-asset-variables.png) *Variables attached to a generator Asset: the five data points its device reports* An Asset can be placed at a [Location](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/locations) in either direction: set the Location field on the Asset itself, or open the Location's **Assets** tab and use **Attach Asset**, which offers the Assets that have no Location yet. ## Organizing Assets There are four complementary ways to structure an Asset library. Assigning each Asset to a Location enables site-based filtering and the map view. Parent-child relationships build hierarchies for facility, equipment and component drilldowns. Tags provide flexible, overlapping groupings (for example `critical`, `q4-maintenance`, `tenant-A`) that cut across the hierarchy. And picking a Classification marks what kind of equipment the Asset is, which unlocks type-specific monitoring widgets and reports. These are not either-or: a generator can sit under its building in the hierarchy, carry a `critical` tag, and be classified as a generator all at once. The structure you build here is what the [Namespace](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/namespace) renders: one tree of Locations, the Assets inside them and the points each Asset reads from, with a filter toolbar over the whole model. ## Monitoring an Asset Each Asset has its own detail page that surfaces the Variables it is tied to (live and historical), an Asset-level Dashboard (the default can be set on the parent Location), active [Alarms](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/alarms) tied to the Asset, [Reports](https://documentation.controlcomtech.com/platform/reports) generated against it, and a notification log of recent alerts. Alarms can fire on threshold crossings (a numeric Variable above or below a value) or state changes (a Boolean Variable flips), and route to email, SMS, or in-app notifications configured per user. In the Report stage, compliance and runtime reports are generated against Assets rather than raw Devices, which is why attaching the right Variables to the right Assets matters early.