Life-cycle rules and retirement definitions

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Life-cycle Rules and Retirement Definitions

    Life-cycle rules are essential for defining the retirement processes for configuration items (CIs) within your organization. These rules facilitate the management of CIs through various life-cycle stages, aligning with CMDB Data Manager policies. Each class targeted in Retire, Archive, or Delete policies requires a specific life-cycle rule. The same rules apply across both the legacy Data Manager and the CMDB Workspace.

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    Key Features

    • Target CI Management: Life-cycle rules help set and filter target CIs in Retire policies based on their retirement definitions.
    • CI Processing: Archive and Delete policies only process CIs that are confirmed to be in a retired state that matches their respective retirement definitions.
    • Predefined Rules: The system includes predefined life-cycle rules for key classes like Hardware and Application, which can be customized or activated as needed.
    • Single Rule Association: Each CMDB class can only be linked to one life-cycle rule, ensuring clarity in retirement processes.
    • Derivation: Life-cycle rules are inherited down the CMDB hierarchy unless specifically overridden at the child class level.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing life-cycle rules, you ensure that CIs are effectively managed through retirement processes, enhancing organizational efficiency. Activation of these rules is crucial for the successful execution of Retire, Archive, and Delete policies, facilitating a streamlined approach to CI management. You can expect consistent application of retirement definitions across your CMDB, tailored to your organization's needs.

    Use a life-cycle rule to specify the retirement definition for a class, reflecting processes and protocols in your organization. These rules support the transition of CIs through life-cycle stages as implemented by CMDB Data Manager policies. A life-cycle rule is required for each targeted class in a Retire, Archive, or Delete CMDB Data Manager policy.

    Note:
    The same life-cycle rules and retirement definitions are used in both the Data Manager legacy built on Core UI (UI 16) and Data Manager in CMDB Workspace.

    Usage

    Life-cycle rules are used in life-cycle policies as follows:
    • Setting target CIs in Retire policies, according to their associated class retirement definitions.
    • Filtering out target CIs In Retire policies, that are determined to already be in a retired state according to their associated retirement definitions. Those CIs aren’t targeted even if they meet the policy filter.
    • Identifying CIs as being ready to be processed by an Archive or Delete policies. Archive and Delete policies can only process CIs that are in a retired state that matches their associated class retirement definitions. Therefore, target CIs in Archive and Delete policies, are checked against their associated class retirement definitions to verify that they are in a retired state before they can be archived or deleted.

    Predefined life-cycle rules

    The base system includes predefined life-cycle rules for key classes such as Hardware [cmdb_ci_hardware] and Application [cmdb_ci_appl], which are stored in the CMDB Retirement Custom Definitions [cmdb_retirement_custom_definitions] table. For example, the predefined rule for the Service [cmdb_ci_service] class defines that for a retired CI, the value of the attributes [operational status], [Phase], and [Status] is Retired.

    Predefined retirement definitions are inactive by default (other than the cmdb_ci retirement definition which is always active), and you must activate a retirement definition that corresponds to a targeted class in a Retire, Archive, or Delete CMDB Data Manager policy. By default, the cmdb_ci retirement definition is in effect throughout the entire CMDB hierarchy due to derivation.

    You can use the default definition of a predefined life-cycle rule, or customize a rule to reflect practices in your organization. You can also add life-cycle rules for additional classes. However, each CMDB class can be associated with only a single life-cycle rule.

    CMDB Data Manager requirement

    The Retire, Archive, and the Delete CMDB Data Manager policies require that for each of the classes that the policy applies to, there's a corresponding active life-cycle rule. After retiring a CI, CI's attributes are configured according to the life-cycle rule for the CI's class.

    Derivation across the CMDB hierarchy

    Life-cycle rules are derived throughout the CMDB hierarchy in the same way that other rules, such as identification rules, are derived. Child classes extended from a parent class with a life-cycle rule, derive that rule unless there’s a life-cycle rule defined at the child class level.

    When there are retirement definitions for classes in different levels in the class hierarchy, then the retirement definitions that apply are those that are most specific for a class. For example, if there are retirement definitions for the Computer and the Configuration Item class, then the Computer class definitions also apply to its descendant classes. All other classes that aren't descendants of the Computer class, use the Configuration Item retirement definitions.

    To create a life-cycle rule, see Manage retirement definitions in CMDB Workspace or Edit and activate a life-cycle rule (Core UI).