Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

CMDB Overview All Morgan the configuration management ensures architectures minus loneliness and vital expert and author football side in this lesson will start talking about the configuration management database someone is the configuration management database was CMD be the CMD be is a lot of construct like to make this point clear from the beginning the CMD Beatty is not in will then title prescribed is conceptual nature of the many tools that have CMD be type functionality and will allow you to put configuration data into a database however oftentimes the also information that are not in a particular database is widely things like process guide on walls or job descriptions and these things oftentimes are not managed within the central however there are considered for the CMD be working for an organisation that has CMD be typed all the O'Malley you probably think about the CMD be with the construct of reality however I'd like to make a point against the configuration management database is a conceptual concept is a place where we can keep configuration data and related relationships about the services organisation of always like to think about it is the surface layer is the very top the diagram IT skills and the to be anything might be pushing productivity services might be financial transaction services about be email the world the components that make up that so these might include things like Sobers databases middleware network components that also consider things like the support group supports the service the is always the associated with along with the people processes maybe even the inventors comprised all the components of the service in this is really the beginning of all talk about and think about showbiz architectures is what components the make-up of IT service allow us to deliver lectures to customer and create value for the CMD be is a lot of construct database the collapse that information makes available to the management of the IT services and in some cases the customers. Scuttlebutt fundamentals will the key components of the CMD be is not only does it contain configuration information on the former attributes of certain configuration and it also contains the relationships between them how the connect in those two things together what defines the service architecture so for instance when they have to services the architecting completely differently however provides similar business benefit thing about email for instance in some cases the familiar things like Gmail or Yahoo mail these are software service offerings the oftentimes fully extend users the providers that email servers the architectural kind we probably don't understand which are as long as we can use the service you want organisation emails likely internalise the premises is comprised of email servers exchange server sluggers nodes databases we're storage etc this is true different services that provide basically the same service to customer have very little architecture and people are interested in managing those services have to understand the difference in the architecture the customer does not to ensure the CMD B contains the attributes of all configuration islands that make up the service of all the relationships of how interrelated and we understand that we have a clear picture of the service architecture to take an example of what to think of the CMD be the old school can't: the you all remember when Kurokawa/summer Wiberg in the habit of doing research find particular board the court to doesn't system is a we organised the dadoes and can't catalogue to find particular information about particular block the book itself is akin to the configuration I have a specific location of the library a topic or etc etc and all those attributes only some of them are captured within the can't catalogue on it also shows you relative to the other box within the library that Bill Gates and that's the point the can't catalogue is basically a CMD be it contains configuration attributes around configuration items in this example of block as well as the relationships of the sets relative to the other box with and what would put down in the context of the service architecture mechanical like Windows server for instance owners server has many attributes serial number and after 19 an old support by and operating system processors once physically located etc etc etc we have to decide is professional what attributes are most important to track and manage another one of the key decisions that has to be made only "struck an architect a CMD be likewise we have to understand the relationships of those servers to the services that they support as will the other configuration items that are connected to remember Windows server is connected to another so you may depend on a database in the debate in May be attached to a different server is double whether or not piece of networking those relationships are important capture is what because quite frankly that is what makes the CMD be a special type of database contains nonroman the configuration attributes will also contains the relationships between itself and the other configuration items in those things together create this conceptual idea of a service architecture Configuration Items and Classes Now talking about the CMD be what type of just a moment about configuration item classes this is a common concept and configuration management is when organising categorising CRI based on how we think about oftentimes configuration and classes formed Karrimor things like server network database application business servers storage etc there was no one best way to set up a configuration item class structure nor is the one best way to decide what attributes among configuration items that we should capture we have to make good business decisions around what they is needed for a house you and then we can start organisers that they and classes manage integral look at CI data sources think of this layer of the available is the physical space where the CIA information actually resides the look on the website any many forms of configuration item data exists in a variety of formats this may include things like a fully integrated IT service management software suite may also be an Excel spreadsheet access database or even file Is where the physical CRI delay are actually exists in includes the definitive media library or DML the of the source of all agreed to configuration item configuration of all the service portfolio other structured data unstructured data want PowerPoint presentations are videos can also be external database links to vendor's larger all of this comprises the physical daily often times discovery tools notable blowout in Lord of the network and try identify configuration items and capture the attributes enlightened to database of time or go through look at are the configuration management system and determine if the configuration items actually have the attributes the actually physically exist when they don't we have come configuration draft and will title but more about that in just a couple of the information integration layer is will retain all this physical data sources and put them in this conceptual idea of the integrated CMD being as you can see the integrated CMD be is a component of the service knowledge management system aroundknowledgebase tomorrow in scope than just the CMD be as convinced other integrated information from external sources and possibly into however the CMD be the washdown of knowledge management will look at the knowledge management system of all you can see at the very bottom baseliner is the daily is whether data physically resides in will be collected for it is the source of this other integrated CMD being in the information integration layer we some knowledge management system and integrated CMD being remember that CMD be concept is conceptual the day the layer is in reality an information way is conceptual and this creates many challenges because of the Daily Mail one of the data may not be compatible may have to be squabbling transformation as to occur before has any meaningful place in the integrated CMD being this is a significant challenge to most organisations and the track to making at work is to start small business specific business needs and growing the CMD be over time if you have no integrated CMD be trigger anyone want tomorrow is very difficult to do that is lightswitch has to be a process that couldn't place to grow into CMD be maturity and we talked about classes maturity in the last was at the knowledge processing while this is wrong actually started benefit from the integrated CMD debate will internally to ruin analysis and reporting the CMD be data and asking interesting questions like how many incidents that occur against a certain CI class that is the best view of the from all management of elderly management capacity management so performance management committees of event data and modelling so that we can determine what the future looks like it in the business of capacity management is oftentimes your job to figure out when you run out of particular capacity either the CIO layer already's like and take appropriate steps and inappropriate funding so we don't Wanna and is also the whole idea of monitoring all of this concept, in the service transition publication as well as the service operations publication within the eye to find at the very top people exist with the presentation layer we present the data in some sort of meaningful way to the decisions can be made and that is the point at the end of the day this is all about making better decisions to having better data driven information available to us to the weekend do things the governance review and quality management and service review to have the pictures were customers your experience the CMD be is the cornerstone of the dataset allows us to ask the interesting questions of knowledge management system Challenges With the CMDB As we discussed the CMD be as the basis for decision making at the bottom layer of the physical CMD B is what data exists with the data together with the attributes and relationships of the configuration items with more complex and understanding around the data and call that information the information is then available at the knowledge Lerwick and processes with his querying reporting – morning and the trend announces to gain more insights and provide additional contracts understanding and knowledge of the very top we are human beings involved in this is Wanna make decisions which are present that data and social reformer the provides meaningful information from business decision-making as you can see on what the acronym the ITW is a concept within knowledge management is how removed from the lowest level of data and context and understanding to the highest love and wisdom we can make better business decisions in today's world the ability to make the best business decision with the information that we have oftentimes provides a basis for complained the manage I will argue the whether an organisation's success will not often times have liberalised on the ability of management to make better decisions than the compounders in the ITW framework to providing context and understanding around data information knowledge and wisdom is paramount to that process analogical CMD be in service architectures all the information layer bases under which those decisions are made organisation spend a great deal of time and energy and money to collect data and processing and information if they do that while they have a great basis for decision-making with the very car the wisdom always comes from people is that has of experiences they have now passed along with the ability to integrate information to make decisions about the compound the CMD B is the cornerstone of that process as you can imagine building an integrated CMD B is not without its challenges which are global about the data challenges at the physical data why are we now have complete data is accurate and precise all the time of times data comes in multiple formats from Excel spreadsheets to invoices that we keep the alternate in cultural these disparate data sources and the variety of formats which are very challenging sometimes to integrate the information into an integrated CMD be capture the attributes and relationships to each other the way so we can overcome this to discover when reconciliation a great number of tools exist to go out and interrogates the physical data centre way of the of the configuration items to demolish capture the data however there are also other challenges the don't have anything to do with the itself what of ownership is one of the biggest ones I have acquired the turnaround discovery tool to capture all the configuration and it was datacentre however they what ownership of that the in the CMD be filled up with millions of records the no one maintain in the one years and it really hard the challenge of performance and understanding of what was going on without all this data will really wasn't transformed and information because the was no strategy behind it in order to understand what decisions will be made using the another pitfall that commonly occurs particularly when the CMD B is disconnected from business decisions likewise integrating the CMD B australis asset configuration management process to change management is a critical success factor without that you one of configuration draft with a standard going your money time and energy in order to collect configuration data was facing things change over time and organisation is not unusual for many thousands of changes to be applied to the infrastructure every month if we don't have all way to integrate that change process to keep the configuration data up-to-date when the configuration draft and eventually over time people stopped trusting the data and the value of the we hope to gain is largely lost last not least collecting data without process to maintain are is asking for trouble developing the same place the run-up without immigration change management no one owns the data of no prices on what to manager ordered and reconciled the configuration draft you will have data that is virtually meaningless because no one trusts to in order to avoid this is important to start small, clear understanding of what the business benefits for the data were collecting how likely to be you will be scrubbing transformed into meaningful information on what decisions are made using to stay committed to review some of the things we once last is relates to the CMD B and service architectures what the key point is that the integrated CMD B is the sort of record for configuration data is one data exists in the information and also contains both the attributes as well as the relationships of the sea ice one another anathema defines that idea of the service architectures the CIA and the relationships together allows to interrogate themselves architectures – interesting questions and make better decisions the CMD B is the heart of the knowledge management system and is consumed by every other item prices of these were four points will be none this last thing through listening and focusing your future was

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