Architecture Compliance

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Architecture Compliance

    Architecture Compliance is a feature in ServiceNow that facilitates scheduled or on-demand audits of Configuration Management Database (CMDB) data. It ensures that configuration items (CIs) align with the expected attributes set by your organization, particularly focusing on physical resources like CPU speed and memory.

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    Key Features

    • Audit Management: Conducts compliance audits to identify discrepancies in CI attributes.
    • Automated Task Assignment: Automatically assigns remediation tasks to qualified users for any discrepancies found.
    • Template Definitions: Administrators can create templates that define expected attributes for compliance checks.
    • Role Access: Users must have the certificationadmin role to access and configure compliance elements, with additional roles assigned as necessary for broader access.

    Architecture Compliance Process

    To certify configuration items, follow these steps:

    1. Create a Filter: Define a subset of CIs to certify. Filters can be created in multiple versions, and only filters on the Configuration Item table are supported.
    2. Create a Template: Specify conditions that represent expected physical attributes of each CI.
    3. Create and Run an Audit: Schedule or execute an audit based on the template, generating results that indicate compliance status.
    4. View Audit Results: Analyze discrepancies between expected and actual CI states.
    5. Correct Discrepancies: Address issues by completing the follow-on tasks assigned by the system.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing Architecture Compliance, organizations can ensure their CIs meet internal standards, streamline compliance processes, and effectively manage resource discrepancies, ultimately leading to improved operational integrity and accountability.

    Architecture Compliance manages scheduled or on-demand audits of CMDB data to determine which configuration items (CI) match expected attributes. The compliance audits check servers to ensure that their physical resources, such as CPU speed or memory, comply with certain standards.

    The compliance process checks servers to ensure that their resources, such as CPU speed or memory, comply with standards set by your organization. Audit reports show any discrepancies in the attributes of the target CIs, and ServiceNow automatically assigns follow-on tasks to qualified users who can remediate those discrepancies.

    The administrator responsible for compliance checking creates template definitions of expected attributes and then schedules an audit to check CIs for compliance. The audit results identify CIs that pass certification and itemize the discrepancies in those CIs that fail. ServiceNow automatically generates and assigns follow-on tasks to track the process of getting the CIs back into compliance. Users with the admin role activate Architecture Compliance.

    Architecture Compliance roles

    To access or configure certification elements, a user must have the certification_admin role. These users can create, update, and delete filters if they have the proper access to necessary tables.

    In the base system, certification_admin users have limited system rights and do not have access to all the necessary tables. When assigning compliance resources, make sure to grant additional roles to the certification_admin user as needed. For example, the certification administrator needs roles that grant access to these tables:
    • Company [core_company]
    • Cost Center [cmn_cost_center]
    • Schedule [cmn_schedule]

    Architecture Compliance Process

    Perform these tasks in this order to certify configuration items with Architecture Compliance.
    1. Create a filter.

      Create a filter that defines a subset of configuration items to certify. You can create multiple versions of a filter, and then activate the version you want to use for compliance checking. Architecture compliance only supports filters on the Configuration Item [cmdb_ci] table and all tables that extend it.

    2. Create a template.

      Create template conditions using values from reference fields in a related list or conditions that define the expected physical attributes of each CI in an audit. The template uses a filter to determine which configuration items the system examines based on these conditions.

    3. Create and run an audit.

      Create and schedule an audit or run an audit on demand. The audit generates a set of results based on the conditions in the template you specify.

    4. View audit results.

      View the audit results which display any discrepancies between the expected state, as expressed by the template conditions, and the actual state of the target configuration items.

    5. Correct discrepancies.

      Correct the discrepancies the audit found by completing the follow-on tasks created by the system.