A CI relationship describes a connection between two configuration items by determining the attributes of their relationship.

CI Relationships are represented with single-directional and bi-directional arrows connecting CIs on the Dependency Map. To open the dependency map view, click  next to the Source CI or the Recipient CI field.

You can determine an impact direction of CI relationships when specifying Source CI and Recipient CI. According to the established relationship, if any of the source CIs degrades or becomes unavailable, the recipient CI is affected.

Role required: cmdb_manager.

Add a new CI relationship

To establish a new CI Relationship, complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the CMDB → CI Relationships.
  2. Click New and fill in the form.
  3. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

CI Relationship form fields

Field

Mandatory

Description

Source CI

YSpecify a CI from the list to make a relationship outcoming from it.

Recipient CI

YSpecify a CI from the list to specify a relationship as incoming.

Bilateral Relation

NSelect the checkbox so both source and recipient CIs have impact on each other.

Operational State Transfer Type

N

Choose one of the possible values describing the type of operational impact:

  • Conditional – 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, their weights change too.
  • Unconditional – 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.

Relationship Weight

NAn 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 State change. 

If the source CI is not available, the CI Relationship carries 0 value within the Weight on Change field. If the source CI is degraded, the relationship transfers a half weight. Thus, the weight of conditional relationship or the sum weight of unconditional relationship 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.

As a result, a new CI Relationship record is created.

Service Dependency Map

Service Dependency Map is a service model represented by a hierarchical structure of the CIs with an IT Service at the top and their current operational states as colored 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 color-coded frames depending on their current Operational State values.

The following table shows the accordance between colors and states:

CI Frame ColorCI Operational State
GreenAvailable
YellowDegraded
RedUnavailable, Maintenance

Service Dependency Map visualizes CI Relationships with simple-directional or bi-directional arrows depending on an impact direction.

There are two ways to open Service Dependency Map:

  • Click  next to the Source CI or the Recipient CI field on the CI Relationship form to see the hierarchical place of your CI on the service dependency map.
  • Navigate to CMDB → Service Model and in the URL https://instance.example.com/visual/dependency?sys_id=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&essence=sys_cmdb_ci&script=CI, substitute the X's with the CI ID.

Creating CI Relationship

To add a new CI Relationship from the Dependency Map view, please follow the steps below:

  1. Right-click on the desired CI and choose the Create Relationship option in the context menu.
  2. Select one of the possible values:
    • Incoming - to create an incoming connection to your CI
    • Outgoing - to create an outgoing connection from your CI.
  3. Fill in the form of a new CI Relationship
  4. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

Changing CI Operational State

You can change the CI Relationship State right from the Dependency Map view, complete the steps below:

  1. Right-click on the desired CI and select Change Operational State option in the context menu
  2. 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.

The following toast message will appear: The operational status of the configuration item {name} is changed.

To create a new CMDB structure, refer to the Create a CMDB structure article.