CMDB Business NeedNeeds

• Ensure IT Services are aligned with the business needs• Facilitate business transformation• Facilitate process implementation• Manage CI relationships• Determine impact of change and incidents on your infrastructure• Cost reduction in IT Service Delivery• Customer satisfaction with Service Delivery• Improved metrics and management reporting

Problems• The cost of not doing Configuration Management well• Cost of enterprise CMDB software• Cost, availability and required expertise for CMDB Administration• Training and implementation plans can be complex• Implementation timeframe• Integration with other ITIL processes (i.e. Change Management)

Visual CMDB OverviewWhat is it?

A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) implemented using MS Excel.

A CMDB IM/IT Architecture Framework is defined and embedded in the CMDB. This gives each Business Solution a common look and feel.

Perfect low cost starter CMDB, addresses Capability Maturity Levels 2 and 3 in CM and is aligned with the ITIL framework.

Limited CMDB size due to MS Excel constraints but multiple CMDBs can be run to extend coverage to all of your Business Solutions.

A Service Catalogue database and Change Management database are included and are shared by all copies of the CMDB.

Visual CMDBComponent Integration

Visual CMDB

ChangeManagement

ServiceCatalogue

Change CIsServiceCatalogueCIs

ChangeManager

Collect/managechange requests

Service LevelManager

Define/manageservices

Manage CIs andrelationships

Visual representation ofIT InfrastructureImpact Assessments

Forward ScheduleOf Change

Exchange

Business Line Applications

Administrative Applications

Business Solution

Enterprise Architecture

Technical Solution Information/Data

Application Layer Application Layer

Application Hosting Key Business Process

Communication

End User

Audit Reports

ConfigurationManager

Visual CMDB OverviewWhy Use it?

Visualize the structure of each Business Solution using the embedded architecture.

Visualize the impact of Change and Incidents on your infrastructure, enterprise architecture, service catalogue, documents, applications, etc.

One click navigation allows easy drilldown to successive layers of detail.

Comprehensive reporting on the completeness of your high level CI coverage (e.g. do all servers have OS, security and utility software defined?).

Easily export your CIs and associations to another CMDB or database.

Visual CMDB Architecture Framework The Architecture Framework you will use in implementing this CMDB is shown below. The IM Architecture is optional and depends directly on the Service Catalogue.

The seven layers of the IT Architecture Framework The three layers of the IM Architecture Framework

1. The Business Solution Layer defines the client, their business requirements for an IM/IT solution and maps these requirements to solutions defined in the service catalogue.

2. The Enterprise Architecture Layer defines the technical aspects of the service catalogue and provides access to all Enterprise Architecture artifacts for business, application, technology and data architecting. This layer is implemented through the Service Catalogue.

3. The Technical Solution Layer defines the solution development project that engineers the solution and maintains all SDLC deliverables out of the systems development life cycle including any service level agreements.

1. The Information/Data Layer defines the data holdings used by each application as well as security classification, security designation and links to associated TRA, SOS, PPIA, PIA documents

4. The Application Layer defines the applications needed to develop the solution. An application can be a COTS product, a development effort or application sharing between solutions

2. The Application Layer defines the applications needed to develop the solution. An application can be a COTS product, a development effort or application sharing between solutions

5. The Application Hosting Layer defines the hardware devices needed to run the solution application.

3. The Key Business Process Layer defines the key business processes performed by each specific application. The number and type of key business processes performed by the application may lead to more accurate specifications of the service level requirements for the application and associated infrastructure.

6. The Communication Infrastructure Layer defines the communication infrastructure needed to deliver the service to the end user.

7. The End User Layer defines solution end users. The users are usually specified as groups from specific locations or groups that require specific functionality.

CMDB representation of your Business Solution (Exchange sample)

This is the Consol screen for the CMDB that parallels the IT Architecture Framework. Not all CIs are shown here. CIs such as software, service catalogue and facilities are associated with a CI here and can be seen by selecting a CI (cell) on this map.

CI highlighting shows associations with a specific CI category. This sample Consol for Exchange has Change CIs highlighted in yellow. Select a yellow cell to see the change details.

To develop all of your organization Business Solutions, create copies of the Visual CMDB using unique file names such as Exchange CMDB.xls.

When developing your Visual CMDB database, the three bottom layers will normally require the most change.

CMDB Database Control

This is a copy of the Control screen you will use with your CMDB. It is used to define the CMDB, highlight the CI collection progress, view the CMDB resources used so far and to view the error status for this CMDB

CI Definition ScreenThe picture below shows only a few of about 1000 CIs that can be defined in the CMDB. There are also more columns of CI attributes depending on the CI category (i.e. a document CI could have a link to a document in RDIMS and a server CI may have an IP address).

Visual CMDB Categories

The table below shows a complete list of the CMDB categories. Pink category CIs originate in other companion systems.

Visual CMDB CategoriesPink category CIs originate from other systems.White categories are supported entirely by the Visual CMDB.

Change

From: ChangeMan

Contacts Data Files

Documentation Facilities Hardware

InformationClassification

Problem Risk

Security Defense SecurityDesignation

Service Catalogue

From: ServiceCat

Software

Audit ReportsComprehensive reporting on the coverage of high level CIs.

Visual CMDB Components1 Visual CMDB Overview & Setup Presentation

2 Visual CMDB (CMDB Database)

3 Visual CMDB Administration Guide & User Guide

4 ChangeMan (Change Management Database)

5 ChangeMan Users Guide

6 ServiceCat (Service Catalogue Database)

7 ServiceCat Users Guide

8 CMDB Audit Tool

9 CMDB Audit Tool Users Guide

10 CMDB Export Tool

Visual CMDB System Requirements

Suggested Configuration

Operating System: any OS supporting:

• MS Excel 2003• MS Word or Word Viewer

Software:• MS Excel 2003• MS Word or Word Viewer

Hardware:• RAM: 1 MB• Processor Speed: Pentium 4, 1.8 GHz• Disk Space: 40 MB

Visual CMDB Set-upBackup all original Visual CMDB files

Copy the software directory and all associated files and directories to a common directory. Rename the directory if required.

Create copies of Visual CMDB for each Business Solution. Rename copies to “Business Solution CMDB.xls”

Create a directory for each Business Solution to store artifacts

Verify access rights to the directory and directory backup schedule

Double click on a Visual CMDB

See Visual CMDB Set-up section in the Visual CMDB Users Guide for additional set-up information.