Remediate a de-duplication task (manual)

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 9 minutes to read

    • Remediate a single de-duplication task by using the Duplicate CI Remediator wizard. Use the wizard to guide you through the duplicate CI reconciliation process or to apply a custom workflow.

    Before you begin

    • Review the following topics to familiarize yourself with important concepts of duplicate CI remediation:
      • Duplicate CIs remediation: To learn about general duplicate CI remediation concepts, restrictions, and special cases such as remediations that involve a large number of duplicate CIs.
      • Properties related to remediation of duplicate CIs: To learn about important properties that affect processes of duplicate CI remediation. Including the glide.duplicate_ci_remediator.dry_run property that determines if the Duplicate CI Remediator actually updates the CMDB or not.
    • To access the Now Assist for CMDB remediation option in the Duplicate CI Remediation wizard, the De-duplication task resolution assistant skill must be installed and enabled. For information about setting up Now Assist for CMDB 3.0, see Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB).

    Role required: sn_cmdb_editor or itil to read. sn_cmdb_admin, cmdb_dedup_admin, or itil_admin to write

    About this task

    Important notes:
    • Duplicate CI Remediator provides a remediation option that is based on the AI engine of the Now Assist for CMDB De-duplication task resolution assistant skill. This skill fills out the remediation options, based on the AI analysis of CMDB data. Use the Now Assist option to bypass all the tabs in the Duplicate CI Remediator where you typically manually enter those selections, and go directly to the final review to initiate the remediation.
    • Instead of using Duplicate CI Remediator (built on Core UI) to resolve a single de-duplication task, you can use the De-duplication Dashboard, and de-duplication templates and libraries, available in CMDB Workspace and in Service Graph Workspace. Using de-duplication capabilities in CMDB Workspace or in Service Graph Workspace is especially useful for bulk remediation of de-duplication tasks. These capabilities let you preconfigure a de-duplication template with remediation settings, which can then be applied in a consistent manner to multiple de-duplication tasks. For more information, see CI de-duplication experience in CMDB Workspace and in Service Graph Workspace.

    As you progress through the tabs of the Duplicate CI Remediator, CIs aren't updated. All updates are applied only in the final step, after you select Remediate.

    Note:
    Remediation behaves differently when remediation involves a large number of duplicate CIs or where the duplicates are serial numbers. For information about special cases in remediation, see Duplicate CIs remediation.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Configuration > Identification/Reconciliation > De-duplication Tasks.
    2. Open the de-duplication task that you want to remediate.
    3. On the task form, select Remediate.
    4. In the Remediate dialog box, select either of the following options:
      • Use the Duplicate CI Remediator: Use the wizard to consolidate duplicate CIs according to your configurations and settings. Follow the Duplicate CI Remediator tabs to configure the reconciliation.
        Note:
        This option isn't available with non-CMDB tables.
      • Use the Duplicate CI Remediator (Now Assist): Use the Now Assist for CMDB De-duplication task resolution assistant skill to skip directly to the final dashboard to review the selections made by the skill. Using this option, you can skip directly to the final step of this procedure.
      • Use a custom remediation workflow: Use an existing CMDB remediation rule or select Add New to create a new one.
        • On the CMDB Remediation Rule form, set Task type to Remediate Duplicate Task and select Active.
        • On the Workflow form, set Table to Remediate Duplicate Task [reconcile_duplicate_task] and If condition matches to None.
        • Verify that the associated workflow remediates duplicate CIs.
        In the Remediate dialog box, select Next to start the workflow and to exit the Duplicate CI Remediator. The Remediate Duplicate Task form appears, where you can update the State of the task.
      • Use the Duplicate CI Remediator (Restricted Mode): Appears only if the glide.duplicate_ci_remediator.enable_restricted_mode system property is set to true. It might be necessary to use this option if remediation is blocked because loading the de-duplication task times out. This option might be relevant when there's a large number of related items associated with a de-duplication task, letting remediation to continue with the limited features in a restricted mode. For more information about using this option to restrict the use of related items in de-duplication remediation and let remediation to proceed, see Using restricted mode within the Duplicate CI Remediator [KB1542272].
    5. On the Select Main CI tab in the Duplicate CI Remediator:
      1. Select the main CI for this reconciliation using either of the following lists of duplicate CIs. For any CI, you can select the Name link to display the CI's attributes, or select the Related Items link to display the number of related items.
        • Recommended: A subset of the All list, containing only system recommended main CIs. System recommendations are based on checking the duplicate CIs for the following criteria:
          • CI with most related items.
          • CI with most relationships.
          • Newest discovered CI.
          • Newest updated CI.
          • Oldest created CI.
          • Previous main CI, if one was previously selected.
        • All: All duplicate CIs for the de-duplication task.

        Either option lets you review a summary of the remediation settings before starting the remediation.

      2. Select one of the following options to choose whether to consolidate any attribute values, relationships, or related items from any of the duplicate CIs into the main CI:
        • Remediate Manually: Lets you specify which attribute values, relationships, and related items from duplicate CIs to consolidate into the main CI.
        • Use Main CI: Retains main CI attribute values, merges relationships, and merges only the default related items.

          Skip to step number 7 as this selection skips all configurations other than choosing the action for the duplicate CIs on the Determine Duplicate CI Actions page.

    6. Review inconsistent values of each attribute on the Merge Attribute Values tab. For each attribute, choose to retain the main CI's value, or choose a value from a duplicate CI for the main CI to be set with.
    7. Select Next.
      Column Description
      Attribute Attribute for which there are different values.
      Main CI Value Attribute value in the main CI.
      Other Values The number of unique Attribute values within the duplicate CIs.

      To override the main CI attribute value with a duplicate CI value:

      1. Select the Other Values link.
      2. In the attribute dialog box, select Unique Values to display only unique attribute values, or All to display all attribute values including identical values.
      3. Select a value for the main CI Attribute to be set with.
        You can select Reset to Original to undo the selection of a different attribute value for the main CI.
      4. Select Select.
      Note:
      Attributes, such as system fields, discovery fields (discovery_source, last_discovered, first_discovered), and read-only fields (such as the asset field) don't appear in the list.
    8. On the Merge Relationships and Related Items tab:
      1. In the Merge Relationships section, select whether to merge all relationships from all duplicate CIs into the main CI. Select View all relationships to display all the relationships in which a duplicate CI is a parent or a child. You can select a Parent or a Child link to display more details. Orphan and duplicate relationships of duplicate CIs are deleted if you choose to merge relationships. For more information about the CMDB Health relationship KPI, see CMDB Health KPIs and metrics.
      2. In the Merge Related Items section use the list collector to select related items to be merged into the main CI. Select View all related items to display all related tables (items) and the count of references in each table to one of the duplicate CIs. You can select the links in Main CI Related Items and Duplicate CIs Related Items to display details about the related items.

        Related items in the list collector have the following format:Details of related items in thee list collector.

        • All items in the default related items list are selected to be merged, by default.
        • Related items (tables) that have no references to a duplicate CI aren't listed, unless that table is included in the default related items list.
        • Asset related tables aren't available for merge since they're part of the exclusion list.

        See Manage default related items list for more information about configuring a default list of related items. For information about configuring the system to disable automated workflows (such as business rules and errors) which might be blocking remediation of related items, see Turn off workflows of related tables during remediation.

      3. Select Next .
    9. On the Determine Duplicate CI Actions tab, choose one of the following actions to perform after completing the reconciliation. Then select Next.
      • Set attributes to custom values (recommended): Retain all duplicate CIs. Mark the duplicate CIs as invalid by setting a specific Attribute to a specific Value for all duplicate CIs. For example, set Operational Status to Retired to retire the duplicate CIs.
        The duplicate_of attribute of the duplicate CIs is automatically set to the appropriate main CI. Also, the duplicate CIs won't be added to any de-duplication task after this task is remediated. If the identification engine isn't configured to skip duplication, verify that identification inclusion rules are configured to exclude the duplicate CIs during identification. This configuration helps prevent new de-duplication tasks with the same duplicate CIs from being created after remediation.
        Note:
        Discovery fields, system fields, read-only fields, and date fields are excluded from the attributes list.
      • Delete: Delete all duplicate CIs (only the main CI remains).
        Note:
        Review Roll back and delete recovery for information about reverting the deletion of CIs and related records.
    10. On the Review and Confirm tab:
      1. Review the summary of the expected updates for this duplicate CIs reconciliation. Updates are based on the selections and therefore the summary includes only the details that are applicable. This summary can include details of the relationships and related items that will be merged to the main CI, the attribute values that the main CI will be set with, and the number of CIs that will be deleted. Select Attributes, Relationships, Related Items, or Duplicate CI Actions if applicable, to display further details such as changes to attribute values.
        If you chose the Use the Duplicate CI Remediator (Now Assist) remediation option, carefully examine the summary generated by the Now Assist De-duplication task resolution assistant skill. Expand each item in the summary to review the reasoning for the recommendations. You can go back to any tab and change the skill's selections, aside from the selection of the main CI. However, changing a selection, ends the use of the Now Assist remediation option and switches to a manual use of the Duplicate CI Remediator.
      2. Select Remediate to complete the reconciliation according to your reconciliation settings.
        Once complete, the task State is set to Closed Complete.

    Result

    The following relationships are deleted without being merged to the main CI:
    • Relationships in which the type, child, or parent field is empty.
    • Relationships for which merging to the main CI will result in cyclic relationships.
    • Relationship for which merging to the main CI will result in duplicate relationships.

    What to do next

    The reconciliation process runs in the background and may take a while to complete. Upon completion, the system sends a confirmation notice to the remediator of the task. Meanwhile, you can:
    • Review Identification Rules: Review identification and inclusion rules and make any necessary updates to reduce CI duplication.
    • Check Progress: View the task activities that are logged as the remediation progresses.
    • View Main CI: View the main CI for this reconciliation process.