A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) allows managing Configuration Items (CIs) including identifying, recording, maintaining, controlling, and reporting. CMDB collects and stores the following items as configuration records:
- Configuration Items, such as IT Services and their components required for service delivery;
- CI Types, determining CI business logic and the set of various attributes;
- CI Relationships, specifying types of interactions, and dependencies between CIs.
CMDB records, therefore, describe your CIs with their Relationships, types of dependencies, and various characteristics.
To identify your CI in your SimpleOne solution, use the CMDB features, and follow the steps below:
- Within the CI Types list, define a type of an IT Service component that is considered as a CI;
- Specify CI composing attributes with accurate and reliable information filling in the Configuration Item form;
- Describe and establishing relationships with other CIs by adding CI Relationships records.
The Service Model visualizes CIs and their relationships with a Dependency Map view, which demonstrates CIs current statuses and interactions.
CI Type
IT Services are considered as Configuration Items in the SimpleOne solution, along with the constituent components required for proper service delivery. The CI Type specifies a set of the CI attributes, its place, and hierarchical position on the Service Model structure.
To identify your CI either as an IT Service or as a custom CI, at first, determine your CIs diversity with the CI Types list.
Add a new CI Type
To create a new CI Type, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to CMDB → CI Types, and push the New button.
- Fill in the Name field with the required value.
- Push the Save or Save and Exit button.
A created CI Type is added to the end of the list. Since each CI Type defines the hierarchical level of the Service Dependency Map, creating a new one results in adding the next lower level of this model.
Configuration Item
Create, identify, configure, and manage your CIs and their parameters with the records in the list of the Configuration Items. These records keep all detailed information such as CI Type, set of attributes with their values, and lists with the related records.
To identify your CI as an IT Service or as its component, use the CI Type and the record fields. A set of these fields is different for an IT Service and CIs of another type, except for the general description fields.
Add a new CI
To add a New Configuration Item, navigate to the CMDB → Configuration Items menu and push the New button. Fill in the CI record form with the fields below:
Field | Description |
|---|---|
Number | Automatically assigned to a record. |
Name | A name of a Configuration Item. |
CI Type | Select a type value from the list specifying your record as an IT Service or other custom CI. |
Description | Contains all the necessary information details. |
State | Select one of the two possible values:
|
Operational State | Determines an IT Service availability with the following possible statuses:
|
IT Service Attributes | |
Service Type | Describes a type of a delivered Service. Select one of the following values in a drop-down list to fill in the field:
|
Master Service | Specifies a primary IT Service if necessary. Assign a Master Service choosing it from the list of the CI Items with the IT Service type value. |
Service Specification | Defines internal and external articles described in the Knowledge Base, e.g., SLA records, Service Description, and other articles related to the IT Service. |
Business Criticality | Specifies an IT Service cruciality to a business with one of two values:
|
Service Owner | Assign a responsible person from the Users list as a Service Owner. |
Custom CI Attributes | |
Serial Number | Enter a serial number of your CI device. |
Primary IT Service | Specify an IT Service to be delivered, selecting it from the list of the CI Items with an IT Service type value. |
Serial Number | Enter a serial number of your configuration component if necessary. |
IP Adress | Enter the IP number of your configuration device if it has one. |
DNS | Enter the DNS address of your CI if necessary. |
Location | Define the CI location selecting it from the Location list. |
| Owned By | Assign a responsible person from the Users list. |
Push the Save button to save new CI or the Save and Exit button to save and leave the form.
Related Lists:
- ITSM Event - a list of ITSM Events related to this CI;
- Incident - a list of Incidents that are related to the CI;
- Problem - all the related problems;
- Change Request -all the related Change Requests;
- Request - all the Requests related to a current CI;
- Approval - all the related Approvals;
- Related CI - a list of CIs which have this CI as a Primary IT Service;
- Child Service - all the Services whose Master Service is this CI;
- Incoming CMDB Relationship - all the relationships with the CI as a Recipient;
- Outgoing CMDB Relationship - all the relationships with this CI as a Source;
- Internal Service Specification - all the internal service specifications bound to the CI;
- External Service Specification - all the external service specifications bound to the CI.
To extend or to customize your CI set of attributes depending on the CI Type, use the CMDB Expansion features.
CI Relationship
A CI Relationship describes a connection between two Configuration Items by determining the attributes of this relationship.
CI Relationships are represented with single-directional and bi-directional arrows connecting the CIs on the Service Dependency Map. To open the Dependency Map view, push the button 
next to the Source CI or the Recipient CI field.
CI Relationship direction
Determine an impact direction of the CI Relationship, when choosing a Source CI and a Recipient one. In case any of the source CIs degrades or becomes unavailable, the recipient CI is adversely affected according to the established relationship.
If both source and recipient CIs have this kind of impact on each other, set the Bilateral Relation checkbox active.
Operational State Transfer Type
Depending on a Source CI impact the Operational State transfer type of a CI Relationship has two values - Conditional and Unconditional.
- Unconditional - within this kind of relationship, degradation or unavailability of the Source CI makes the Recipient CI unavailable under any conditions, regardless of the other circumstances. In this case, the Relationship weight is equal to 1.
- Conditional - within such a relationship, the operational state of the Recipient CI is transferred by a few Source CIs with Relationship weights of the same values, in total equal to 1. If the number of the CI Relationships changes, so do their weights.
In the case of the Source CI unavailability, the CI Relationship carries 0 value with the Weight on Change field. If Source CI becomes degraded, the Relationship transfers a half weight. Thus, the weight of a conditional Relationship or the sum weight of unconditional Relationships provides the operational state of a Recipient CI with the following value:
- 0 - makes a Recipient CI unavailable;
- 1 - maintains CI availability;
- from 0 to 1 - makes CI degraded.
Add a new CI Relationship
To establish a new CI Relationship, go to the CMDB → CI Relationships menu, and push the New button. Then fill in the form:
Field | Description |
|---|---|
Source CI | Select a CI from the list to make a relationship outcoming from it. |
Recipient CI | Select a CI from the list to specify a relationship as incoming. |
Bilateral Relation | Switch this checkbox on to make the CI Relationship come in both directions: from a source CI to a recipient, and conversely. |
Operational State Transfer Type | Choose one of the possible values describing the type of operational impact:
|
Relationship Weight | An automatically calculated decimal number, equal to or less than 1. It defines a CI Relationship impact. |
Weight on change | An automatically calculated decimal number, equal to or less than 1. It defines CI Relationship actual weight depending on the Operational Status change. |
To save a created CI Relationship record, push the Save or the Save and Exit button.
Service Dependency Map
A Service Dependency Map is a Service Model represented by a hierarchical structure of the CIs with an IT Service on the top and their current operational states as coloured marks.
All CIs are arranged by hierarchical levels that are determined by CI Types. Creating a new CI Type results in adding the next lower level of this model.
CIs are presented as model elements with colour-coded frames depending on their current Operational State values. The following table shows the accordance between colours and states:
| CI Frame Colour | CI Operational State |
|---|---|
| Green | Available |
| Yellow | Degraded |
| Red | Unavailable, Maintenance |
The Service Dependency Map visualizes CI Relationships with simple-directional or bi-directional arrows depending on an impact direction.
Push the Dependency Map button next to the Source CI or the Recipient CI field of the CI Relationship to see the hierarchical place of your CI on the Service Dependency map.
Create a CI Relationship
You can add a new CI Relationship from the Dependency Map view. Right-click on the desired CI and choose the Create Relationship option in the popup menu, then select one of the possible values:
- Incoming - to create an incoming connection to your CI;
- Outgoing - to create an outgoing connection from your CI.
Fill in the form of a new CI Relationship and push the Save or Save and Exit button.
Change a CI Operational State
You can change the CI Relationship State right from the Dependency Map view. Right-click on the desired CI and select Change Operational State option in the popup menu, then, choose one of the possible CI Operational state values:
- Available - CI with this state value is marked with the green frame on the map view;
- Degraded - marks CI with yellow frame;
- Unavailable - marks CI with red frame;
- Maintenance - also marks CI with red frame, as CI is not available while in maintenance state.
To extend your SimpleOne CMDB structure, use the CMDB Expansion features.
