CMDB Health Dashboard

Syed zabiullah · ‎07-02-2025

CMDB Health Dashboard
A healthy Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is the cornerstone of effective IT service management. It acts as the single source of truth for IT assets, known as Configuration Items (CIs), and supports various ITIL processes such as incident management, change management, and problem management. However, maintaining CMDB health is often challenging due to the dynamic nature of IT environments. This article provides an in-depth exploration of CMDB health metrics—Completeness, Correctness, and Compliance—and offers a detailed guide to configuring these metrics for Windows Server CIs to ensure optimal CMDB performance.

Why CMDB Health Matters

An unhealthy CMDB can lead to a cascade of issues, including inaccurate reporting, failed audits, and inefficient IT operations. By monitoring CMDB health through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), organizations can ensure their CMDB remains reliable, accurate, and compliant with business and regulatory requirements. CMDB health is measured using three primary KPIs:

Completeness: Ensures all required and recommended data is present for each CI.
Correctness: Validates the accuracy and relevance of data, identifying stale, orphaned, or duplicate CIs.
Compliance: Ensures adherence to predefined standards and audit requirements.

CMDB Health KPIs

1. Completeness: No CI Left Behind

Completeness focuses on whether all necessary information is present in the CMDB. It is divided into two key metrics:

Required Fields: These are mandatory fields that must be populated for a CI to be considered complete. Missing mandatory fields indicate critical gaps in data.
Recommended Fields: These are optional but suggested fields that enhance the quality of data. Missing recommended fields do not render a CI incomplete but may reduce its overall usefulness.

2. Correctness: Ensuring Accurate Data

Correctness evaluates the accuracy and relevance of data in the CMDB. It includes:

Orphan CIs: These are CIs that lack relationships or purpose within the CMDB. Orphaned CIs often result from improper decommissioning or data entry errors.
Staleness: Stale CIs are those that have not been updated within a specified timeframe, indicating potential irrelevance or neglect.
Duplicates: Duplicate CIs are identified using specific rules and algorithms. They can lead to confusion and inefficiencies in IT operations.

3. Compliance: Adhering to Standards

Compliance ensures that CIs meet predefined standards and audit requirements. It includes:

Audit: Compares actual field values against expected values defined in audits.
Relationships: Evaluates CI relationships to ensure they comply with containment, hosting, and suggested relationship rules.

Use Case: Configuring CMDB Health Dashboard

To demonstrate the practical application of CMDB health metrics, we’ll focus on Windows Server CIs. The following guide outlines how to configure the CMDB Health Dashboard to monitor Completeness, Correctness, and Compliance (3Cs) for Windows Servers.

Step-by-Step Configuration Guide

1. Completeness

Completeness ensures that all required and recommended fields for Windows Server CIs are populated.

Required Fields:

Navigate to System Dictionary and update the dictionary entries for the Windows Server class.
Configure Name, Host Name, and Serial Number as mandatory fields.

Recommended Fields:

Open the CI Class Manager: Navigate to All > Configuration > CI Class Manager.
Select the Windows Server Class.
Go to Health > Completeness > Recommended Fields.
Mark fields like Location and Serial Number as recommended.

2. Correctness

Correctness ensures the accuracy and relevance of Windows Server CIs.

Orphan Rule:

Open the CI Class Manager: Navigate to All > Configuration > CI Class Manager.
Select the Windows Server Class.
Go to Health > Correctness > Orphan Rule.
Create a new Orphan Rule:
- If a Windows Server CI’s Operational Status is Non-Operational and it does not have any relationships with other classes, it should be flagged as an Orphan CI.

Staleness Rule:

Open the CI Class Manager: Navigate to All > Configuration > CI Class Manager.
Select the Windows Server Class.
Go to Health > Correctness > Staleness Rule.
Create a new Staleness Rule:
- Set Effective Duration to 60 days. If a CI hasn’t been updated in the last 60 days, it should be flagged as a Stale CI.

3. Compliance

Compliance ensures that Windows Server CIs adhere to predefined audit and relationship standards.

Audit:

Create a Certification Filter:
- Open the CI Class Manager: Navigate to All > Configuration > CI Class Manager.
- Select the Windows Server Class.
- Go to Health > Compliance > Certification Filter and define conditions to select CIs for audit operations.
Create a Certification Template:
- Go to Health > Compliance > Certification Template and define the required checks.
Create an Audit:
- Go to Health > Compliance > Audit and create audit records.

Observing Results in the CMDB Dashboard

Before fully updating the 3Cs, the CMDB Dashboard revealed several gaps:

Out of 60 Windows Server CIs, only 3% had the required and recommended attributes populated.
None of the Windows Servers met the correctness metrics. Several CIs had orphan relationships that did not comply with relationship rules defined for the cmdb_ci_win_server table. Duplicate records were also identified.
For compliance evaluation, only the cmdb_ci_win_server table was considered. While the Compliance KPI showed 100%, this result did not reflect the overall CMDB health due to the limited scope.

Final Results:

After addressing all required and recommended fields:

The Completeness KPI reached 100%, indicating all necessary data was populated.
All Windows Servers were updated within 60 days, maintained proper relationships, and were free from duplicates, resulting in the Correctness KPI also reaching 100%.
With all audits and relationships validated, the Compliance KPI remained at 100%, reflecting adherence to standards.