CIS-DF--Day10- CI Class Manager

1. CI Class Manager Overview CI Class Manager is a centralized interface that provides visibility and control over: CI classes Class hierarchy and relationships CI attributes Managed-by groups Extensibility and model configuration Identification & Reconciliation rules Only users with admin or sn_cmdb_admin roles can create CI classes. 2. Class Hierarchy & Managed By Group CI classes extend from parent classes (example: cmdb_ci → hardware → computer → server → Windows server). Setting Managed By Group at class level cascades to all CIs under that class. However, if a CI is associated with a Technical Service Offering, the managed-by group from the offering overrides class-level settings. 3. Technical Service Offering (TSO) A technical service offering represents services managed by infrastructure teams (e.g., DB management, network, servers). Characteristics: Many-to-many relationship with business services Not visible to customers directly Represents underlying technical capabilities Can store managed-by, support, change groups Helps define ownership of infrastructure-level components It is differentiated in the service offering table using the Service Classification field: Business service offering Technical service offering Application service offering 4. Product Models & CMDB Default product models can be set on CI classes but are optional. Product models are part of Asset Management but visible in baseline. Best used when a class consistently uses a single hardware/software model. 5. CI Attributes Every CI class contains multiple attributes inherited through the class hierarchy. In Class Manager, you can view: Attribute names Type Reference Length Mandatory flags Derived (inherited) vs custom attributes New attributes can only be added at the relevant class, not inherited levels. 6. Identification & Reconciliation Engine (IRE) IRE ensures data quality during imports or discovery. IRE Components Identification Determines whether an incoming CI already exists or is new using key attributes (e.g., serial number + hostname). Similar to determining if two objects are duplicates based on specific characteristics. Reconciliation Defines which data source has authority (precedence rules) to update specific attributes. Deduplication Identifies duplicate CIs and creates tasks for resolution. Removing duplicates improves CMDB health scores. Reclassification Allows CIs to move: Up (parent class) Down (child class) Sideways (peer class switch) 7. Coalesce vs Identification Rule Coalesce is used only during manual imports (import sets) for insert/update logic. Identification rules work for discovery and any CI ingestion and determine uniqueness. They serve different purposes. 8. CMDB Health Considerations Removing duplicates, correcting class mismatches, and ensuring proper ownership configurations directly improves CMDB health KPIs such as: Completeness Correctness Compliance 9. Conceptual Examples Used in the Session Atul illustrated CMDB concepts using relatable analogies: Family roles for managed by groups Birthday gifts for duplicate detection Fruits for attribute comparison These help contextualize identification rules and class hierarchy.