What is the purpose of cmdb_ci_group?

[srphayre]

I saw some chatter in previous posts but for whatever reason the responses are vague.   Can anyone tell me what the purpose of cmdb_ci_group is?   Is it used to allow CIs to be grouped?   Is there some sort of additional use for this?

Thanks,

Steve

[AKT_SN]

Hi,

Usually the sys_user_group is used to define the support related groups / groups used to define the access required for people to the system. there is OOB rule that lets us define the type of the group which SN uses to filter on the task assignment groups.

The CMDB groups are independent and specific to CDMB( if you used them that way in your instance) Also it makes it easy to define the relationships and everything ( again would depend on the implementation). This to me seems a kind of distinction made by SN.

I hope this helps. Its just my understanding.

Thanks,

Avneet

[andrew_venables]

Hi Steve,

cmdb_ci_group is a generic method for grouping CIs together, typically customers use them for things like patching groups or other use cases where they want to build a loose association between a collection of CIs.

Essentially they are an OOTB method for you to use however you wish. I don't believe there is any/much functionality that does anything with these groups.

Andy

[Paul Coste2]

There is a Community update that expands this group to contain a list of members, so that when you add the CI group to a change, it adds the members as Affected CIs.   Aside that it is just a logical grouping.   ServiceNow seems to have started down a similar path in Istanbul/Jakarta with CMDB Group.   Problem is that CMDB Group is not actually a CI Class, so it doesn't seem like it can be used in this manner.

[juliesutton]

Has anyone implemented this?   If so, can you give me details on how to get this running?   What I have is a group of machines related as "member of" a group.   I'd like to add the group to a change request and see all the members show up on the Affected CI list.   Seems like this has been solved, but I'm not skilled enough to do it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Julie