Use and relationships with Dynamic CI Groups for CSDM v3.0

[Rob50]

In CSDM v3.0 the "Dynamic CI Group" entity was introduced which allowed you to leverage queries to group CI's together. 

We have groups of servers in our monitoring solution representing services, and identified the Dynamic CI Group as a logical fit for this mapping in ServiceNow. I don't believe mapping these servers directly to an Application Service, as it would not provide much value and doesn't align with how the application service is intended to be used.

In the latest version of the CSDM Dynamic CI Groups DON'T have a direct relationship with Application or Technical Services.

Has anybody used the "Dynamic CI group in anger and if so, in what context have you used it? Additionally, is it wrong to directly relate a dynamic CI group to and application/technical service in the CMDB?

@scott.lemm I'd appreciate your thoughts on this use case?

Thanks in advance,

R

[Barry Kant]

Hi Rob,

the idea was based on the maintenance gap when CI's were discovered that you should fill/relate a CI to the Technical Offering so it is understood how it is supported. (as in principle everything needs to be supported).
With that quest as requirement the Dynamic CI Group introduced the model in version 3. Everything that is discovered or put in cmdb_ci tables that is matching a query in Dynamic CI Group records is part of that Group, and if the Dynamic CI Group is related to a Technical Offering it is the relation to support and OLA/UC. 

Best regards,

Barry

[CasperJT]

To add to Barry's point. The Dynamic CI Group is also included as part of a technical service offering in the model from the 3.0 white paper:

I have three planned use cases for the Dynamic CI Group

1. Regular support as Barry also mentioned (for example all windows server in data centre)
2. Maintenance groups (we patch our windows servers in groups, so when performing changes on these rather than raising 10 for the same activity we can raise 1)
3. Network representations (using our naming convention for network equipment we can query network gear and show all equipment part of a specific sites network)

No. 2 is probably not best practice, but it does suit the way we work and does.

Best regards,

Casper

[CasperJT]

Found this in the documentation:

Dynamic CI group

A Dynamic CI group is a dynamic grouping of CIs, based on the results ofCMDB Groups queries. For example, you can create a Dynamic CI group based on the location of all web servers in Detroit or all Oracle databases in Boston. s.

Note: Dynamic CI groups contain CIs. Dynamic CI groups can't contain other groups.

A Dynamic CI group is mapped to the [cmdb_ci_query_based_service] table and is classified as either an “Application Service” or “Technical Service,” as applicable.

You might want to use Dynamic CI groups in the following situations:

• As a query-based application service

  You don’t have Service Mapping enabled yet, but you have 12 servers and 3 database instances in MyAppServiceProd. You can delete your spreadsheets and use a Dynamic CI group as an application service.

• As a managed group of Infrastructure CIs

  The web servers in Detroit are managed by the DetroitRockCity Technical Service Offering. You don't need to manually create relationships from Technical Service Offerings to Infrastructure CIs. You can use a Dynamic CI group. A single relationship from your Technical Service Offering CI (DetroitRockCity) to your Dynamic CI Group (web servers in Detroit) gives you the visibility you need.

• As a way to manage patches for your CIs

  In Change Management, you can select the Dynamic CI group for the CIs you need to update and use a business rule to auto populate the Affected CI field.

[SebastianKunzke]

In the understanding of ServiceNow the dynamic CI group is an application service type. So based on the CSDM view you can handle it in the same way as another application service. 

I have the knowledge out of this the documentation of ServiceNow. https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/paris-servicenow-platform/page/product/configuration-management/c...