Relationships between CSDM objects

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Relationships between CSDM objects

    This content explains how ServiceNow customers can configure and manage relationships between Configuration Management Database (CMDB) objects defined by the Common Service Data Model (CSDM). Key CSDM objects include business services, service offerings, business processes, and application services. Establishing these relationships enables better operational resilience and reporting by integrating CMDB data into ServiceNow’s Operational Resilience capabilities.

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    Key Features

    • Main Node Configurations: Relationships between CSDM objects are set up using Main node configurations. These configurations rely on the sngrcm2mprofileprofile table as the source for defining relationships.
    • Relationship Types: Multiple relationship types can be established, including:
      • Business services to service offerings, business processes, application services, and their dependencies.
      • Service offerings to business processes, application services, and dependencies.
      • Business processes to application services and their dependencies.
    • Operational Resilience Integration: Entities involved in these relationships must first be set up within Operational Resilience. This setup ensures that relationship data is successfully imported and used for resilience reporting.
    • Dependency Visibility: Dependencies are shown in Business Impact Analysis (BIA) through the Applies to field, illustrating how business processes and service offerings rely on underlying components.
    • Parent-Child Relationships: Parent fields define hierarchical relationships; for example, a service offering’s parent might be a business service. These relationships are synchronized through scheduled jobs.
    • CMDB Relationship Storage: All relationships are stored in the CMDB relationships table (cmdbrelci), which serves as the data source for building these relationships in Operational Resilience.
    • Reusable Relationships: Certain relationships, such as business process links, can be applied across multiple forms, improving consistency and reusability.

    Practical Benefits

    • Enables customers to map and visualize complex interdependencies among services, applications, and business processes.
    • Supports accurate impact analysis and resilience planning by reflecting real-world service relationships.
    • Ensures that data flows seamlessly from the CMDB into Operational Resilience for comprehensive reporting.
    • Provides a structured approach to maintain and update service relationships, enhancing service management accuracy.

    You can configure relationships between various CSDM objects such as business services, service offerings, business processes, and application services by using the Main node configurations. The [sn_grc_m2m_profile_profile table] serves as the source table for establishing these relationships.

    Establishing relationships between different objects

    To illustrate the relationships between different CSDM objects, consider the following example of a business service (BS1).

    The business service (BS1) includes the following objects as shown in the example.
    • Service offering (SO1)
    • Business process (BP2)
    • Application service (AS1)
    • Service offering (SO3)
    CSDM objects.
    The Service offering (SO1) is related to the Business process (BP1) and Service offering (SO2). BP1 has the following dependencies:
    • Acer
    • PS Apache01

    BP2 has a dependency on PS Apache02. AS1 has a dependency on AS2 and AS2 has a dependency on PS Apache03.

    Note:
    When you set up the Main node configurations, you must ensure that the entities are set up in Operational Resilience. Only when these entities exist, relationships can be established between the CSDM objects and then data is brought into Operational Resilience for reporting.

    The Applies to field in a business impact analysis (BIA) shows the object that has the dependency. The example shows that the business process (BP1) has Acer as a dependency.

    Applies to field.Dependency.

    The dependency is also brought from the Parent field into Operational Resilience for the service offerings and application services. For example, the parent for service offering (SO3) is business service (BS1). Therefore, when the scheduled job is executed, it fetches SO3 as a configured relationship for business service (BS1).

    SO.

    All the CMDB relationships, as shown in the example, are maintained in the CI relationships [cmdb_rel_ci] table.

    CI relationships [cmdb_rel_ci] table.

    To bring these relationships into Operational Resilience, you must use the Main node configurations. For more information, see Configure the Main node configurations.

    You can establish the following relationships between objects such as business services, service offerings, and business processes.

    Table 1. Establishing relationships
    Entity Relationships
    Business services
    • Service offering for a business service: BS -> SO1, SO2
    • Business process for a business service
    • Application service for a business service
    • Dependencies for a business service
    Service offerings
    • Business process for a service offering
    • Application service for a service offering
    • Dependencies for a service offering
    Business processes
    • Application service for a business process
    • Dependencies for a business process

    The same relationship can be applied and used on multiple forms. For example, the business process relationship can be used on both Business service and Service offering forms.

    For information on the Main node configurations, see Main node configurations: A component of the Data Relationships Framework.