CMDB IMPLEMENTATION

BLUEPRINT
ITSM

Michael Ludwig
Michael.Ludwig @servicenow.com
 ServiceNow CMDB Implementation Blueprint

Introduction
Digital Transformation is seldom understood at a level necessary to create meaningful business outcomes.
The CMDB is a centralized store of information in a relational model critical to driving workflows that
have undergone digital transformation. For years customers have struggled with implementing and
maintaining a CMDB. Much of the documentation and practice for attempting to successfully do this was
driven out of academic frameworks surrounding the larger configuration management discipline and how
it underpins successful service management. Lost in the academic references were translations to business
value and how to achieve meaningful digital transformation that leads to service automation and the
velocities necessary to gain competitive advantage is today’s business landscape.

To help our customers achieve these critical business capabilities we need to turn the focus away from
industry frameworks and have the focus be centered on what data elements are necessary to derive
business value for the customer and how do they implement and maintain those elements. If the customer
has multiple desired outcomes, in which order should the data elements be implemented. What can be
done concurrently and what should be done linearly. We need to be conscious of the fact that it is not only
the “how” of the initial implementation of those data elements (Day 1) but guiding customers through the
on-going data management and governance processes (Day 2) that will lead to the ongoing success
necessary to continue to drive business value.

Much of the value of the ServiceNow platform lies in our ability to create workflows that support the
design, implementation and operation of our customers key business capabilities. These business
capabilities should be expressed via a product and services-oriented taxonomy that seeks to connect the
logical constructs to the underlying technological infrastructure and have them be consumable both
internally and externally via various forms of Service Offerings. ServiceNow’s Common Services Data
Model is the realization of that product and services-oriented taxonomy. Customers will need to come to
an understanding of what products and services are utilized when, across various scenarios, and we need
to implement these logical CIs earlier in each customers journey in order to drive proper alignment of
other workflows to this product and services-oriented taxonomy.

Prerequisites
Outside of the market hype, Digital Transformation is a very real activity that will be crucial for
enterprises to execute on and leverage in order to remain relevant within their markets. The NOW
platform is a significant enablement piece for the core of this transformation and the CMDB is the heart
of it. In order to successfully leverage this transformational toolset, executives, need to understand, enable
and support the efforts of those tasked with implementing not only the technology but also the inherent
cultural shifts that accompany it. Those that simply seek to wrap the software around their existing
processes are doomed to rob themselves of the true benefits of this transformational journey. There are
key areas that should be focused on here: Orient the data that drives activities into a services-oriented
view so that visibility and knowledge can be gained on the areas where there is opportunity to reduce
Operational Expenditures. Streamline the effort that it takes to accomplish requisite tasks across various
parts of the organization by digitizing workflows to create efficiency. Create a solid body of centralized
data to drive operational velocity through automation. Capture data at key intersections of the workflow
streams in order to maintain regulatory compliance at velocity. A senior executive who understands and
believes in these concepts along with the cultural shifts they will bring is one of the most important
aspects of a NOW implementation. Having a clear line of sight into what the technology can enable and
the organizational and process changes necessary to engender these activities, prior to implementing the
technology that will drive them, is foundational to a successful outcome. Engage and listen to those who
are key stake holders in the process chains and getting by in from them, beyond lip service, is essential.

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 ServiceNow CMDB Implementation Blueprint

Key CIs and their Relationships

All CIs are not created equally meaning that certain CI classes are much more important to deriving
tangible business outcomes from the platform. This group of higher value CIs will be referred to as Key
CIs and these CIs and their relationships and references should be the primary focus area as you are
maturing your environment. Key CIs will vary depending on the business outcomes you are trying to
achieve so what may be considered principle for ITSM workflows may be different from those utilized
for SAM workflows which may be different from those utilized for Event workflows. The following is a
list of Key CI classes in a Crawl, Walk, Run approach for an ITSM implementation.

Crawl
cmdb_ci_server + C
cmdb_ci_vm_instance
cmdb_ci_cluster + C
cmdb_ci_cluster_node
Business Application
Application Service

Walk
cmdb_ci_netgear + C
cmdb_ci_pc_hardware or (cmdb_ci_computer)

Run
cmdb_ci_appl + C
cmdb_ci_database
cmdb_ci_db_instance + C
cmdb_ci_disk
cmdb_ci_storage_device
cmdb_ci_storage_disk
cmdb_ci_san
cmdb_ci_storage_controller
cmdb_ci_storage_node
cmdb_ci_storage_pool + C + R
Business Capabilities
Business Service
Technical Service

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 ServiceNow CMDB Implementation Blueprint

Key CI References
References within the CMDB are similar to relationships in that they display associations between CIs.
They are shown as attributes on a CI which represents the “one” side of a “one to many” relationship
cardinality. An example would be a Virtual Machine Object has a reference to the Virtualizing Server it is
hosted on. The VMO can only have a reference to “one” Virtualizing Server but the Virtualizing Server
can host “many” VMOs. CI references are useful within the platform as a way to “group” CIs that are
linked together by a commonality. They are also useful within forms as a way to narrow down CI choices
utilizing reference qualifiers as a filter condition. Once a reference is brought into scope it should be
applied to all applicable CI classes. As you mature your ITSM practice identifying the appropriate
Support Group for Incidents involving Technical and Business Service Offerings and the Assignment
Group making changes to these offerings will be critical in reducing MTTR and Incident Avoidance. The
following is a list of references in a Crawl, Walk, Run approach for an ITSM implementation.

Crawl
virtualizing server
cmn_location
cmdb_model
sys_user (Owner)
sys_user_group (Support Group, Assignment Group)

Walk
sys_user (Assigned To)

Run
database server
application
storage server

Key Data Sources

It takes several different kinds of data sources to achieve business outcomes with the NOW platform and
where you are at in your implementation maturity will dictate sources to be considered for that phase of
maturity. Your data management processes in many ways will dictate your CMDBs heath within the
NOW platform. For sources populating reference tables such as sys_user and cmn_location your
processes should include a de-duplication strategy as well as a process that dictates how changes (such as
users who have left the organization and locations that are no longer applicable) to existing references
will be accounted for. For sources that are directly populating CI tables it is imperative that these sources
utilize NOW’s Identification and Reconciliation Engine (IRE). Processing data sources via the IRE is the
best method of avoiding the creation of duplicate CIs, avoiding CI compression and setting up a
precedence order for sources so that only authoritative sources are making changes to CIs once they are
established. For more information on the IRE please see the following:
https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/newyork-servicenow-platform/page/product/configuration-
management/concept/c_CMDBIdentifyandReconcile.html

While it is possible to drive early levels of value within the NOW platform without a true discovery
source this requires a very mature set of data management practices and constant vigilance. For

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organizations that are serious about reducing MTTR for Incident and avoiding change collisions within
their Change Management process a discovery source is a must have. There is added value in using
NOWs native Discovery tool as it inherently understands the NOW Data Model without translation,
processes its data flow via the IRE for coordination with other sources and automatically maintains the
integrity of horizontally discovered references and relationships. It also contains native Cloud Discovery
capabilities.

Corroborating data sources are useful on a number of fronts. If your Asset Management process utilizes
an external Asset Management system or you have Managed Service Providers operating within your eco-
system that are maintaining lifecycle data for managed infrastructure, utilizing their own internal system,
it is important that these sources be integrated into the CMDB to establish and then help maintain
appropriate lifecycle states for CIs. Poor CI lifecycle management is one of the most common issues in
terms of poor CMDB health. Establishing your CMDB as the trusted source of truth for your IT
workflows is an essential part of your Digital Transformation journey. Utilizing corroborating data
sources is a key to establishing that trust and is useful in determining “blind spots” in your current
discovery practice. It is also extremely useful in the establishment of CIs as you move towards the edge of
your infrastructure where you have End User Computing and IoT devices.

As you move into the Run phase of your implementation and mature into a true services-oriented view,
data generated via logical processes will play a larger role and your data management and governance
practices need to be fully vetted. The alignment of infrastructure to Technical Services and their requisite
offerings, the alignment of applications to database instances (Yes, we understand that Oracle is different)
and their supporting infrastructure that form Application Services and how they relate to the Business
Services that are being consumed by the business or sold to other constituents will require a cohesive data
management strategy for the consumption of data as well as a well defined data governance practice to
insure adherence to audit requirements. The Information Object class introduced in the Run phase of
implementation will be a cornerstone object in understanding data with regulatory compliance
requirements and the objects relationship to the Business Application it supports, the Application Services
deployed to support it will become a crucial visibility gain in the Change Management process. Again,
this is a logical process which will require a strong data governance practice.

Key Data Sources

Crawl
Discovery
User Source
Location Source
Group Source

Walk
Discovery
network monitoring
network access control
network operations
SCCM/JAMF/Altiris

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Run
Discovery
Service Map

Corroborating Data Sources

Crawl
Server Software Distribution/Patching Source
Server Monitoring Source
Virtualizing Technology Source
Cloud API Sources
External Asset Management Source

Walk
External Asset Management Source

Run
Application Performance Monitoring Sources
Cloud API Sources
Storage Management Sources
Network Monitoring Sources

Key Dashboards and Workflows

Implementing the CMDB Health Dashboard will assist you in tracking your progress as you mature your
data management practices particularly in two key areas. First, it will show you the umber of unresolved
duplicate CIs you have within your CMDB. Unresolved duplicates are usually caused by a flaw in the
identity management logic you are utilizing to import data into the system. Resolving the duplicates is
important but more important is getting to the root cause of the creation of the duplicates in the first place
so this problem does not snowball on you. As a general rule examine what CI classes are being informed
upon by what sources and go to the most parent class where they intersect. Make sure that all sources at
that intersection point are utilizing the same set of rules to process all sources informing at that
intersection point. Repeat this process until all data sources are accounted for. The second area where the
Health Dashboard is helpful is in the area of stale CIs. CIs that have not been seen in over a 60-day period
can be a leading indicator of an immature lifecycle management process or a breakdown in your data
management practice. First make sure that all external data feeds are being imported on a regularly
scheduled basis and ensure that you have set up a process to receive notification that a regularly
scheduled data import has failed. If you have this data management practice in place and all of your
scheduled data feeds are operating correctly and you still have stale CI data, then you need to examine
your CI lifecycle management practices. Proper lifecycle management is the intersection of both a mature
Change and Asset Management practice. Examine the stale CIs for clues as to where a hole in your
processes may exist and close this gap as quickly as possible. The correct status of CIs that are left in a
stale (not seen) state as you go beyond the 90-day mark will need to be manually remediated and this is a

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time-consuming task. Getting ahead of these two key areas of CMDB management early in your journey
will save you many hours of manual remediation, and inconsistent value realized.

Outcomes Realized
Essential to the Digital Transformation journey is the realization of the value derived from entering into
the transformation in the first place. The metamorphosis of what were once highly manual processes into
data driven digital workflows can lead to significant improvements in both velocity and quality in a
number of key areas. CMDB is the data that fuels these digital workflows and quality data, in the right
schema, combined with mature data management and governance processes creates an engine that will
produce tangible results. For an ITSM practice with a CMDB implementation that has followed this
blueprint the following results can be expected.

• Double Digit reduction in Average Time to Resolve an Incident

• Significant reduction in Number of Incidents Created per User
• Order of Magnitude Increase in Percentage of Incidents resolved by Problem
• Double Digit reduction in the percentage of Failed Changes

All of these KPI improvements will represent tremendous cost savings both in labor expended and lost
revenue to the enterprise and begin to demonstrate how Digital Transformation can begin to positively
effect the budget cycle. Beyond this, other value streams have been unlocked where other positive
impacts can be felt:
• Self Service activities fueled via Knowledge Management
• Service Delivery automation via Request Catalog
• Automated Patch Management executed by intelligent Change Management Workflows

As you transcend past the Run phase of your ITSM blueprint you begin to understand that the data you
have populated and the relationships and references implemented have put you in a position to understand
what services are actually being delivered to and consumed by the business. Furthermore, you are in a
position to understand the efficacy of the services delivered in a cost/value quantization and you can
begin to understand what can be rationalized, what is inefficient and needs to be re-designed, and what
services are at risk due to End of Support and End of Life dependencies. The visibility into these areas
will truly give the enterprise a competitive advantage and have a positive impact on operational spend and
the IT budget as a whole.

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