Understand the full lifecycle of configuration data in your Configuration Management
Database (CMDB). Knowing how configuration items (CIs) , CI types, CI attributes, and CI
relationships work together helps your team build a structured, reliable asset inventory and
maintain data accuracy across systems.
Required Editions
Available in: Lightning Experience
Available in: Unlimited, Enterprise, and Performance
Editions with Agentforce IT Service that have CMDB and Service Graph enabled.
CMDB provides a structured and centralized way to model your IT landscape. CIs represents
physical or virtual asset like laptops, servers, business applications or cloud services. The
CIs are grouped by CI types. CI types define the expected structure, behavior, and attributes
for each CI. Attributes capture operational details, such as ownership, version, or IP
address.
You can also create relationships between CIs to reflect real-world dependencies, such as an
application hosted on a server or a VM connected to a network device. Service graphs visualize
these relationships, helping teams understand service dependencies and respond to incidents or
changes with greater accuracy. CMDB enables clean data management through identification
rules.
Example : Building Your IT Asset Inventory with CMDB
Consider a scenario where your IT team
needs a clear picture of all employee laptops and how they connect to your network. You
start by defining a CI type called laptop, which establishes the structure for all laptop
records in the CMDB. The CI type includes key attributes like serial number, operating
system, MAC Address, assigned user, and location.
Each attribute is paired with an
attribute type. For example, serial number is a text field, assigned user references an
internal user record, and location links to a site object. These attribute types ensure
consistency and data integrity across all records of this CI type.
When new laptops
are issued, you create CIs of type laptop and fill in the attribute values. For example, a
laptop assigned to a sales executive includes details like its serial number, macOS version,
and current office location.
To map dependencies, you define relationships between
laptops and other CIs, such as the applications they run or the network switches they
connect to. The relationships are displayed in a service graph, giving your team a visual
way to understand how devices, users, and services are linked across the IT
environment.
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