Configuration Management Database Software (CMDB)

A configuration management database (CMDB) is an invaluable tool for storing up-to-date information about your organization’s components and their relationships. ITIL CMDBs (Information Technology Infrastructure Library Configuration Management Databases) serve as a repository for information about your IT infrastructure’s objects, hardware, and software. A configuration management database tool can label your assets as Configuration Items (CIs) and map their dependencies, classifying some CIs in a parent-child relationship.

By using a CMDB solution, you can view your CIs and discover how they work with one another to deliver IT services, giving you a deeper understanding of how individual assets impact everyday organizational activities. Configuration management database software can also track your CIs’ configuration states and changes, letting you know how often specific CIs malfunctioned, how a failing CI impacted dependent CIs, and how configuration states changed over time.

With configuration management database software and its insights into your CIs, you can understand change impact, resolve problems faster, improve key IT service management (ITSM) processes, and boost IT productivity. A CMDB ITIL can also come in handy for compliance and audits, as you’ll have records and visibility into changes, historical data, and the current state of your CIs.

An ITIL CMDB will generally feature access controls, enabling authorized team members to make and track changes. CMDB tools may also have the ability to automatically scan the network and create CIs, offering easy-to-use dashboards built to provide valuable metrics and analytics.

The SolarWinds Service Desk CMDB includes many out-of-the-box CIs=, so there’s no need to  set up manually . In the CMDB data model, CIs have a parent-child hierarchy. Each child CI type is built to automatically inherit its parent’s layout and fields, saving time while providing customization opportunities. If none of the out-of-the-box CIs suit your needs, you can also easily create custom CI types

The CMDB in SolarWinds Service Desk has several out-of-the-box CI types, meaning you can quickly create a CMDB data model reflective of your IT infrastructure. The CI types in Service Desk include Application, Building, Contract, Data Center, Database, Group, Other Asset, Person, Service, Software, System, and Vendor.

Creating your own CI types is also possible in Service Desk. Creating custom CI types can help ensure your data model accurately reflects your IT infrastructure. Check out our Configuration item (CI) types documentation for more information.

CMDB and IT Asset Management (ITAM) are important elements of IT service management, but they serve different purposes.

CMDB is a centralized repository used to maintain information about configuration elements within an organization's IT infrastructure. It provides a comprehensive view of hardware, software, and their relationships. CMDB software serves as the basis for various IT processes, such as change management, incident management, and problem management. It helps organizations understand their IT landscape, track changes, and keep accurate configuration records.

ITAM, on the other hand, focuses specifically on managing and optimizing an organization's IT resources throughout their lifecycle. IT resources include hardware, software licenses, contracts, and other technology-related resources. ITAM involves activities such as asset procurement, deployment, tracking, maintenance, and retirement. Its main goal is to help ensure efficient use of resources, minimize costs, and maintain compliance with licensing agreements and regulatory requirements.

CMDB tools focus on managing configuration and relationship information of IT infrastructure, while IT asset management solutions focus on lifecycle management and optimization of IT resources. Both are critical to effective IT service management and complement each other to provide a holistic view of an organization's IT environment.

By attaching CIs to ITSM objects or processes, you can gain a deeper understanding of your CIs and how they work with one another, enabling you to determine the root cause of issues and can help you minimize downtime. The good news is connecting CIs and ITSM objects or processes is built to be simple using SolarWinds Service Desk.

Creating dependencies in SolarWinds Service Desk CMDB can help enable you to understand the relationship between your CIs better. Not only can this give you increased visibility into your network and its assets, but you can also solve problems faster. For example, if your network router has an issue, you can see the servers and computers affected by your network router.

Dependencies are essential in a CMDB because they can help ensure a clear understanding of the relationships and interdependencies between different configuration elements within an organization's IT infrastructure.

By documenting dependencies, the CMDB software can show how different CIs depend on each other to function properly. This information helps in several key areas:

• Change management:
  When making changes to an IT system, understanding dependencies can help you avoid unintended consequences and minimize disruption.
• Incident and problem management:
  Dependencies can help you detect and resolve incidents or problems by identifying which CIs are likely to be impacted or cause problems. This can also help enable faster resolution of problems.
• Planning and decision-making:
  Dependencies provide insight into capacity planning, system upgrades, and technology migrations. They can also help you assess the potential impact and risks associated with changes or investments.

By understanding the dependencies in the CMDB, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of how different CIs interact and rely on each other within the IT infrastructure.

A CMDB visual map represents your CIs and the relationships between them in an easy-to-understand way. Often, these maps are built to display CIs in a tree format, allowing users to immediately see which CIs are root CIs and which are dependent. CMDB visual maps can also allow you to drill down into your CIs and quickly filter by type or dependency to get the most out of your configuration management database software.

With the help of a visual CMDB map, you can gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between your CIs and how they affect dependent CIs. You can also pinpoint causes of unavailability, identify a single point of failure and root causes, analyze the impact of a change, and help ensure the continuity of services.

A CMDB visual map can provide the information you need to improve key IT service management processes, helping you make more informed decisions and accelerate the problem-solving process.