Starting CMDB project and want guidance

malikhlayhe
Giga Contributor

yesterday

Hello,

I am relatively new to being a ServiceNow professional, and I am now starting to get more responsibilities and tasks related to the CMDB.

 

What are some good advices and tips to someone who will be responsible for it while having some knowledge and little to no experience. 

 

Thank You.

0 Helpfuls
  • 80 Views
2 REPLIES 2

Abbas_5
Tera Sage

2 hours ago

Hello @malikhlayhe,

First, you can start with the CMDB fundamentals course in Now Learning:
https://learning.servicenow.com/lxp/en/pages/learning-course?id=learning_course&course_id=c03ca22847...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G5vExjjmy0

877d013192&child_id=c84ceaecc324a25414493b877d0131c0&spa=1

https://www.servicenow.com/community/cmdb-articles/configuration-management-database-cmdb-welcome-gu...

 

If it is helpful, please mark it as helpful and accept the correct solution; by referring to this solution in the future, it will be helpful to them.

 

Thanks & Regards,

Abbas Shaik

0 Helpfuls

Vishnu-K
Tera Guru

an hour ago

HI @malikhlayhe ,

 

I. The Golden Rules 

  • Don't boil the ocean: Do not try to populate every single class immediately. Start with what you need for Incident and Change management (e.g., Servers, Network Gear, Business Apps).

  • No CIs without ownership: Every class (and ideally every CI) needs a "Managed By" or "Support Group." If no one owns the data, it will rot within 6 months.

  • CSDM is your map: The Common Service Data Model (CSDM) is not just a suggestion; it is the standard. Align your data with CSDM (e.g., Application Service vs. Business Application) from Day 1 to avoid a painful rebuild later.

     

  • Configuration vs. Asset: Know the difference.

    • Asset: Financial data (Cost, procurement, depreciation).

    • CI (CMDB): Operational data (IP address, OS version, relationships, uptime).

II. Technical Essentials

  • Respect the IRE (Identification & Reconciliation Engine):

    • Never write directly to CMDB tables (via scripts or imports) without using the IRE.

    • The IRE prevents duplicates. If you bypass it, you will get duplicate records (e.g., one server named "Server01" and another "https://www.google.com/search?q=server01.company.com").

       

  • Use the CI Class Manager:

    • Do not just go to the list view to create fields. Use the CI Class Manager tool to view the hierarchy, add attributes, and set identification rules.

       

  • OOB (Out of Box) First:

    • Before creating a custom class (e.g., u_cmdb_ci_smart_toaster), check if ServiceNow already has a class for it. Extending the wrong class breaks built-in reporting.

III. Operational Habits

  • The Health Dashboard is your best friend:

    • Check the CMDB Health Dashboard weekly. Focus on these three metrics:

      1. Completeness: Are mandatory fields filled in?

      2. Correctness: Are there duplicates or "orphan" CIs?

      3. Staleness: Which CIs haven't been discovered/updated in 60+ days?

  • Automate, but Verify:

    • ServiceNow Discovery is powerful, but it can be "noisy." Don't turn on Discovery for a whole network subnet without testing a few IPs first to see what data comes back.

IV. Stakeholder Management

  • "What is the value?": When someone asks to add a new field to a CI (e.g., "Color of the Server Case"), ask: "What business process will break if we don't have this data?" If they can't answer, don't add the field.

  • Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose: If a user searches for a server and finds the IP address is wrong, they will stop using the CMDB. Prioritize data quality over data quantity.

Hope this helps you, Please do mark it as helpful . And accept the solution.
Regards,
Vishnu

0 Helpfuls