CMDB Application services

[annetirez]

Our application services resides in the cmdb_ci_service_auto table, even if they have servers mapped to them.

How can I convert the application services to the cmdb_ci_service_discovery table? The only way I find is to create an entry point, but when I do that, it forces me to select a related CI and I don’t want to do that. The mapping is already there.

I have read many articles yet but none of these help me how to resolve this issue.

Can somebody help on with this issue?

Note: One of the reason I want them in the discovery table is that when you are in an incident or change, and you want to see the impacted services and impacted business applications, you can only get this info when the application service is in the discovery table (using the ‘refresh impacted services’).

[Mathew Hillyard]

Hi @annetirez 

I'd recommend you convert to dynamic (Calculated) app services. Mapped app services do not update when CI relationships change. Someone has to click the "Update with changes from CMDB" related link for it to sync, which is pretty pointless to me! Also bear in mind that although the default for the number of levels of CI Relationship hierarchy in the CMDB for mapped and calculated app services is set to 3, you can change this from anything between 1 and 8 levels in the Application Service Wizard for that app service.

Finally, visit the Manual CI Inclusions / Exclusions [svc_manual_ci_exclusions_inclusions] table (not visible in the navigator, you must enter "svc_manual_ci_exclusions_inclusions.list" into the app navigator search bar then hit Enter to load them) and create a record with a State of  Exclude to remove any CI classes you don't need for Incident, Problem and Change to reduce the "noise" and improve performance when calculating impacted services (because it keeps the Service Configuration Item Association [svc_ci_assoc] table volume as low as possible).

I hope this helps!

Mat

[ritajit]

Hi @EricDohr , 

Thanks for the step wise instruction. So, I have a mapped application service that I have converted to calculated application service through the UI action "convert to dynamic service." I have also set the system property of com.snc.incident.refresh_impacted.include_affected_cis to true so that it populates in the svc_ci_assoc table. 

However, I still don't see the dependencies with the business application and the infrastructure being populated here.

Here you can see that the Business applications has the related items linked to the calculated application service

Here you can see the Incident also does not have the impacted CIs populated even after running the UI action.

I see that the svc_ci_assoc table has these relations populated so why does it not show up on the form

system property set to true

[Mathew Hillyard]

Hi @ritajit 

There are separate system properties for service offerings and business applications in Incident and Change properties pages, plus you need to add the Impacted Business Applications related list to the incident and change forms as they are not there OOTB.

Impacted Services / CIs is a not a great name and really should be relabelled to Impacted Services - it does not contain non-service CIs and if your form and services are configured properly, should contain:

• Business or Technical Service entered into the Service field on the Incident or Change Request
• Any Impacted Application Services/Dynamic CI Groups that have a record in Service Configuration Item Association for any of the CIs in the Affected CIs related list.

Also note that the Service Offerings related list (it's not called "Impacted", even though all the rest are!) does not work properly OOTB and needs to be customised. This still hasn't been fixed and indeed @Barry Kant has created an Idea and a post about it. If you don't turn on the Service Offering system property then all you will see is the Service Offering entered into the Service Offering field on the Incident/Change form.

Impacted Business Applications will obviously only be populated if at least one of the Application Services in Impacted Services is connected to a Business Application with the CI Relationship Business App Consumes::consumed by App Service (this has changed in CSDM 5 to Uses::used by in the whitepaper but not yet in the platform).

Regarding impacted CIs not being brought it - this is not OOTB on either Incident or Change. Go to a PDI, link any Windows Server to an Application with Application Depends on::Used by CI Relationship, turn on the necessary properties, then create an incident and populated the CI with your Windows Server and save the Incident. You can even click Refresh Impacted Services if you like. The Application will not be brought in but if it has a parent App Service with the correct CI Relationship, that will appear in Impacted Services / CIs. I've typically had to create some custom logic on the Affected CIs table when a CI is inserted to bring in parent or grandparent CIs so that the impact is fully understood. However care is required as it can quickly result in a lot of impacted services.

I hope this helps!
Mat

[ritajit]

Hi Mat,

Thanks a lot for the response. As you can see from the screenshot below, the business application is connected to the application services by the Consuimes::Consumed by app service.

And yet I don't see any upstream or downstream relationships on the app service

Regarding the impacted CI's not being visible on the Incident/Change, can we not create the Incident with the application service as the CI to see the infrastructure components listed in the affected CI's or does it need to be the application? Because currently, I have selected the application service as the CI on the Incident.