CI Relationship Types for Application Service, Server, Application, Business Applications

[kchapman87]

I am seeking guidance and best practices for relationship types to use when creating various relationships in the CMDB as well as definitions for relationship types.

As pictured below I have four different scenarios outlined as well as an image I found from ServiceNow regarding relationships. The last two I have no questions or issues with, however, the first two I am struggling.

1.) We need to map Application Services to other Application Services. Sometimes the relationship is bi-directional and others one-way. We have some that are dependencies and some that are integrated. After testing, we thought it would be a 'Receives data from :: Sends data to' relationship type, but from what I found from ServiceNow, they indicate 'Depends on:: Sends data to', which is not on our relationship type table. It would be two different relationship types utilized 'Depends on::Used by' AND/OR 'Receives data from::Sends data to'. I am unsure what the appropriate approach is.

2.) We currently do not use the 'application' layer in ServiceNow, and we are unsure if we ever will. With that being said, is it best practice and 'okay' to map servers to Application Service CIs? At a prior organization this is how we approached it and used the 'Depends on :: Used by' relationship type. I found ServiceNow information that may mean that is not the best route indicating that possibly 'Receives data from::Sends data to' or 'Runs on::Runs' should be used. What is the best practice?

3.) I found a ServiceNow document that listed the descriptions of 12 common relationship types (linked here), but that is the depth of it. We have a total of 48 relationship types and need to understand what each is for to ensure we utilize the correct types and provide accurate information to our customers. I have searched high and low for additional documentation, but I am coming up empty-handed. Is there any description documentation for ALL relationship types?

Thank you!

[jaylevan]

In general, I think the best approach is to use the most accurate relationship type in each case. So some app service to app service might be a dependency, while others might be "receives data from/sends data to". For bi-directional, we usually also create the relationship with the other CI being the parent so it shows both directions.

Mapping servers and other infrastructure CIs is appropriate for App Services. The OOB app service manual population method creates those relationships as Depends On/Used By.

Although it doesn't provide a definition of the relationship types, the Suggested Relationships in CI Class Manager does provide guidance per class.