Life Cycle VS Operational status

[Alexandre]

Hello,

I am looking to use the CMDB data manager to manage Stale CIs in the CMDB. Instead of using the remediation rules and workflow which are difficult to maintain and improve. However, currently, we manage the life cycle of CIs by the attributes 'operational status' and 'status'. The CMDB data manager will only work with the "life cycle stage" and "life cycle status".

What is the good practice, what is the vision of Service Now about this topic ?

Should we stop using the 'operational status' and 'status' and go through the Life cycle?

Should we put a rule so that the 'operational status' and 'status' = the Life cycle?

=> What are the best practices for using “life cycle stage” and “life cycle status” (at the global level, not only at the cmdb data manager level) and what are the differences with operational status and status?

Thanks a lot for your help. 

Alex

[Maik Skoddow]

Hi

it is recommended using the automatic mapping of all status fields throughout the CMDB to the two new life cycle fields "Life cycle status" and "Life cycle stage".

See the documentation to start: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-servicenow-platform/page/product/configuration-management/co...

And also the following video might be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=TfRv1VTRsgM

Kind regards
Maik

[Maik Skoddow]

Hi Alexandre,

In case you think I was able to answer your question, I would be happy if you mark the appropriate response as "correct" so that the question will appear as resolved for other users who may have a similar question in the future.

If not, please tell me what you are still missing!

Many thanks & kind regards
Maik

[Alexandre]

Hi Maik, Tony,

Thanks for the answers. It was really helpful. I would just like a little additional clarification.

By imagining that the mapping between the legacy fields (e.g. operational status) and the Lifecycle Stage field is functional. And if we use the policies of the CMDB Data manager to manage the Stales for example.

I understand that the Lifecycle Stage fields will inherit from the legacy fields. But is this also the case in the other direction? How will the legacy fields behave when the CMDB Data manager changes the Lifecycle Stage field? If a CI is changed to Retired.

Will the operational status remain in the same state (operational for example)? We would then have two contradictory values. I think it's bi-directionnal but I wanted more information about that (limits, how it works, advice...) 

An other point. Can the operational status and status fields both be mapped to the life cycle?

Thanks for your help. 

Kind regards,

Alexandre. 

[Tony Branton]

The CSDM Lifecycle fields were introduced as a way of consolidating the various status fields into a single set with a longer-term view of adopting the new fields across ServiceNow applications.

CMDB Data Manager uses the Lifecycle Stage field to mark a CI for retirement (Lifecycle Stage = End of Life), which is a pre-requisite for archiving or deleting CIs.

As @Maik Skoddow recommended, you can install the CSDM Activation plugin and then activate the Life Cycle Mappings (see Migrate to CSDM life cycle standards).  The mappings are used to keep the Lifecycle Stage and Lifecycle Stage Status fields synced with legacy status fields.  This means that if a legacy field (e.g. operational status) used for a CI changes value, the Lifecycle fields will be automatically updated with the mapped values.

You can continue to use the legacy status fields until your organization is ready to adopt the new Lifecycle fields.