What your services run on, and what breaks when it fails
A configuration item is something a service runs on: a server, a database, a cluster, a certificate, a domain. The CMDB records each one with its owner, how other tools know it and what it is joined to, and the Dependency map draws it all with the open work on it.
How it works
CIs have classes from a starter set, up to three levels deep, each with the properties it needs, and identifiers such as a hostname or a cloud resource id that imports and events match on. Every change is a revision, so a CI can be read as it was on any date. A CI’s page shows its health, availability, open work and what relies on it, with a small map.
Join a CI to the application service that runs on it, and the desk follows the chain upwards: trouble on a database reaches the application, and every service that depends on it shows At risk. Health comes from open incidents, changes in progress, monitoring events or is set by hand.
The Dependency map fills the page: start at your business services or any service or CI, choose the depth and direction, and see the incidents, major incidents, problems and changes on each box. Impact lights up everything trouble at one box would reach. The map can be drawn as of a past date, and exported as CSV.
Cases and incidents name a CI, and problems and changes several; a change’s CIs add the services above them. Import CIs from CSV, checked first, one class per file. Owners review their CIs at intervals, and auditors export the CIs as of a date, all or an audit scope’s, kept with a checksum.
Configuration Management (CMDB) is a plugin, and needs Service Configuration. An admin turns it on under Platform → Plugins, and turning it off hides it everywhere and keeps its data.
What it includes
Classes and identifiers
A starter set of classes three levels deep, properties per class, and the identifiers other tools use.
Revisions and as of
Every change kept, and any CI read as it was on a date.
Health over the graph
From incidents, changes and events, carried up to the services that rely on it.
Dependency map
Search, depth, direction, layout, work flags, impact, as of a date and CSV.
On every record
A CI on cases and incidents, CIs on problems and changes, with known errors shown on a case’s CI.
CSV import
Checked first, matched on name or identifier, with relationships, kept with its checksum.
Guidance
Model an application in one go, design a class, and terms explained as you go.
For auditors
Owner reviews, and the CIs as of a date, exported with a checksum.
