CMDB - Use Cases

© 2015 ServiceNow All Rights Reserved 1Confidential
Configuration Management
DataBase (CMDB)
Puru Amradkar

What is a CMDB?
A Configuration Management Database is a
powerful single system of record of
configuration items. When properly
maintained, it provides an essential
component for successful deployment of IT
Operations Management, IT Service
Management, Asset Management,
Compliance and Configuration Management.
CMDB

© 2015 ServiceNow All Rights Reserved 3Confidential 3
Why do you need a CMDB?

Use Cases for a CMDB
 Configuration Management
 Business Application Impact Analysis
 Asset Management/Financial Optimization
 Compliance

Enterprise Cloud
Cloud Management
Orchestration
Discovery
Event Management
Service
Mapping
HR
Facilities
Marketing
Legal
Finance
Change
Incident
Problem
Financial
Management
Risk
Audit
Vendor
SDLC
Demand
Resource Project
Security
Operations
Customer
Service
Field
Asset
Test
More
CMDB
Security
Application
Logic
Application
Development
Analytics
User
Experience
Vulnerability
Response
Secure
Integrations
Secure
Integrations

ServiceNow CMDB is Enterprise Services Repository
Accurate, Comprehensive, Real-time store for Infrastructure and Services
This foundation is essential for automation of any part of Infrastructure
and Services
Why ServiceNow CMDB?

Key Differentiators
ServiceNow
• Part of ServiceNow platform
• Real time , scalable enterprise
services repository
• Drives all aspect of service life
cycle
• Actionable data quality insights
Competitors
• Premium charged for CMDB
• Stage CMDB
• Integrated with multiple products
to drive service life cycle
• Basic data quality insights

Business Application Impact Analysis
 IT Service Management
 Data Center Migration
 Event Management

Lost in Translation Infrastructure Perspective
Servers
Applications
Storage
Virtualization
Cloud
Network
Uh, oh. The disk drive on this server just crashed.
What services are going to be impacted?
Business Perspective
Sales CRM System
Customer Support
Financial Reporting
HR Benefits Site
Uh, oh. The disk drive on this server
What services are going to be im
What is going on with our HR Benefits website?
It is soooo slow.
g on with our HR Benefits website?
It is soooo slow.
We are going to need to apply a patch to some of
our older Windows servers. Who are the service
owners I need to notify?
We are going to need to apply a patch
older Windows servers. Who are the s
need to notify?
We have a busy season coming up. How much can
my service handle and can I add more capacity?
© 2016 ServiceNow All Rights ReservedConfidential
#Know16
© 2016 ServiceNow All Rights Reserved

Services
Service-Oriented CMDB
Infrastructure Perspective
Servers
Applications
Storage
Virtualization
Cloud
Network
Business Perspective
Sales CRM System
Customer Support
Financial Reporting
HR Benefits Site
© 2016 ServiceNow All Rights ReservedConfidential
#Know16
© 2016 ServiceNow All Rights Reserved

What Are Service Models?
ITIL
A Service Model is a hierarchical model of the services, assets and the infrastructure
created by recording the relationships in the CMDB between configuration items.

Automatically Populating the CMDB from Multiple Sources
Service Mapping
Horizontal Discovery
Automated Top-Down Discovery
Infrastructure Discovery & Mapping
3rd Party CI Source
3rd Party CI Source
SN CMDB

Service Mapping
Populating the ServiceNow CMDB for Impact Analysis
Automated Top-down Discovery
CMDB
Credit Check Human Resources E-Banking
Automated CI
Identification/
Reconciliation

Business Applications
• It is an application that is understood and delivered to business customers to support a
related set of interactions or internal business activities. It supports one or more
business functions known internally to the business as well as to IT.
• The business layers are often underpinned by one or more IT services and supports
peer-2-peer relationships to model dependencies and drive improved impact analysis.
• Examples are Customer Management and Human Resources
What is a Business Application?

The Solution: Business Application Mapping
• Understand the architecture of the applications to map
– What is the application server, database, web server, messaging server on which it depends
– How are these components configured to communicate to one another
• Configuration files
• Database entries
• Web Service calls
• Access credentials at for the operating systems of these servers to discover these
components
Requirements to map a Business Application

Business Impact Analysis

Business Service Impact Analysis
IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Managing an Incident or Problem on technology
requires an understanding of the impacted
business service in order to determine an
accurate urgency for the incident.
Performing a Change on technology without
understanding the impact on business services
can result in a disruption of the service.
CMDB
Incident Management Problem Management Change & Release Mgmt.

Business Application
IT Service Management without a CMDB
Complex BUSINESS APPLICATIONS are made up of
components that are supported by several SERVERS
and NETWORK DEVICES
The SERVERS and NETWORK DEVICES on which
the BUSINESS APPLICATIONS run can be
anywhere in the Data Center
And might move to different SERVERS on a
regular basis
Business Application Data Center

IT Service Management without a CMDB
Without an accurate CONFIGURATION
MANAGEMENT DATABASE, any change to a
device in the Data Center could affect a critical
BUSINESS APPLICATION and the affect will not
be known until it is too late!
Data Center
✖
Change Management

IT Service Management with a CMDB
With an accurate CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT DATABASE, populating
Business Services and their relationship to the technical infrastructure, the affect
to the business will be known immediately.
Changes will not affect Business Continuity.
Data Center
✔ CMDB
App
Top-Down Business
Service Discovery
App
Change Management

The CMDB is populated
with infrastructure
components and Business
Applications
CMDB: Data Center Migration Workflow
Data Center
Move Strategy
Budgeting
Site Selection
Establish Schedule
Data Center
Discovery
Analysis & Planning Execution
Physical/Virtual Inventory
Application Mapping
Component Dependencies
Dependency Analysis
Establish Move Groups
Command Center Management
Real-Time Communication
Physical/Virtual Migration
CMDB

Configuration
Items
Infrastructure
Discovery
ServiceNow
Discovery
• CMDB is populated with
infrastructure and top-down
discovery
• Repeated discoveries track
changes in dynamic
environments
CMDB: Data Center Migration
Service Maps
Top-Down
Business
Discovery
Email
Credit Check E-Banking
ServiceWatch
Discovery
CMDB

Data Center Migration: Dependency Analysis
• Identify a server that will be
involved in a data center move
or reconciliation.
• Query CI and Immediately
View Dependencies
• Click on Map View to see
Dependencies

Data Center Migration: Dependency Analysis
Dependent
Database
Server
Dependent
Application
Server

Business Impact Analysis

NETWORK OPERATIONS
CENTER (NOC)
Infrastructure Monitoring without the CMDB
Events/
Metrics
• Typical NOC Centers only
Monitor Technology
THERE ARE INCIDENTS ON SERVERS?
HOW IS IT AFFECTING THE BUSINESS?
• There is no Business
Context from Events
• Proper Urgency or Business
Impact cannot be
Determined
Data Center
Urgency? Impact? Severity?

Data Center
Infrastructure Monitoring with the CMDB
• A Populated CMDB
with Mapped
Business Services
provides Business
Context to Events
• Network Operators
can now address
Incidents with the
Necessary Priority
Application Events
Server Events
Network Events
NETWORK OPERATIONS
CENTER (NOC)
Urgency?
Financial
App
Impact?
Operations
Severity?
HR App
CMDB
Service Maps
Automated Discovery

Asset Management/Financial Optimization

Asset Management/Financial Optimization
How do you know what software applications are installed in your organization?
How do you manage the Lifecycle of hardware and software from purchase request to
delivery?
Do you know which software applications are installed for which your company does
not have sufficient licenses?
Do you know where you are paying maintenance on software licenses that you are not
using?
Questions to ask a customer:

Populating the ServiceNow CMDB for Asset Management
Automated CI
Identification/
Reconciliation
CMDB
3rd Party Integration Home Grown
• Blazent
• BDNA
• SCCM

• CMDB is populated with
infrastructure discovery
• Software and hardware
assets are inventoried
and tracked against
contracts and software
licenses
Asset Management and the CMDB
Asset Reports
ServiceNow
Discovery
Software and
Hardware Assets
Configuration
Items
CMDB
Asset Artifacts
Procurements
Contracts
Software Licenses
Consumables
Configuration Items

Compliance

CMDB Compliance for Configuration Audits
• Show that the latest patches are installed on all Operating Systems, Databases, and
critical sub-systems
• Prove that there is a QA Server for each Server in Production
• Make sure there is no single point of failure for clustered databases and application
servers
Example Configuration Audits:

CMDB: Compliance and Audits
Auditing the Infrastructure
• Internal corporate procedures
and government regulations
require time-consuming
compliance and auditing of
applications and servers
• Performing such audits manually
can take weeks of effort or can
be done quickly automatically
with an accurately populated
CMDB

Populating the ServiceNow CMDB for Compliance Reports
Automated CI
Identification
Service Mapping
Automated Top-down Discovery
CMDB

Example Configuration Audits
• Show that we have the latest
patches installed on our
Operating Systems, Databases,
Operating Systems, and critical
sub-systems
• Prove that we have a QA Server
for each Server in Production
• Make sure there is no single
point of failure for our clustered
databases and application
servers
Compliance: Configuration Audits
CMDB
Configuration
Items
Configuration
Items
Infrastructure
Discovery
ServiceNow
Discovery
Audit Reports

Compliance
Actual versus Desired State

Compliance: Actual versus Desired State
A “Desired State” is set to CMDB data
Configuration Items as necessary in order to
ensure that resources adhere to standards such
as memory and disk space or patch levels.
C.I.
C.I. C.I.
C.I. Windows Host
Attribute OS Version
Desired State Windows 6.3.9600
Actual State Windows 6.1.7601
Attribute Memory
Desired State 8192 MB
Actual State 4096 MB
Attribute OS Service Pack
Desired State Service Pack 2
Actual State Service Pack 1
Attribute Disk Space (GB)
Desired State 85899345920
Actual State 42949672960

The Change process will set
the “Desired State”.
Discovery will populate the
“Actual State”.
C.I.
C.I. C.I.
C.I. Windows Host
Attribute Memory
ServiceNow
Platform
ServiceNow
Discovery
Infrastructure
Discovery
Configuration
Items
Change
Process

C.I.
C.I. C.I.
C.I. Windows Host
Attribute Memory
The desired state report
gets generated reporting
the CIs that fail to match
the actual versus desired
state.

CMDB driving Configuration Management/Cloud Automation
• Strategic software deployments for QA, Staging or Production require deploying
multiple software components and configuring dependencies
• Regular maintenance requires deployment of patches and updates to software
components
• In the event of a disaster, an emergency deployment of software is necessary to
continue normal business operations
Example Configuration Management Scenarios:

Data Center
CMDB
Configuration
Scenarios
Orchestration and
Cloud Automation

Cloud Infrastructure Management

CMDB in Cloud Infrastructure
• Hierarchical Configuration Items (CI)
- Datacenter CI, Rack CI, Server CI
- Instance CI, Application, Database CI
• Keeping CIs healthy
- Discovery to keep it fresh
- Actual vs Desired
- Audit framework
- Audit tests
• Data sync with other systems
CMDB
Cloud Automations
• Provisioning
• AHA
• Cloning
• Retire
• Rename instance
Data Center Operations
• Hardware additions
• Capacity management
• Inventory
• Usage, Growth
• More …
Systems Engineering
• Monitoring
• Patching
• Planned maintenance
• More..
Network Management
• Hardware additions
• Network operations
• VPN settings
• More …
Operations Center,
Support
• Live site support
• Disaster recovery
• Customer requests
• More..
Others

Thank you

CMDB - Use Cases

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