Best Practice Configuration Management Database (CMDB) Migration

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1 Best Practice Configuration Management Database (CMDB) Migration Migrating to or standing-up a new Configuration Management Database (CMDB) provides the perfect opportunity to federate the valuable asset/configuration Item (CI) data you have accumulated in systems around an organization as various departments create their pool of CI data. Finance uses asset discovery to validate software licenses and to verify leased equipment is still being used, IT Operations wants to know the state of systems, IT Infrastructure groups want to track patch levels and software version to target updates effectively. Organizations around the world have made the decision to leverage the ServiceNow platform and declare its CMDB as their new authoritative source. Making the decision is only the first step in the migration effort. The remainder of this paper steps you through the migration process, making use of Blazent s technology to improve data quality. Setting Success Criteria Controlling Scope. The benefits of an accurate CMDB extend beyond ITSM. To control operational costs, the IT purchasing group should use the CMDB to validate third-party invoices, establish a baseline for charge-backs. Whatever you set the scope to, be sure to raise flags and communicate changes to the number of managed. Expected Business Value of Return. Most migration initiatives do not adequately speak to the business value that is expected of the CMDB implementation. Descriptions of the anticipated value of a CMDB need to be expressed in business terms to the partners who are funding the effort, otherwise it will not meet expectations and hence be considered a failure. Data Quality. Both during and post migration be sure to setup processes to maintain the quality of the data in the CMDB. Fortunately, the technology needed to manage data quality at-scale now exists. Lennox International, a leader in the climate control industry, estimate that their North America hardware data accuracy has gone from basically unusable to over 95% accurate, using Blazent to maintain the data quality of their ServiceNow CMDB.

2 Selecting Data Sources to Use Most large organizations have no shortage of systems to draw asset and CI information from. ServiceNow customers benefit of a single CMDB that supports their incident, problem, change, release and asset management solutions. Even the service now CMDB can be enriched with information gathered by other IT management solutions such as Microsoft s System Center Configuration Manager which has deep knowledge of the client system fleet and manages half of the worlds business desktops and laptops. IBM TSM and HP Asset Center are a couple of the more common repositories that provide useful CI attributes. The image on the right illustrates many of data sources Blazent has reconciled into a CMDB: Deciding Which Assets to Track When starting from scratch, organizations usually start with discovering all the hardware and software associated with their most mission critical customer facing and backend systems. In the case of a migration, it is prudent to review what CIs the legacy CMDB has that are still adding value to the business. Selecting Which CI Attributes to Follow When selecting which attributes you need to discover and maintain, take a look at the needs of the business functions be supported. As an example, CMDBs can be used to support ITSM, IT Operations, Finance, Procurement and Compliance functions. To keep the CMDB performing well, don t overload it with data that no one will look at. Filling in the Gaps Don t expect every attribute to be populated by just one data source, it is not unusual to have to refer to multiple sources per Configuration item. Handling Inevitable Conflicts at the CI and Attribute level As a consequence of drawing on multiple overlapping CI data sources, there will be times when we will have to resolve conflicting values for the same target from multiple sources. If it s a blank vs a populated value, you can generally use the populated value. However, if you have two differing values for the same attribute, you will need to decide which source is more accurate. Blazent can automatically create a ServiceNow incident ticket to have it manually reviewed. On the right is a screen shot showing a number of such incidents:

3 Ranking Attribute Quality by Source Dealing with attribute conflicts with 2 sources is hard enough, imagine working with 10 or more sources, as many organizations do. Conflicts are common. Generally speaking, agent based IT Management solutions have a deep understanding of a system than ones that only rely on external monitoring. The screen shot below shows graphically some common attribute conflicts: Precedent rules can be used to automatically select the most accurate attribute from all the available sources. Building an Ongoing Process to Maintain CMDB Quality Even after a CMDB migration project ends and is considered a success, it is important to sustain its value by managing its accuracy and completeness on an ongoing basis. To do this effectively, new CIs need to be added and old ones retired, to keep pace with the evolution of the organization of a company s IT services. Data conflicts and gaps need to be flagged and reviewed. Below is a simple example showing gaps and conflicts for a single Asset ID, across multiple sources:

4 Blazent provides the ability to update asset data in the CMDB. The screen show shows assets being retired: You can also update assets that Blazent flags within ServiceNow:

5 Scaling the CMDB Data Quality Maintenance Process The key to CMDB success is to deliver business value first then developing a scalable process for maintaining data quality. The best way to do this is to create a set of rules for handing conflicts, to eliminate human intervention so the CMDB can track thousands of assets with minimal effort. Blazent provides the ability to automate and maintain ServiceWatch and the CMDB with validated and accurate data. The screenshot below shows an example of creating and automated rule that Blazent can apply: The image below shows some of the available precedence roles that Blazent provides. Note the checkbox in the middle of the screen to showing ability to automatically update conflicts:

6 Summary Hopefully, this white paper has communicated what it takes to tackle a CMDB migration, including the potential obstacles and ways around them. Remember to set success criteria, choose what you track and use available tools to avoid making CMDB maintenance burdensome to the organization. Having a trustworthy and authoritative picture of your IT landscape maintained in a CMDB is an asset to any organization seeking to improve application uptime and availability. A successful CMDB migration effort should immediately deliver business value, delivering high levels of accuracy, in addition to providing near real-time visibility to changes which can be measured in minutes. Operational efficiency is improved by accelerated root case analysis, improved incident, problem and change management processes. The benefits of establishing a single source of truth for IT assets provides value that extends beyond IT for example, by improving mean time to repair for business application and business risk by improving financial reporting accuracy. About Blazent Blazent is the leader in Data Quality Management, helping organizations validate and transform data into actionable intelligence. Blazent enables enterprises and Managed Service Providers to make better business decisions based upon a unified view of complete and accurate information across the broadest range of data sources in the industry, significantly improving business outcomes. Blazent is headquartered in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit or us at sales@blazent.com and follow us on