Leading practices on Windows Services (CMDB)

[Norma Delgado]

What is the leading practice to maintain CMDB healthy in relation to Windows services class. Windows services that have not been discovered in the last 60 days and have the below scenario:

1. The state is Stopped, install status Installed/Absent.
2. The state is Stopped, and related CI is retired.
3. The state is Stopped, and related CI is archived.
4. The state is Running, install status Installed/Absent.
5. The state is Running, and related CI is retired.
6. The state is Running, and related CI is archived.

Thank You

[Shubham_Jain]

@Norma Delgado 

1. Use Identification & Reconciliation rules (IRE) → Ensure discovery data updates the correct CI and avoids duplicates.
2. Define Data Retention Policy → Example: remove or archive Windows Services not seen in the last 60 days.
3. Align with CI Lifecycle → CIs should follow states (In Use → Retired → Archived → Deleted) with automated transitions.
4. Filter Noise → Many Windows Services (e.g., default OS services) add no value to ITSM/ITOM. Leading practice is to filter out non-business-relevant services during discovery.
5. Scheduled Cleanup Jobs → Automate cleanup of services tied to Retired/Archived servers.

[Pratiksha]

There are two ways of handling this:

First: After 60 days, a stale task is automatically created. Once the stale task is generated, a flow is triggered that retires the CI.

Second: Once a stale task is created, it can be assigned to a specific group to investigate why the CI has gone stale. The group can then manually update the CI's status based on their findings.

You can also define an archive policy based on your organization’s internal guidelines. For example, we implemented a policy for one of our clients where a CI is archived if it has been in a retired state for more than five years, and then permanently deleted after an additional year.

Regarding the "Installed" status, this typically comes from your discovery tool, which reflects the current state of the CI in your environment.

I hope this clarifies the process.

Regards,
Pratiksha (PS : This is applicable most of discoverable classes)