CMDB INSIGHTS

Akash Bhardhwa1 · 3 hours ago

CMDB INSIGHTS

Insights view shows the level of adoption of various CMDB features and application services to improve the overall health of the CMDB.

To access the Insights view, navigate to Workspaces -> CMDB Workspace and then select Insights in the CMDB Workspace menu bar. The Insights view includes the following tiles:

CMDB feature adoption - Shows dial charts for the overall adoption levels of all three categories of CMDB tools and features:

Data ingestion -Tools and features that support and ensure ingestion of high-quality data into the CMDB. The overall adoption level for data ingestion maps to the following findings in the instance:

Low (red): Less than 80% of CIs are processed by Identification and Reconciliation Engine (IRE)
Moderate (amber): 80—90% of CIs are processed by IRE
High (green): Over 90% of CIs are processed by IRE

Data governance -Tools and features that let you manage the CMDB data after it has been ingested. The overall adoption level for data governance maps to the following findings in the instance:

Low (red): Less than 33% of features are used
Moderate (amber): 33—66% of features are used
High (green): Over 66% of features are used

Search and analytics - Tools and features that provide meaningful and helpful insights into the CMDB data. The overall adoption level for search & analytics maps to the following findings in the instance:

Low (red): Less than 33% of features are used
Moderate (amber): 33—66% of features are used
High (green): Over 66% of features are used

Data governance

CMDB Data Manager

CMDB Data Manager is a policy-driven framework for bulk management of CI life cycle operations such as deletion, archival, and attestation. The CMDB Data Manager is a comprehensive and integrated solution that scales to large CMDBs and copes with rapid changes in a cloud-based world.

Large CMDBs can over time accumulate large amounts of stale CIs that can impact overall performance. Custom mitigating solutions can be difficult to develop and to maintain, and are also prone to errors. The CMDB Data Manager is the tool where you can create, publish, and manage policies. Create policies to automate and govern CI life cycle operations to help maintain the CMDB in a healthy and efficient operational state.

Use the CMDB Data Manager to create policies that represent your organizational processes for managing the life cycle of CIs such as:

Retire all computers without owners that were created more than a year ago ('Retire' policy type).
Archive all Linux servers in the Seattle datacenter that haven't been updated for six months ('Archive' policy type).
Delete all containers that haven't been discovered in the past week ('Delete' policy type).

Policy types

You can create policies of the following types:

Delete

Use to remove a CI from its current table with no option to restore the CI into an active state.

Retire

Use to retire a CI while keeping the CI active in list views and in processes such as CMDB Health.

Attestation

Use to assign and process attestation tasks that verify the existence of actual IT infrastructure and applications that you own. As CIs are continuously ingested into the CMDB from various data sources, attesting CIs support the integrity of the CMDB. For more information about using the Attestation policy type, see CIs attestation.

Archive

Use to remove a CI from its current table and store the CI in a separate archive table for temporary retention. Archiving a CI excludes the CI from views and from features such as maps and the relations formatter. During the retention period, you can restore CIs into active state. At the end of the retention period, archived CIs are deleted from their archive table.

Delete CMDB Related Entry

Use to clean up any irrelevant or stale data from related tables to help keep CMDB data healthy and relevant as the state of referenced CIs change.

Related tables, such as the Serial Number [cmdb_serial_number] table, aren't part of the CMDB hierarchy but still qualify as CMDB data. Related tables don't inherent from the Configuration Item [cmdb_ci] table, but have at least one column that references a CMDB CI. Related tables are specified in the Related Entries [cmdb_related_entry] table.

Certification

Use to certify that specific attributes are of a specific value.

You can implement your Retire, Delete, and Archive policies so that they follow Common Service Data Model (CSDM) standards where for example, CIs are archived and deleted only when a CI is already in retired state. When you create these life cycle policies, the system applies processes to manage any dependent CIs that might be left behind. For more details about these processes and about verifying that the feature is enabled, see Dependent CIs management.

Life-cycle rules and retirement definitions

Life-cycle rules define the retirement state for classes in your organization and support the transition of CIs through life cycle stages when using the CMDB Data Manager. After retiring CIs, CMDB Data Manager configures the retired CIs according to the retirement definitions specified by life-cycle rules for the CIs class. Using a Retire, Archive, or Delete CMDB Data Manager policies requires that an active life-cycle rule exist for each targeted class in the policy. You can activate life-cycle rules in the base system to apply the default definitions, customize those rules, or add life-cycle rules for classes needed in your organization.

Data attestation

Verify the existence of actual IT infrastructure and applications that you own, systematically and in bulk. As CIs are continuously ingested into the CMDB from various data sources, ensure the integrity of the CMDB. Remove any stale CIs that are associated with IT infrastructure or applications that no longer exists.

Use the CMDB Data Manager in CMDB Workspace to create an Attestation policy, specifying CIs that need to be attested and the attestation frequency. Assign Attestation tasks to users that are familiar with or that manage the CIs, and who can attest or reject the IT infrastructure or applications that those CIs represent. Rejected CIs that are no longer needed can then be retired, archived, or deleted from the CMDB.

Users can go to the My Work view in CMDB Workspace to see their assigned attestation tasks, and then review and process the tasks.

Smart detection and auto-attestation

Smart detection streamlines and simplifies CI attestation. With smart detection you can auto-attest CIs that are automatically detected by discovery programs, based only on recent discovery results.

The following conditions must be met to enable smart detection:

Discovery is enabled in your organization or About Service Graph Connectors are implemented.
The system property sn_cmdb_ws.attestation.smart_detection.disabled is set to false (default value).

In addition, smart detection uses the following system properties as filters when creating a list of CIs that are candidates for auto-attestation. To be included as candidates for auto-attestation, CIs must be discovered:

Within the discovery time window specified by the sn_cmdb_ws.attestation.smart_detection.discovery_window system property (for example, within the last 30 days)
By any discovery source that isn't excluded by the sn_cmdb_ws.attestation.smart_detection.discovery_source.exclusion system property

Data synchronization

Data synchronization in ServiceNow involves reproducing records between the ServiceNow instance and external systems to maintain data uniformity. This process can be done dynamically in real-time or in batches. Organizations can choose between one-way or bidirectional synchronization based on their requirements.

Example In ServiceNow:

Set the Managed by group attribute for a specific class in the CI Class Manager. All CIs within the class will have their Managed by group field populated based on the value specified in the CI Class Manager. With this method, the Managed by group setting is applied only to the CIs that aren’t associated with a technology management offering. For CIs that are managed by a technology management offering, the Managed by group field is first synchronized with its dynamic CI group. The field is then synchronized with the CIs in the dynamic CI group, overwriting the entry from the CI Class Manager.

Procedure

Navigate to All > Configuration > CI Class Manager.
Select Hierarchy to expand the CI Classes list, select a class to display details for, and then select Basic Info.
Specify the value in the Managed by Group attribute and select Save.
To verify the change, select CI List.

The change should be applied to the Managed by Group attribute of all CIs of this class unless they are associated with a technical service offering. The change is applied only to the CIs in the class and not to the sub classes under a CI.