Assets to be included in CMDB.

[Loto-qc]

While assets such as mouse, keyboards, etc; i.e. consumables that are not included in the CMDB, 1) are monitors considered as consumables also?  2) Do you track consumables within the Asset Mgt DB?  3) For Personal Computers (Laptops, desktops, tablets, etc...) while they are included in the Asset Mgt DB, do you also treat them as a CI in the CMDB?  Thanks in advance for your responses!  🙂

[CMDB Whisperer · Accepted solution]

Whether or not they are part of a system, their configuration is still important and in the broadest sense they are still part of the serviceability of your overall infrastructure.  It's true that you probably won't be doing problems or changes on them, although your users may still report incidents related to the computers.  Put simply, they are still relevant for hardware and software support technical services, so they are still important CIs to track.  And as @Jimmers rightly points out, their configuration has impacts on your security, so they are very relevant.  Although I can see the argument you make, the bottom line is that for you to effectively manage your end-user computers you need to manage them from a configuration management perspective as well, not just asset management.  I do not see this as optional activity.  Even though a lot of people incorrectly think about "asset management" as somehow synonymous with end-point configuration management, they are not the same.  Your end-user computers are a critical component of your IT infrastructure, even if their scope of impact is mostly on an individual user level.

[CMDB Whisperer · Accepted solution]

Whether or not they are part of a system, their configuration is still important and in the broadest sense they are still part of the serviceability of your overall infrastructure.  It's true that you probably won't be doing problems or changes on them, although your users may still report incidents related to the computers.  Put simply, they are still relevant for hardware and software support technical services, so they are still important CIs to track.  And as @Jimmers rightly points out, their configuration has impacts on your security, so they are very relevant.  Although I can see the argument you make, the bottom line is that for you to effectively manage your end-user computers you need to manage them from a configuration management perspective as well, not just asset management.  I do not see this as optional activity.  Even though a lot of people incorrectly think about "asset management" as somehow synonymous with end-point configuration management, they are not the same.  Your end-user computers are a critical component of your IT infrastructure, even if their scope of impact is mostly on an individual user level.

[Loto-qc · Accepted solution]

Thanks again!  Much appreciated!  Will meditate on your response 🙂