CI de-duplication experience in CMDB Workspace

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of CI de-duplication experience in CMDB Workspace

    The CI de-duplication experience in CMDB Workspace enables ServiceNow customers to efficiently identify and remediate duplicate Configuration Items (CIs) within their CMDB. Through preconfigured de-duplication templates and a centralized dashboard, users can perform bulk remediation tasks consistently and monitor duplicate CI management activities. This capability helps maintain CMDB data quality by consolidating duplicates and streamlining remediation processes.

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    Key Features

    • De-duplication Templates: Templates contain predefined remediation settings for specific CMDB classes, including how to select the main CI, attribute consolidation methods, and handling of duplicates after remediation. Templates must be published to be used and can be scheduled to run automatically on recurring intervals.
    • Template Libraries: Organize related de-duplication templates into libraries for easier management and retrieval, grouped by categories meaningful to your organization.
    • De-duplication Dashboard: Central hub to view all templates, assign de-duplication tasks, run templates (individually or all at once), and access task lists. It also includes tabs to track running and completed template executions with status information.
    • Insights Pane: Provides counts and details about completed remediation tasks, errors requiring attention, and unassigned tasks that do not match any template conditions, helping prioritize and troubleshoot issues.
    • Manage Duplicate CIs Skill: An interactive guided workflow through Now Assist for CMDB that helps users review templates, assign tasks, and run remediation in a step-by-step manner.
    • Role-Based Access: Access to de-duplication features requires specific roles such as sncmdbadmin for management views and cmdbdedupadmin to perform de-duplication tasks.

    Practical Usage

    • Create and Organize Templates: Build de-duplication templates tailored to your CMDB classes and group them in libraries to ensure consistent remediation strategies.
    • Run Bulk Remediation: Use templates to remediate multiple de-duplication tasks in one operation, improving efficiency and consistency.
    • Single Task Remediation: Optionally remediate individual de-duplication tasks via templates or the legacy Duplicate CI Remediator.
    • Template Lifecycle Management: Publish templates to enable use, unpublish temporarily to pause remediation, schedule recurring runs, or retire templates no longer needed.
    • Monitor and Troubleshoot: Utilize the dashboard’s insights and task views to track remediation progress, identify errors, and adjust templates to handle new duplicate CI patterns.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Ensures consistent and scalable CI de-duplication processes across the CMDB.
    • Reduces manual effort and errors in duplicate CI remediation through automation and templates.
    • Improves CMDB data integrity and reliability by systematically resolving duplicate CIs.
    • Provides actionable insights and guided assistance to streamline ongoing de-duplication management.

    Create libraries of de-duplication templates in CMDB Workspace, to remediate de-duplication tasks in a consistent manner, and in bulk. De-duplication templates are preconfigured with all necessary settings for remediating duplicate CIs in de-duplication tasks, per class.

    Use the De-duplication dashboard in CMDB Workspace to see an overview and insights about duplicate CIs in your CMDB. The De-duplication dashboard lets you create de-duplication templates and organize these templates into libraries. You can also examine de-duplication tasks and then run a pre-configured template to remedy duplicate CIs in multiple de-duplication tasks in a single operation.

    More information:
    • To learn about general duplicate CI remediation concepts, restrictions, and special cases such as remediations that involve a large number of duplicate CIs, see Duplicate CIs remediation.
    • To remediate a single de-duplication task using the legacy Duplicate CI Remediator, see Remediate a de-duplication task (legacy).
    • To learn about Identification and Reconciliation (IRE) processes that detect duplicate CIs and other concepts related to duplication CI, see Detecting duplicate CIs.

    Access

    To access the de-duplication functionality in the CMDB Workspace, navigate to Workspaces > CMDB Workspace and select Management in the CMDB Workspace menu bar. Then select the following links in Management tools, in the Manage section:
    • De-duplication Dashboard
    • De-duplication Template Library
    Role requirement:
    • To access the Management view in CMDB Workspace to perform de-duplication tasks, sn_cmdb_admin
    • To perform de-duplication tasks, cmdb_dedup_admin or any role containing cmdb_dedup_admin (such as sn_cmdb_admin)

    De-duplication templates and libraries

    Use a de-duplication template to apply a consistent remediation to multiple, similar, de-duplication tasks, in a single action. A de-duplication template contains the settings that are required to remediate de-duplication tasks for a class. For example, how to choose the main CI, which method to use to consolidate attributes, and what to do with the duplicate CIs (aside from the main CI) after remediation. A de-duplication template also contains conditions that de-duplication tasks are matched on. When you run a de-duplication template, the remediation settings in the template are applied to all de-duplication tasks that match the template conditions.

    To be able to run a de-duplication template, the template must be in a published state (a template is initially in a draft state).When published, you can create a schedule for a de-duplication template so it will automatically run on a recurring time interval. When necessary, you can unpublish a published template so it is temporarily unavailable for use until you republish it.

    Organize your de-duplication templates into libraries to group templates by categories that are meaningful in your organization and to help locate a template. For example, you can create several de-duplication templates, all of which for the same CMDB class such as cmdb_ci_win_server. Then, add all those templates to the 'De-duplication templates for cmdb_ci_win_server' library for easy access.

    De-duplication dashboard

    The De-duplication dashboard in CMDB Workspace is a central location for remediating de-duplication tasks. Use the dashboard to:
    • See all de-duplication templates on a set of cards. Each card shows details about a template. On a template card, you can select Assign task to assign de-duplication tasks to the template, and run the template to remediate its associated de-duplication tasks. You can also create a recurring schedule for a template such as daily and monthly.
    • Select Run all to run all templates, each template remediating its assigned and matching de-duplication tasks.
    • Select View de-duplication tasks to access a list view of de-duplication tasks with details such as the de-duplication template assignment. In the list view, you can select Only show tasks that do NOT match any template conditions to show only those de-duplication tasks that are unassigned or unmatched to any template class.
    • Select View template libraries to create and manage de-duplication templates and libraries.
    • Select the Running tab to track templates that are currently running.
    • Select the Completed tab to check the status and details about the final state of a run, such as Completed, Cancelled, or Completed with errors.

    De-duplication insights pane

    The De-duplication insights pane on the right side of the De-duplication dashboard provides counts and insights related to the on-going de-duplication processes in your organization. This pane provides the following cards and links to help you resolve issues:
    • Total count of de-duplication tasks that were remediated in the past week.
    • De-duplication tasks that have completed with various types of errors and therefore need your attention. Provides the View de-duplication tasks that need your attention link to access a list view of the associated de-duplication tasks. You can examine error messages and drill down tasks for further troubleshooting details.
    • De-duplication tasks that don't match the conditions in any template and therefore can't be assigned for remediation by a template. Provides the View de-duplication tasks that don't match link to access a list view of the associated de-duplication tasks. You can drill down tasks for further details.

    Review the de-duplication templates and ensure that they're properly configured for remediating the on-going duplicate CIs that are being generated in the CMDB by newly added data.

    Manage duplicate CIs skill

    You can use the manage duplicate CIs skill that Now Assist for CMDB provides to get step-by-step guidance through the de-duplication process. The manage duplicate CIs skill guides you through reviewing de-duplication templates, assigning tasks to the templates, and then running the templates. The manage duplicate CIs skill presents you with relevant options for your next step, as you go, until you complete the remediation.

    For more information, see Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB).