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!

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @kchapman87 

Add you question 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/cmdb-forum/bd-p/configuration-management-db-forum

https://www.servicenow.com/community/common-service-data-model-forum/bd-p/common-service-data-model-...

[Appli]

Hi, great questions.

1) Example here might be: Finance application in PROD sends Email notifications through Email application in PROD, so Finance application requires an Email application to function. IMHO it will be Depends on:: Used by type of relationships.

2) IMHO Hosts:Runs. Like Finance application in PROD runs on the Windows Server X, However it is better I guess to still introduce Application layer in between to be close to best practices and guidelines of CSDM ...

[Mike88]

Hi @kchapman87 

Did you ever find a solution on this? I've come across your question as I have a similar query. We have, in essence, primary application service which a number of other application services are dependent on (gather data from) but Depends on:: Used by doesn't seem to be the appropriate relationship in my opinion as they child applications don't "use" the primary application per-se

[kchapman87]

Good morning, @Mike88 

Yes! My organization had worked with a third-party vendor over the past year to assist us in getting through most of the crawl phase of our CMDB and was able to assist me with most of this.

We have three different scenarios for Application Service to Application Service relationship mapping for our users to use:

• Parent :: Child – For example, eRecord (Platform) to its modules (children); Microsoft 365 Platform to its many applications (children).
• Exchanges Data With – For example, BD Alaris - Epic Interoperability is bidirectionally integrated with eRecord (Platform).
• Send Data to :: Receives Data from – For example, Blizzard receives data from eRecord (Platform) and Blizzard sends data to ServiceNow.

I also have step-by-step instructions I created for our end users if you would like that information as well.