When populating the CMDB , we usually talk more about avoiding duplicates CIs, but you can also have an overloading CIs .
- What is overloading of CIs ?
Overloading of CIs is when several completely different CIs are defined as one same CI .
This is the complete opposite of duplicate CIs .
Because instead of creating many CIs in the CMDB , the system is creating only one CI .
- How the overloading of CIs is created ?
The overloading of CIs ( and also the duplicate CIs) are related to an identification issue .
Actually , the identification rules at the attributes level , if not defined properly , cannot be able to identify each CI .
Example :
Let’s take an example of an apache web server , and identify the following attributes for the CI identification
Instance Name |
Version |
Port |
If all apache web server CIs have the same Instance Name , Version and Port , in the CMDB , instead of having many CIs we will find only one Apache instance .
Because after the first creation, all following discoveries will update the first created CI .
- How to resolve this issue ?
If you look into your CI attributes , you can find an attribute with a unique value for each CI , such as Configuration file .
Example :
Adding the configuration file attribute as an identification rule
Instance Name |
Version |
Port |
Configuration File |
- Conclusion
IRE comes with OOTB identification rules that works for 90% of the customer’s use cases without any update (customization) .
If you are facing an overloading of CIs issue, work with the infrastructure team to understand the configuration applied , and adjust the identification rules .
