IBM Software Group © 2009 IBM Corporation Initializing Your CMDB with CCMDB April 30, 2009 CCMDB 7.1.1.x

IBM Software Group

© 2009 IBM Corporation

Initializing Your CMDB with CCMDB

April 30, 2009

CCMDB 7.1.1.x

2

IBM Software Group | Tivoli Software


A CMDB provides CIs to YOUR business processes.

Discovery

Create a RFC to add RAM to my email server CI. (Change)

Audit all of my Unix server CIs to find unauthorized changes. (Config)

Use Impact Analysis to determine which Business Application CIs will be impacted by a change to my email server. (Change)

How many Incidents were caused by unauthorized Changes to my CIs? (Service Desk)

Specify the CIs needed for a particular service, available in your Service Catalog.(Service Catalog)

CMDB

Authorized CIs

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Build a Trusted CMDB

Business processes are most successful and efficient when they are running on top of a trusted CMDB!

A trusted CMDB includes: Accurate CI data Concise CI data CIs that are critical to your business.

Build trust through: Discover the real data Don’t include unimportant and irrelevant data Avoid duplicate data, unreadable, and inaccurate data. Secure the data Verify the data

4



Building Trust using CCMDB

A trusted CMDB is a CMDB that has trusted CIs.

It is critical to configure your CMDB to only allow the CIs you need, by creating an Authorized CI Data Model that is based on your business requirements.

It is critical to populate your CMDB with the CIs you need, by using discovery and import tools.

Then maintain the trust with Auditing, Change Control, and other tools in CCMDB.

add trust maintain trust

CCMDB

Change Control

Audit

5



CMDB in CCMDB

Once you have installed a CMDB, you need to initialize it by:– Creating an Authorized CI Space

– Populated that Authorized CI Space with Authorized CIs

An Authorized CI Space is the space where your Authorized CIs exist in, in your CMDB. It can also be defined as:

– The implementation of an Authorized CI Data Model in CCMDB.

– The metadata for your Authorized CIs.

– The CI Classifications (types), attributes and valid relationships that your CIs will use in CCMDB.

It is critical to design, create and populate your Authorized CI Space to ensure you have the Authorized CIs needed for your business processes to run successfully and efficiently.

It is critical to design your Authorized CI Space to build trust in your CMDB.

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Which processes rely on Trusted CIs?

All of them!

Which scenarios rely on concise CIs? Impact Analysis for Changes, Incidents, Problems, …

Impact is determined based on a CIs relationships. If there are relationships that are not important, then time will be wasted.

Audit CIsCIs are audited by comparing CI attributes and relationships. If there are attributes or

relationships that are not important, time will be wasted on these trivial variances.

Reporting …

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From Discovered CIs to Authorized CIs

There are a few ways to populate your CMDB with Authorized CIs:

They can be created manually in CCMDB, using the GUI. This is usually the exception case.

They can be imported directly into CCMDB using Integration Framework, if you already have a single source repository that contains Authorized configurations and you do not need to Audit those Authorized CIs. When this method is used (which isn’t often), it is usually used for a subset of CIs of a particular type (ex: Business Application).

They can be created from Discovered CIs. This is the most common and is what this presentation will focus on.

The diagram in the next slide shows how to go from a Discovered CI to an Authorized CI using CCMDB.

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CI Stages in CCMDB

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs: CIs that were discovered in an IT environment and exist in TADDM.

Actual CIs: Subset of Discovered CIs, that exist in CCMDB. They are imported from Discovered CIs in TADDM into CCMDB, as read-only.

Authorized CIs: Subset of Actual CIs, that exist in CCMDB. They are subject to control and modification by ISM processes.

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load

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CI Stages and Their Models

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load

TADDM MetadataActual CI

Space Authorized CI Space

Uses CDM

Uses CDMUses Authorized CI Data Model

10



Create and Populate Your CMDB

There are 4 deployment phases to initialize your CMDB.

1. Design your Authorized CI Data Model

2. Create your CI Spaces in CCMDB. This includes:

a. Create Actual CI Space

b. Create Authorized CI Space

3. Initialize your CMDB with CIs. This includes:

a. Discover CIs with TADDM

b. Import Actual CIs from Discovered CIs in TADDM

c. Refine Authorized CI Space

d. Promote Actual CIs to Authorized CIs

4. Validate your Authorized CI Space

IBM Software Group


1. Designing an Authorized Data Model

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Authorized CI Data Model

An Authorized CI data model describes how CIs are represented and accessed. This includes defining what types of CIs there are, what attributes there are and what relationships exist between the CIs.

The Authorized CI data model, for your CMDB, should designed using your business processes and their requirements.

Examples of questions to ask, to help in the data design phase:– Which CIs will Changes occur on?

– Which relationships are critical for Impact Analysis?

– Which attributes do you want to audit for unauthorized changes?

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load

TADDM MetadataActual

CI Space Authorized CI Space

13



Building Trust using an Authorized CI Data Model

Creating a concise Authorized CI Data Model will build trust in your CMDB by preventing:

Unimportant data

Irrelevant data

Wrong data

Unreadable data

Data that cannot be searched

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Building Trust using an Authorized CI Data Model

An Authorized CI Data Model will provide:

Organization

Rule EnforcementEx: An Operating System can’t be installed on more than one ComputerSystem

Encourage automationEx: Allow action in a process to use ip address, due to all Computer Systems having the

same attribute name for ip address.

Limit data Ex: Don’t create Authorized CIs that are of type “DB2Container”

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Common Data Model

The Common Data Model (CDM) is a logical representation of common CMDB entities, relationships and their semantics.

– It is a best practices complete data model, that includes all possible CI Types, attributes, and relationships in a typical IT environment.

– All discovered CIs use the CDM. TADDM provides an implementation of the CDM, using Java objects.

– All Actual CIs use the CDM. CCMDB imports the CDM, from TADDM, using the ITIC TADDM CI Type adapter.

The Common Data Model can be viewed using the CDM Website, that is set of files that comes with the TADDM cd image and can be viewed using any web browser. It located here, after you have installed TADDM:<TADDM_root_dir>/dist/sdk/doc/model/CDMWebsite.zip

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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CDM to Authorized CI Data Model

The Authorized CI Data Model should be a created using the CDM as the superset.

This means that every CI Type in your Authorized CI Data Model should also be a CI Type in the Common Data Model, it just shouldn’t contain all the CI Types in the Common Data Model (just the ones you need in your processes). The same applies for attributes and relationships. It should be a subset for these reasons:

– Benefit from the experience and expertise that created the CDM

– Allow initial Authorized CIs to be created from Discovered CIs (requiring the ability to map the Authorized CI Data Model to the CDM)

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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WebSphere defined in the CDM

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WebSphere defined in Authorized CI Data Model

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Authorized CI Data Model Best Practices

Use Best Practices Authorized CI Data Models, via CCMDB, to save time and to create a more accurate and complete CI Data Model.

Principles used in building Best Practice Models Start with the CDM, to get superset of CI Types, attributes and relationship

rules Restrict what becomes an Authorized CI:

– Don’t include CI Types, attributes, nor relationship rules that common sensors or DLAs don’t populate.

– Include common CI Types

– Include CI Types that are critical to common Business Applications and Processes.

– Don’t duplicate or clutter (Ex: 2 relationship rules between 2 CIs) Name CI Types that are easy to read. Use a hierarchy that helps to organize the CIs.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



IBM Software Group


2. Create your CI Spaces in CCMDB.a. Create Actual CI Spaceb. Create Authorized CI Space

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a. Create Actual CI Space

An Actual CI Space is the space that your Actual CIs will exist in.

This is created by running an ITIC adapter that imports the TADDM metadata, that is used for Discovered CIs, into CCMDB. Therefore just as the TADDM metadata is based on the CDM, so is your Actual CI Space.

Your Actual CI Space has to be created before you create your Authorized CI Space.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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ITIC TADDM CI Adapters

IBM Tivoli Integration Composer (ITIC) is the tool CCMDB uses to import Discovered CIs (from the TADDM database) into the CCMDB database, as Actual CIs.

ITIC is a generic data tool. CCMDB includes 2 ITIC adapters: CI Type Adapter and Actual CI Adapter.

The CI Type adapter is used to import the CDM (one time)

CCMDB Database Server

TADDM Database Server

TADDM Server

ITIC

TADDM CI Type adapter

TADDM Actual CI adapter

Actual CIsDiscovered CIs

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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CI Type Adapter

This imports the Common Data Model (CDM) into CCMDB. During import, the following happens:

Classifications are created for all the CI Types in TADDM.

Corresponding CI Types (accessible via the CI Type application) are created for each classification.

Relationship rules are created, that define what relationships can be created between Actual CIs.

The data is retrieved from TADDM using TADDM metadata APIs. Therefore the ITIC TADDM adapters will pick up any model changes in TADDM. ITIC does not hardcode CI Types, attributes or relationships that it is looking for. It is all dynamically retrieved using the metadata APIs.

This adapter only needs to be run once initially. The only times it would be run again is if you extend your TADDM model and need those metadata changes to be imported or if there is an update to ITIC that requires it.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



IBM Software Group


2. Create your CI Spaces in CCMDB.a. Create Actual CI Spaceb. Create Authorized CI Space

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Authorized CI Space

An Authorized CI Space is the implemented Authorized CI Data Model in CCMDB.

It includes: Authorized CI Classifications and attributes defined on them.

Relationship Rules for those Authorized CI Classifications

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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CI Space Editor

Use the CI Space Editor, part of Deployer’s Workbench to create an Authorized CI Space.

Deployer’s Workbench is an Eclipse Plugin that is fully supported and available on OPAL (will be shipped with the CCMDB in the next release).

http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/opal/?NavCode=1TW10CC25

CI Space Editor features:– Easily create an entire Authorized CI Space at once.

– View the full CI Space in one screen

– Copy Actual CI classifications using drag and drop.

– Share Authorized CI space, including Best Practice CI Spaces.

– Edit CI Space offline until it is complete, then update your CCMDB server in one step.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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CI Classification

Attributes

Entire CI Space

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CI Space Editor Tips

There is a User’s Guide included in the Deployer’s Workbench. Ensure you read this to learn how to use the CI Space Editor.

You should import your Actual CI Space (classifications and relationship rules) before you start updating your Authorized CI Space.

You can drag and drop from your Actual CI Space, to create new Authorized CI classifications and Authorized CI relationship rules.

Always update your Authorized CI Space using CI Space Editor, once you’ve started this way.

There is a sample Authorized CI Space included with Deployer’s Workbench.

We are working on creating more samples, based on best practices. We are also working on providing a way for customers to share CI Spaces.

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Authorized CI Space: Recommendations

Common CI Types that customers are using in their business process. Computer Systems (AIX, Windows, Virtual, ZSeries, …)

Operating Systems (Linux, VmwareESX, FileSystem, ….)

Application Servers (J2EE, Web, Database)

Network (Router, LoadBalancer, IpInterface, …)

Software Modules (WebModules, EJBModules, DatabaseModules,…)

Only Important attributes for each of those CI Types. Memory Size

Product Version

FQDN

Critical relationships between these CI Types. ApplicationServer RunsOn ComputerSystem

SoftwareModule DeployedTo AppServer

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Computer System Clip

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WebSphere Clip

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Business Application Clip

IBM Software Group


3. Initialize your CMDB with CIs. This includes:a. Discover CIs with TADDMb. Import Actual CIs from Discovered CIs in TADDMc. Refine Authorized CI Spaced. Promote Actual CIs to Authorized CIs

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CI Discovery in TADDM

TADDM is the single source for discovered CIs in CCMDB 7.1

Discover CIs in real time using agent-less Sensors.

Load data from other source repositories using Discovery Library Adapters and TADDM’s bulk load feature.

TADDM provides: – Naming & reconciliation

– Attribute prioritization

– Discovered CI change history

– Topology Views

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Discovered CIs in TADDM

The Topology Viewer shows a graphical representation of your Discovered CIs and their relationships.

Business Application

Infrastructure ApplicationComputer System

Switch

IBM Software Group



37



Importing CIs using ITIC

Actual CI adapter imports Actual CIs, using the CDM.

This gets runs on a regular basis to keep your Actual CIs accurately representing your discovered CIs.

CCMDB Database Server

TADDM Database Server

TADDM Server

ITIC

TADDM CI Type adapter

TADDM Actual CI adapter

Actual CIsDiscovered CIs

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Actual CI Adapter

This imports the instances of discovered CIs from TADDM into CCMDB, as instances of Actual CIs. During import, the following happens:

All Actual CIs are brought over as read only. Actual CIs have to be promoted to Authorized CIs, to allow them to modified.

All Actual CIs get assigned an Actual CI Classification.

All relationship instances get created as explicit relations.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Filtering the Actual CI AdapterYou don’t want to import all the discovered CIs in TADDM. You only want to import the

CIs that you want to use in your CCMDB processes. There are 2 settings that control the amount of data that gets imported:

Activating CI Types: – You have to specify which CI Types the import should start on. It will find all Discovered CIs of these types,

and then determine which CIs are related to them and import them also, based on the depth setting.

Depth setting – If you set it to 1, it will just bring over the CIs of the CI Types you activated. Set it to 2, to get:

– The CIs it is directly related to those CIs.– All the attributes on the related CIs.– All the relationships between the original CIs and the related CIs.

– The same pattern is followed for a depth 3, 4 and so on.

– Only activate the CI Types you need and set the depth to the least number possible to get all your CIs, to get the best performance possible (the bigger the tree, the longer it will take).

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Depth Example

WebSphereServer

WebSphereWebModule

WebSphereServlet

Computer

System

WebSphereEJBModule

DB2Instance

DB2Databas

e

Active CI Type,Depth=1

Depth=2

Depth=3

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Depth: Another Example

WebSphereServer

WebSphereWebModule

WebSphereServlet

Computer

System

WebSphereEJBModule

DB2Instance

DB2Databas

e

Active CI Type, Depth=1

Depth=2

Depth=3

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Depth with Inheritance

WebSphere

Server

WebSphere

WebModule

AppServer

J2EEServer

DeployedTo

Depth=2

If you activate AppServer, it is equivalent to activating AppServer plus all subclasses of AppServer. Therefore in this case, activate AppServer or J2EEServer or (WebLogicServer and WebSphereServer) to import all the CIs shown.

WebLogicEJBModul

e

DeployedTo

Depth=2

WebLogicServer

Depth=1

43



Recommended Configuration

Activate these CI Types– ComputerSystem (will include all types of Computer System)

– AppServer (will include J2EE Servers, Web Servers, and Database Servers)

– Application (Business App)

Depth = 3Will include all members of Business Applications, all software modules related to App

Servers, and critical hardware and networking components.

Note: This could bring over a lot of CIs, but it will cover most, if not everything you need. Adjust if there are performance issues due to too much data.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



44



Scheduling ImportsIt is important to schedule Actual CI imports and follow these tips for best

performance:

Schedule the mapping executions of the ITIC TADDM Actual CI Adapter to run at times when:– the network isn’t busy

– backups aren’t occurring

– TADDM discoveries or bulk loads aren’t running

Schedule the Actual CI Adapter based on how often Discovered CIs change in TADDM.

For example: If discoveries are scheduled to run Monday and Tuesday evenings and bulk loads occur Wednesday evenings, run the Actual CI Adapter every Thursday evening.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



45



Actual CI in CCMDBActual CI Classification

Attributes

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



46



Related Actual CIs in CCMDB

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



IBM Software Group


3. Initialize your CMDB with CIs. This includes:a. Discover CIs with TADDMb. Import Actual CIs from Discovered CIs in TADDMc. Refine your Authorized CI Spaced. Promote Actual CIs to Authorized CIs

48



Refine your Authorized CI Space

Now that you have Actual CIs, review your Authorized CI Space. Questions to ask:

– Do you have instances of Actual CIs that will map to your Authorized CI Classifications?

– Do you have Actual CI relationships that map to the your Authorized CI relationship rules?

– Do you have at least one Actual CI Type that has a value populated for each attribute?

– Do you see Actual CIs, attributes, and/or relationships that are in classifications that you don’t have in your Authorized CI Space, but that should be?

Using the answers to these questions and the Actual CIs you have imported, refine your Authorized CI Space so that it is accurate and contains what you need.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



IBM Software Group



50



What is promotion?

Promotion is the process of instantiating Authorized CIs from existing Actual CIs.

The Authorized CIs are linked to the Actual CIs and this link is used to Audit to determine unauthorized changes in your IT environment.

You always start promotion from CIs of a specific Actual Classification (usually one of the Computer System Actual CI classifications), that map to the promotion scope you define. The promotion process will find the Actual CIs that are related and also promote those, based on that promotion scope (see next slide) defined.

Promotion should occur once, during deployment of CCMDB (or more than once if you are deploying in stages). Once you are in production and you have Configuration Management and Change Management processes running, you should not be promoting. Configuration Management should be used to update Authorized CIs, when needed.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



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Promotion Scope

Promotion Scope defines what Actual CI Classifications will get promoted and what they map to in the Authorized CI Space.

Promotion Scope includes: Which Actual CI classifications should be promoted What the mapping is between those Actual CI classifications and the Authorized CI

classifications in your Authorized CI Space

You need to create a promotion scope for just the Authorized CI classifications that map to the Actual CI classifications that you start the promotion from. In most cases, you will define promotion scopes for these CI Classifications:

– All Computer System Classifications

– Business Application (if needed)

– Business Service (if needed)

Promotion Scope can be defined in the CI Space Editor, part of Deployer’s Workbench.

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

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Promotion Scope in CI Space Editor

Defined by the classification that the

promotion will start from.

Mapping

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

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Example: Promotion

WebSphereServer

WebSphereWebModule

ComputerSystem

OperatingSystem

deployedTo

runsOn

installedOn SoftwareInstallation

installedOn

Source Type Target Is TargetParent

OperatingSystem runsOn ComputerSystem 1

SoftwareInstallation installedOn OperatingSystem 1

WebSphereServer runsOn ComputerSystem 1

CI Classification Actual CI Classification

ComputerSystem sys.ComputerSystem

OperatingSystem sys.OperatingSystem

WebSphereServer app.j2ee.WebSphere.WebsphereServer

SoftwareInstallation app.SoftwareInstallation

Relationship Rules

Promotion Scope: ComputerSystem

1. Typically promotion starts with an Actual CI of any of the Computer System Actual CI classifications (and in most cases, you’ll only need to promote those Actual CI Computer Systems).

2. The promotion process searches for all Actual CIs that are related to it.

3. For each relationship that it finds it checks:

• Is there a valid relationship rule defined?

• Is the Actual CI’s classification in the promotion scope?

4. If all checks pass, the relationship and related Actual CI are also promoted and it continues down the branch.

Would NOT get promoted, due to

WebSphereWebModule not being in the

promotion scope for ComputerSystem

Would get promoted, based on below

rules and scope.

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CI in CCMDB

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

Bulk Load



Authorized CI Classification CI Status (lifecycle state)

Attributes

CI OwnerRFC that

targets this CI

IBM Software Group


4. Validate your Authorized CIs

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Validate your Authorized CIs

It is important to validate the CIs that you have promoted to ensure you have the CIs needed by your business processes.

Using the Configuration Items application, review your CIs. Ensure:– There are CIs for all the CI Types you expected there to be.

– There are the CI relationships you need.

– The attribute values are populated correctly.

– There are not extra CIs, relationships nor attributes that you do not need.

If any issues are found, you can delete your CIs, update your Authorized CI Space and promote again (same is true for importing Actual CIs).

Just ensure you do this step before using any of these CIs in a process!

Authorized CIs

Actual CIs

Discovered CIs

IT Infrastructure

Import Promote

Discover

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Reference LinksCCMDB Support Website

–Search knowledge base

–Product documentation

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliChangeandConfigurationManagementDatabase.html

CDM WebSite <TADDM_install_root>/cmdb/dist/sdk/doc/model/CDMWebsite.zip

Deployer’s Workbench (which includes CI Space Editor)

http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/opal/?NavCode=1TW10CC25

CCMDB Overview and Deployment Planning Redbook

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/SG247565.html?Open

CCMDB Implementation Recommendations Redbook

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247567.html?Open

ISM Toolbox

–CI Best Practices Guide

–CI Walkthrough Guide

–Step-by-step how-to guides, cookbooks and best practice guidance

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal/details?NavCode=1TW10CC1P

OPAL http://www-01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal/opal

Tivoli Redbooks http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/portals/tivoli

Documents

IBM Software Group © 2009 IBM Corporation Initializing Your CMDB with CCMDB April 30, 2009 CCMDB 7.1.1.x