Are you tired of struggling to keep track of your organization’s IT assets? Do you find yourself constantly searching for information on your company’s hardware and software? Look no further than ServiceNow CMDB!
Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a robust tool that allows you to manage your IT infrastructure and services with ease. Here, we’ll discuss how to create and manage Configuration Items (CIs) in ServiceNow CMDB, giving you the power to take control of your IT assets.
We’ll cover everything from the basics of CIs to advanced management techniques, so you can make the most of this powerful tool. Get ready to streamline your IT operations and take your organization to the next level with ServiceNow CMDB.
What is a CI?
You can assign CIs to service desk incidents, tickets, or requests. A CI can be a physical asset like a server or laptop, or an application that is running on your network.
You can also create CI relationships with other CIs to make it easier to track assets, applications, and services across multiple systems and teams.
For example, if you have a handful of servers that are managed together by the same team in your company’s IT department, then you should create a CI relationship between them as part of your CMDB. This way when someone adds one of those servers into ServiceNow CMDB they don’t have to remember which other servers should also be included based on their relationship with that first server.
Create a mental model of your CI
A mental model is a representation of how you think about your business and its processes. It’s important to create this model because it helps you visualize how your CIs are related, which helps with tracking them in ServiceNow CMDB.
For example, if you’re creating a mental model for an IT department at an insurance company, your CI could be something like: “Server running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.” This CI would have attributes like operating system version (Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1), service pack level (SP1), hardware type (server) and location (data center).
Define the attributes of your CI
Attributes are characteristics of your CIs that provide more information about them. Attributes can be anything from “Name” to “IP Address,” or even more specific details such as “Service Category” and “Number of Clients.”
Create relationships between CIs
Relationships between CIs are important to define the nature of the CI. The relationships between CIs help to identify:
- The relationship between a CI and other entities (i.e., users, groups, etc.)
- The relationships between two or more CIs that are related in some way (i.e., software versions)
What is CMDB in ServiceNow?
Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a fundamental component of ServiceNow’s IT Service Management (ITSM) suite. It is a centralized repository that stores information about all the Configuration Items (CIs) in an organization’s IT infrastructure and services. The CMDB provides a comprehensive view of an organization’s IT assets and their relationships, allowing IT teams to manage and track changes to these assets over time.
With ServiceNow CMDB, IT teams can easily identify and resolve issues, plan and implement changes, and maintain accurate records of all IT assets. This helps organizations reduce downtime, improve service delivery, and optimize their IT operations.
Find out: ServiceNow Discovery—Is it right for you?
Create and manage CIs in ServiceNow CMDB
In ServiceNow CMDB, creating and managing Configuration Items (CIs) is a crucial aspect of keeping track of IT assets and maintaining a comprehensive view of the IT environment. Adding a CI to an application service in ServiceNow CMDB requires creating a relationship between the new CI and a CI in the application service.
To add CIs to an application service that was created manually, there are two methods that can be used.
The first method involves adding a method to populate the application service. This can be done by selecting the application service from the Configuration Item list, clicking on the ‘Related Links’ tab, and selecting the ‘Populate’ option. This will open a form that allows users to select the CI that they want to add to the application service. Once the CI is selected, it will be added to the application service, and a relationship will be created between the two CIs.
The second method involves using the application service map. This is a dynamic and filterable visualization of complex CMDB relationships that allows users to easily understand and manage the relationships between different assets in the CMDB.
To use the service map to add CIs to an application service, users can simply select the application service from the service map and drag and drop the CI that they want to add onto the application service. This will create a relationship between the two CIs and add the new CI to the application service.
Read: Successful CMDB implementation in six steps
Virima helps you create and manage your ServiceNow CIs with ease
Creating and managing CIs in the ServiceNow CMDB is a very important step in the CI lifecycle. By creating a mental model of each CI, you can ensure that all information about it is stored in one place and easily accessible. This will also help with communicating between teams who might use different systems but still need access to this data as well as each other’s information when working together on projects or tasks.
Virima offers seamless integration with ServiceNow CMDB, making it easy to create and manage Configuration Items (CIs) within the platform. This integration also extends to Virima’s Discovery, ITAM, and ITSM tools, allowing for comprehensive management of IT assets and streamlined workflows.
One of the key benefits of using Virima to manage ServiceNow CIs is the ability to drive better results from your ServiceNow investment. This includes accelerating time to value, lowering operational costs, improving ITSM team productivity, and enabling data-driven decision-making.
Virima’s Discovery tool also offers the ability to discover more devices and collect more information about those devices than the ServiceNow discovery tool. This allows for a more comprehensive view of the IT environment and better management of IT assets.
The integration between Virima and ServiceNow also offers better integration with ServiceNow ITSM and CMDB than the ServiceNow discovery tool. This ensures that all relevant data is captured and included in the CMDB, giving users a complete view of their IT environment.
Implementing and operating ServiceNow can be a costly endeavor, and maximizing the value from that investment is critical. Enhancing your CMDB data quality by automating discovery with Virima is the best way to give your ServiceNow implementation a boost in value.
Overall, Virima makes it easy to create and manage ServiceNow CIs, offering a comprehensive solution for managing IT assets and ensuring compliance with industry standards.
Schedule a demo to know more!
