5 Steps To Successfully Deploying A Healthy CMDB - Bitpipe
5 steps to successfullydeploying a healthyCMDBSTART1
IntroductionYour CMDB is a critical tool for maintaining high service availability.A healthy CMDB helps you to: Prevent business service outages Identify and respond to service outages more quickly Diagnose and fix service outages fasterA healthy CMDB doesn’t just happen. Every successful CMDBdeployment needs a detailed Configuration ManagementPlan. When you clearly identify your objectives and developa comprehensive strategy for attaining and sustaining thesecapabilities, you lay the foundation for better businessservice health.In this eBook, we take you through the some of the commonpractices for creating and maintaining a healthy CMDB. Followthis guidance, and you’ll be on the road to a great CMDB andimproved business service health.2
Five steps to a healthy CMDBHere are five key steps to a successful CMDB deployment.These steps aren’t necessarily linear—you’ll want to optimizeyour approach to meet your organization’s unique needs.However, you need to address all of these to maximize the benefitsof your CMDB.Stage 1Stage 2Stage 3Stage 4Stage 5Set yourdirectionBuild a teamand governancemodelDesign yourconfigurationdata goingstrategicalignmentFollow these steps, and you’ll dramatically improve service health.You’ll also be able to: Understand the organizational value of each of yourbusiness services Know who uses your business services and predict futureconsumption Identify where to invest and where to scale back Track your service delivery costs and find out how tooptimize them Reduce technical debt and risk by seeing which technologiesunderpin your servicesLet’s examine each of these steps in more detail.3
Step 1: Set your directionGreat configuration management starts with clear goals,actionable objectives, and measurable business outcomes.Write well-defined goals and objectivesCompanies with successful CMDB deployments always articulatewhat they want to accomplish. They document their approach,determine their desired business outcomes, and identify howthey will measure results.When you're setting goals and objectives, ask yourself thefollowing questions:WhatWhat do you want to accomplish?HowWhat is your approach, and what are yourconstraints and assumptions?WhyWhat business outcomes will yourCMDB support?MeasureHow do you know that you’re on track?This document gives you examples of how to effectively set goalsand objectives.4
Identify strategic company and IT initiativesYour CMDB needs to support your business and IT strategy. Startby identifying your company’s key initiatives. These might includethings such as: Digital transformation Business growth through acquisition Expanding your customer base Moving to subscription-based product licensingDon’t forget to include strategic initiatives within yourIT department, such as: Aligning IT with the business Adopting a cloud-first strategy Enhancing information security Automation and machine learning Implementing blockchainExpert Tip: When describing strategic business initiatives, usethe same language that your company already uses. Yourstakeholders will understand more quickly, and you'll getfaster buy-in.5
Define a set of supporting use casesWrite down a list of use cases that support these strategicinitiatives. Here are some examples:Strategic initiativeUse caseHow does this tieback to the CMDB?Align IT with thebusinessAn IT componentbreaks. How do weknow if this affectsone of our missioncritical businessservices?Create an accurate,up-to-date view ofwhich infrastructurecomponents supporteach of your criticalbusiness servicesExpand customerbaseWe want to add newinteractive servicesto our existingcustomer website.How do we makesure our website willcontinue to scale?Track websiteinfrastructureand applicationsto provide inputfor performanceoptimizationand enterprisearchitectureevolutionImprove informationsecurityWe need to ensurePCI DSS compliance.Which parts of ourinfrastructure do weneed to protect andaudit?Add CI attributesto indicate which ITcomponents storeor have access tocustomer credit cardinformationCloud-first strategyWe are going tomigrate our inventorycontrol system to thecloud. How do weplan this migration?Identify all of theinventory controlsystem componentsthat need to bemigrated by creatinga service map.Note that while we've just given one sample use case per initiative,you will probably have multiple use cases for each.6
Step 2: Build a team and a governance modelNow that you have set your direction, it’s time to build your governance structure and configuration management team.Creating governanceBuilding your configuration management teamSet up a Configuration Control Board (CCB). This is a steeringcommittee that oversees your configuration managementprogram, making sure that it delivers value, stays on track, andoperates effectively.Here are three key ways to make your configuration managementteam a success:Voting members of your CCB should be team leaders who aredirectly accountable for strategic IT initiatives while being closeenough to support teams to understand day-to-day operations.Make sure that you formally structure your CCB meetings. Publish ameeting agenda, record and track action items, and issue minutes.Not only does this increase the effectiveness of your CCB, it alsoprovides evidence to senior leadership of the value your CCBis delivering.This CCB Charter document is an example of how our customersimplement governance through a CCB. Get early buy-in from executives. This creates credibility and trust,giving your team the support it needs to drive change. If you canarticulate how your CMDB will support the strategic goals andobjectives of your executives, you are much more likely to gettheir support. That’s another reason why setting your direction –see Step 1 – is so important. Make sure that your team members are free to focus on theirconfiguration management responsibilities, rather than beingbogged down in daily “keep the lights on” support. Clearly define, document, and communicate each teammember’s role and responsibilities. This ensures ownership,accountability, and authority.7
Defining roles and responsibilitiesHere’s a typical example of how a ServiceNow customerdefined the roles and responsibilities of its configurationmanagement team. Note that these roles cover both theCCB and operational teams.RoleResponsibilityTitleCM ExecutiveSponsorOverseesconfiguration planimplementation in alldepartments acrossthe company.Senior executiveManages deliveryof CM services anddocumentationof operatingprocedures.Senior IT managerCM System AnalystPerforms daily CMtasks with minimalsupervisionIT analystCM SpecialistPerforms daily CMtasks with directionfrom CM systemanalystIT adminCCB process ownerConfigurationManagerCCB chairTo find out more about these roles,please read this detailed guide.8
Step 3: Design your configurationdata modelNow, it’s time to decide what data you are going to keep in yourCMDB. You do this by defining which CI classes you need.Before you start, familiarize yourself with the capabilities anddesign options for the CMDB. To find out more, look at this CMDBDesign Guidance White Paper.Start simply and grow graduallyIt’s a mistake to try to build a comprehensive CMDB right away.Start simply and then make incremental improvements as yourconfiguration management capabilities mature. Decide whichCI classes and attributes you need to support the data needs ofthe use cases you identified in Step 1. If you find yourself definingCI classes or attributes that aren’t needed for these use cases,you’re off track.For example, if you need to include storage in your CMDB, youmight start off with CIs for physical storage arrays. The nextstep could be to add file systems, and then logical unit numbers(LUNs) after that. By taking this approach, you can launch basiccapabilities quickly, and then introduce additional CI classes overtime as you grow your capabilities and scope.9
Leverage out-of-the-boxCI classesWe highly recommend starting with the standard CI classesincluded with the ServiceNow CMDB. These are designed tosupport a wide range of common use cases, and you can use outof-the-box ServiceNow Discovery capabilities to populate theseCIs in your CMDB (more on that later).Most ServiceNow customers start the CI classes they need tosupport incident and change management. These CIs typicallyrepresent IT components such as: Servers and virtual machines Storage arrays Databases Applications Network equipment Load balancers Security appliancesYou can also extend out-of-the-box classes, creating new classeswith additional attributes. ServiceNow's CI Class Manager providesa wizard-style interface that helps you to do this.Warning: Make sure that you use CIs correctly. By definition, a CIis something that can change –so there’s no point in creatingCIs for things that never change. Also, a CI must have a uniquenomenclature that remains constant.10
Step 4: Operationalizeconfiguration managementNow that you have your configuration data model, it’s time tothink about getting your CMDB up and running. However, creatinga healthy CMDB isn’t a one-time activity. To maintain a healthyCMDB, you need to put processes and tools in place to keep yourCMDB up to date and accurate–and you need to document thesein your Configuration Management Plan. Otherwise, your CMDB willfall into disrepair, and all of your hard work will be lost.Think about questions such as: W hat information–for example, operational status–dostakeholders need for each CI? How do you ensure that this information is clear, concise,and valid? Which CIs can you keep up to date automatically? Which CIs have to be updated manually, and who isresponsible for this? How do you control changes in your CMDB? How do you monitor the health of your CMDB?11
Discover your IT infrastructureWhile you can add all your CIs to your CMDB manually, this willtake a long time, and it’s very hard to keep your CMDB up-todate as your IT environment changes. The good news is that youcan use ServiceNow Discovery to automatically populate yourCMDB. Discovery will find all of the network infrastructure, servers,applications, and other components in your IT environment andcreate corresponding CIs. This includes discovering public cloudinfrastructure, such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure.When your IT environment changes, Discovery can updateyour CMDB automatically. This means that you always havean accurate, up-to-date infrastructure view–which is a criticalfoundation of a healthy CMDB.Expert Tip: Make sure that identification rules are properly definedso your CMDB doesn’t have any duplicate CIs. Duplicate CIs willcreate confusion, lead to duplicated work, and adversely affectyour operational processes. They can also result in a loss oftraceability, which can lead to audit issues.12
Discover your business servicesJust discovering your IT infrastructure isn’t enough. To providehigh-performing business services, you need to know how theseservices are delivered. For instance, which applications are partof the business service, which servers do they run on, how do thedifferent parts communicate, and which web servers and loadbalancers support the service?Again, you could figure this out manually, creating service mapsthat document the topology of each of your business services.Unfortunately, this is a considerable undertaking, and it’s almostimpossible to keep these maps up to date once you havecreated them.Instead, use ServiceNow Service Mapping to create businessservice maps. Start by identifying your most critical businessservices and map these first. For each service, Service Mapping willwork its way through your infrastructure, identifying all of the CIsthat support the service and how they are related. It stores theserelationships in your CMDB and automatically updates them ifthey change.ServiceNow Service Map13
Populate and maintainnon-discoverable informationA small percentage CIs and attributes are not discoverable–usually less than 5%. For example, some CI attributes providebusiness-related information such as who owns a CI–or thecriticality of a business service. Clearly, these types of attributescan’t be discovered.You will need to populate and maintain these CIs and attributesmanually. However, it’s a mistake to try to do this by yourself.Instead, identify corresponding business process owners andmake them responsible for updating information. For example, ifsomeone owns your server infrastructure, make them responsiblefor updating and periodically validating non-discoverable serverattributes. Similarly, if someone owns a particular business service–for example, your warehouse management system–have themupdate and validate the attributes of that business service CI.You will also want to periodically audit this non-discoverableinformation in your CMDB. There are two types of formal audits–functional and physical–that organizations typically perform on aregular basis.14
Manage and control changeEffective change management is critical for a healthy CMDB.Uncontrolled change creates risks, breaks configurationmanagement processes, and creates an unreliable CMDB. Forexample, if someone incorrectly marks a server as out-of-service,this could ultimately lead to a service outage.To avoid this, do the following: Use ServiceNow Change Management to handlechange requests Ensure that changes are reviewed and approved before theyare made Configure permissions so that only authorized users can makechanges to your CMDB Communicate changes to stakeholdersExpert Tip: We strongly recommend that you use ServiceNowChange Management’s Proposed Change function to manageupdates of non-discoverable attributes.15
Monitor the health of your CMDBOnce you have the tools and processes in place for a healthyCMDB, you need to keep it healthy and resolve issues as theyarise. The best way to do this is to monitor your CMDB using theServiceNow CMDB dashboard. Using the dashboard, you canmonitor key CMDB health KPIs, including: Completeness–scorecard of CIs with unpopulated mandatory orrecommended attributes Correctness–scorecard of orphaned, duplicate, and stale CIs Compliance–scorecard of the results of CI auditsAs well as aggregate scorecards, you can also drill into CMDBhealth details for specific business services, groups of CIs, andindividual CIs. This allows you to pinpoint CMDB health problemsand request corrective action–for example, by following up withcorresponding CI owners or business service owners when CIsbecome stale (i.e. haven’t been updated recently).ServiceNow CMDB Dashboard16
Step 5: Create ongoingalignmentA Configuration Management Plan is a living document. Yourbusiness isn’t standing still, and neither can you. You need tostay aligned with business strategy and respond to new businessinitiatives. Effective two-way communication with businessstakeholders is critical so that you understand their needs andthey understand how you plan to support these.Leverage your Configuration Control Board to drive this alignment.This is where you can prioritize and evolve your configurationmanagement roadmap to maximize the benefits for your business.By providing leadership and managerial oversight, your CCBshould create a forum for effective decision-making–turning thediscipline of configuration management into a high-value asset foryour business.Also, tailor your configuration management plan to align withmajor projects. Assign a configuration management team resourceto each strategic project, so they understand how it impactsconfiguration management. For example, think about the firstproject in your business that uses containers. The last thing youwant is a request for new CI classes two days before go-live.17
Let’s recapYour business depends on you to deliver high-quality businessservices. To do this, you need a healthy CMDB supported bygood configuration management processes. With a healthyCMDB, you can: Prevent business service outages Identify and respond to service outages more quickly Diagnose and fix service outages fasterAchieving and maintaining a healthy CMDB isn’t magic. Follow thefive steps in this guide and you’ll lay the foundation for a successfulCMDB deployment.And, you’ll enjoy the payoff–dramatically better businessservice health.18
Your journey doesn't end here!Visit the Customer Success Center to learn even more about how you can get the most fromServiceNow.LEARN MOREServiceNow was founded on a vary simple idea: that work should be easier.That getting simnple stuff done shouldn't be so hard and complex stuff should be manageable. Today, the entireenterprise—IT, HR, customer service, security, and beyond—can tap into the power of the Now Platform to createa better experience for employees, users, and customers, and transform the way work is done.aa Copyright 2018 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and /or registered trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other company andproduct names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.BACKSN-EB-CMDB#2-102018
Five steps to a healthy CMDB Here are five key steps to a successful CMDB deployment. These steps aren't necessarily linear—you'll want to optimize your approach to meet your organization's unique needs. However, you need to address all of these to maximize the benefits of your CMDB. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Set your .
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Five steps to a healthy CMDB Here are five key steps to a successful CMDB deployment. These steps aren't necessarily linear—you'll want to optimize your approach to meet your organization's unique needs. However, you need to address all of these to maximize the benefits of your CMDB. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Set your .
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