CMDB relationships: Creating the right ones when CIs have the same name

[martinrymell]

I am using Discovery to populate the majority of hardware items in the CMDB, and am looking to use Service Mapping to create relationships to Business Services in the future.   Until then the team is creating relationships manually and by loading relationship data to cmdb_rel_ci.

The challenge we face when loading relationship data is when Discovery has created CIs with the same name but different classes (e.g., a server and a virtual instance).   Loading Parent / Type / Child to cmdb_rel_ci where Parent = Business Service and Child = asset CI sometimes relates the virtual instance instead of the intended server to the Business Service.   It looks as though the transform map creates the relationship for the first CI it finds where multiple CIs have identical names, although I haven't proved that conclusively.

I've considered the solution of exporting the server CIs I want to relate to Business Services and their sys_ids to create a data load and transform map to map the sys_ids to report_parent_sys_id and report_parent_child id.   The team is going to test that, however it feels like a reactive and inelegant solution to the challenge.

Does anyone have any experience of this and any other potential solutions to share please?   Thank you.

[James Hammond · Accepted solution]

Hello Martin,

How are you importing the relationships into your CMDB? If it is via an Import set/Transform Map method then you could add the CI Class (Windows Server for example) to your spreadsheet and use that as part of the Transform to ensure you are only updating the relevant CI by matching against both the CI Name and the CI Class?

[martinrymell]

Thanks for your swift reply, James.

If I understand correctly, are you suggesting that I include the class in the spreadsheet and coalesce on Name and Class in the transform?

[James Hammond]

Thats correct Martin, If you are using a standardised Excel Template on a regular basis then you could also adjust that to fix the values being entered on to the Spreadsheet for better data consistency.

[martinrymell]

I knew I'd over-complicated it!   Thanks for your help James, I appreciate it.