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.
Role required: cmdb_manager. |
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 | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
Source CI | Y | Select a CI from the list to make a relationship outcoming from it. |
Recipient CI | Y | Select a CI from the list to specify a relationship as incoming. |
Bilateral Relation | N | Switch this checkbox on to make the CI Relationship come in both directions: from a source CI to a recipient, and vice versa. |
Operational State Transfer Type | N | Choose one of the possible values describing the type of operational impact:
|
Relationship Weight | N | An automatically calculated decimal number, equal to or less than 1. It defines a CI Relationship impact. |
Weight on change | N | 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 - a 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.