5 Steps that will help You to create Your CMDB

In line with ITIL Best Practices, the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is the central database of IT Service Management and thus the foundation for high quality customer service, IT service, stable systems and applications, as well as a controlled IT infrastructure. All IT processes depend on the Configuration Management Database and can only function seamlessly if the database provides current and accurate data. According to Gartner analysts building a CMDB is highly challenging – the analysts assume that 75% of all CMDB implementations will fail to achieve a comprehensive services view of all consolidated IT domains (0.8 probability) through 2009. To help customers to successfully build their CMDB iET Solutions developed a guideline which describes 5 steps that are recommended to follow.

5 Steps to consider when building a CMDB

A multitude of sources delivers data to the CMDB. This includes information which is redundant, meaning it is not necessary or it duplicates or contradicts other information sources. IT organizations need to define a process that determines the necessary data, how data storage and data updates are handled, and which sources are reliable. Furthermore, objectives must be defined and process responsibilities must be clearly assigned. There are five steps organizations can follow to help them create an effective CMDB:

Step 1: Define the Objectives

A formalised process, additional tools to implement Configuration Management, and a supporting CMDB should be introduced in order to deliver specific business benefits. Ideally there should be reliable information on the current status and performance of the IT organization. From this information, and knowledge of the organization, goals can be defined that are desirable, measurable and achievable. Questions to be addressed include:

1. Which current difficulties, bottlenecks, etc. are the trigger for this project?
2. Which benefits do you expect? Which services will be improved?
   
3. Who will use the CMDB? What kind of information will the system users search for? What expectations do they have?
4. What are your measurable criteria for success?

Step 2: Assign Responsibilities and Motivate Staff

Change is uncomfortable and results in additional work. Make sure all employees are brought on board from the start, and put together an interdisciplinary team. The team needs to participate in defining goals relevant to the CMDB project and dividing the project into phases to deliver demonstrable short-term success. Be clear about responsibilities. There must be a process owner for Configuration Management. By clearly assigning responsibility you can help guarantee the success of the project and ensure that the CMDB delivers powerful and accurate information. Someone should also be responsible for the various information sources for the CMDB, to ensure that interfaces are correctly implemented and maintained. Configuration Management has to go hand in hand with the establishment of Change Management and the designation of a Change Manager. As soon as the CIs are recorded, the maintenance process has to be in place. Otherwise, the accuracy of the CMDB cannot be guaranteed and the investment may be wasted. Employees in the following departments are ideal candidates for the project team:

• Administrator of the IT infrastructure (often described as asset management or inventory management)
• Application management
• Staff members from all processes, especially Incident, Problem and Change Management.

Step 3: “Bottom-up” or “Top-down”: Select the Right Approach

“Bottom-up” or “Top-down” – the best procedure strongly depends on the size of the organization, number of Configuration Items and overall objectives. With a “bottom-up” approach, one has to be careful not to lose sight of the goal. Usually many “local CMDBs” already exist in the form of MS Excel files, MS Access databases, etc. which need to be consolidated. The challenge here is to successfully consolidate the administration of these local CMDBs while meeting the dual objectives of providing sufficient detail for specialist users without the CMDB becoming too large and unwieldy to be an effective tool. Replacing local tactical information sources maintained by individuals can be politically sensitive since it can be construed as a reduction in their responsibilities. Furthermore, you will be swamped with data, which for the most part is not necessary. When combining information from software distribution solutions and user administration, several thousand relationships can occur in organizations with 1000 PC workstations and 30 applications, and they will all need to be maintained in the CMDB. The danger exists that you will establish a central database with a vast number of IT assets which will never fulfill the characteristics of a CMDB, such as accurate relationships or restriction to important Configuration Items. Therefore, the “top-down” approach is commonly recommended. Instead of recording every Configuration Item with all configurations, focus should be on the elements that have the greatest impact on the delivery of the IT services. Check your goals: What benefits are expected? Which services will be enhanced? In reality, a scan of the IT infrastructure will be performed with the help of a discovery solution. The amount of discovered information will be reviewed according to which Configuration Items are supporting enterprise-critical services and which ones will be recorded in the CMDB. It is not desirable to record every CI with every configuration attribute in minute detail. A frequent successful approach is to start with two or three of the most important services and then gradually expand the CMDB. Often the product catalog of an organization will be used as a guideline for building the CMDB.

Step 4: Defining Content

Within Configuration Management, the CIs, their relationships, and their relevant attributes are defined. The main question here is “Which information do we need to successfully deliver our IT services?”
What is a Configuration Item? According to ITIL a Configuration Item is part of the infrastructure that is required for the delivery of systems, applications and services. The depth of information is virtually unlimited. For instance, a laptop can be recorded as one CI, or each of its components can become a single CI (processor, RAM, network card, drive . . .). Decisions on the level of granularity, and the level of detail at each level of a CI must be made based upon what information the process participants need to deliver the services and comply with existing legal requirements.

Step 5: Fill the CMDB with Data

An organization is unlikely to enter all information manually in the CMDB. This is not manageable considering the complexity of today’s IT environments. Moreover, the data would not be complete and accurate at any one point in time. Inventory discovery solutions gather most of the Configuration Items by scanning the IT infrastructure and delivering the data to initially populate the CMDB and subsequently update the CMDB. The quality of the CMDB increases if the following is done:

• Determine the “leading systems”, from where data will be imported, e.g. user administration, employee personnel data from HR systems.
• Automate data import and synchronization.
• Define the maintenance process and use tools to implement it.
• Reduce the number of interfaces to easily support administration and maintenance.

The CMDB always represents the nominal inventory and also contains regulatory compliance information such as software licenses in use. Therefore, any changes to the CMDB must be made in a controlled fashion, and be authorised and verified by Change Management. As a result, the database of an inventory discovery solution never represents the CMDB, but only the actual inventory. Variances between nominal and actual inventory should be automatically marked, but a potentially necessary change in the CMDB must be performed manually and in a controlled way. An inventory discovery solution must never change the nominal inventory without verification.

CMDB: Part of the Bigger Picture

Although we have summarised the process of building a CMDB into 5 steps, the importance and complexity of developing a CMDB are significant and should not be underestimated. Increasingly stringent regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), and higher penalties associated with licensing infringements are additional factors that make it more critical than ever to maintain accurate and in-depth information on Configuration Items. SOX and others appear at first glance to focus on accounting and auditing, but data management in general and financial reporting in particular is almost completely reliant on the performance of the IT infrastructure, such as networks, software, servers, and desktops. The CMDB offers significant improvements to the processes of managing authorizations and providing an audit trail to track changes. Putting in the effort upfront to set up your CMDB effectively will be beneficial to your organization in the long term.
the future.

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