Asset & Configuration Management (CMDB) Workshop. Don Page Marval Group

Asset & Configuration

Management (CMDB)

Workshop

•

Co-author of ITIL (

worldwide best practice in ITSM

)

•

Co-author of BS15000 (

British Standard for IT Service

Management

)

•

Co-author ISO 20000

(worldwide ISO Standard for IT Service

Management)

•

Co-author BSI Code of Practice for ITSM

•

Don Page (ITSMF Life-Time Achievement award)

•

Fellow of the Institute of Service Management

•

Helpdesk Institute advisor

•

Award winning ITSM projects

“

Don’s ITSM projects have won 8

of last 10 annual European IT

Service Management

Improvement Project of the

Year Awards”

News:

At the recent UK ITSMF Service Management

Awards, Marval & British Telecom Ireland picked up

“Service Improvement Project of the Year”

Recent Projects Include

European Central Bank

Dimension data worldwide

Heineken Worldwide

AIB bank Europe

UK National Health Service

British Telecom Ireland

Worldwide Scout Jamboree

Don’s thought for the day

1. I believe many traditional IT

departments are not currently

capable of delivering a quality &

cost effective

business service

ICT Strategic Objectives

1.

Internal cost reduction & resource optimisation

2.

Increased IT infrastructure & Service reliability

3.

Investment protection & risk reduction

4.

Encourage positive workplace behaviour & investment

5.

Improved customer experience & communication

Accountability/Governance/Evidence

increased

business value of

IT

reduced

IT cost

Clarification

1. Asset Management

– Focused on the financial accounting of assets within an organization

2. Inventory Management

– Focused on the physical & quantitative tracking of assets within an organization

3. Configuration Management

– Focused on the relationships & dependencies

between physical assets components, software & Services within an organization

People Who, Where, What

Skills, Attributes, Experience

Documentation

Reports, Agreements, Contracts, License details, Policies, Processes,

Procedures, Service Improvement Plans, Service requests (Incidents

Problems Changes), Evidence

Environment

Accommodation, Light, Heat, Power Utility Services (Electricity Gas Water Oil) Office Equipment Furniture

Plant & Machinery

Hardware Computer & network components, cables (LAN, WAN) Telephones, Switches

ATMs

Software

Business & In-house applications, Operating systems, Network management systems, Utilities (scheduling, backup & recovery)

Packages, Desktop support Data Files

What, Where, How important Services Payroll Internet Email ATM

Sample CI record

Maintenance costs Licenses/contracts

Location

Parent/Child relationships & dependencies Turns an asset register into a CMDB

Essential for good change mgt & risk assessment

Question: What can we use a CMDB for?

1.

Managing the IT Infrastructure

2.

Standard asset & inventory tracking

3.

Customer support (service desk)

4.

Risk assessment for change evaluation

5.

Managing licence, maintenance & warranty contracts

6.

Business continuity & Maintaining a disaster recovery manifest

7.

Documenting who, what & where critical business systems &

services are.

8.

Dependencies & relationships between items

9.

Departmental costing & chargeback

10. Reducing operational costs & purchases through improved control

11. Supporting regulatory & corporate governance (e.g. ISO 20000/

The Goal of a Configuration Management

Database (CMDB)

1. Account for all the IT assets & configurations & Services within the

organization

2. To support change & risk assessment within the business

3. Provide accurate information on configurations & their

documentation to support all the other Service Management

processes

4. To assist in delivering a better service & more reliable IT

infrastructure

In summary

1. What have we got

2. Where are they

3. Who owns them

4. How many have got

5. How much are they worth

6. What are the key dependencies & relationships

7. What problems with them had we got/had/fixed

Benefits of Configuration Management

1. Control

– Verifying & correcting configuration records gives

you a greater degree of control over your infrastructure

2. Integration

– Integrating all configuration-related IT

processes can reduce errors & the number of staff needed

to administer your environment

3. Decision Support

– Making decisions & meeting

commitments is easier when you have complete & accurate

data, resulting in better resource & performance estimates

“Sorry Don is off today - where exactly is your PC located

Mr. Smith”

The Business & customer already think we are in

control of the IT Infrastructure

The Challenge

1. No central CMDB available

2. Different source of asset information,

maintained in various forms

3. Auditing often difficult & time consuming

4. Dependencies & relationships unclear or even

unknown

5. Dependency on key personnel

6. Information time consuming to maintain

7. Contract renewals sometimes missed

8. Governance controls not in place

9. Documentation not always updated

CMDB Project Scope

DEFINE DESIGN DEPLOY DRIVE

Where do we want to be Where are we

now How do we get there? How do we know we have arrived?

High level business Objectives

Assessment Implementation Measurement Continuous Process Improvement DISCOVER What is the Vision Policies, Process, Procedures, Guidelines.

Time

Common problems

1. Operational processes &

procedures not in-place or followed

2. Poor data requirements & quality

3. Underestimating the size of the

task

4. Trying to please everyone

–

trying to get every CI & attribute to

meet everyone’s wish list

Common problems cont.

1. Not keeping the data up-to-date

2. Not selling the benefits

3. Assuming that discovery tools will

solve all your problems

4. Not having the right people

available to identify relationships

& dependencies between items

Some Practical Tips

1. Don’t expect 100% accuracy but aim towards it

2. Audit the process as well as the data, control access

3. When capturing initial data, don’t spend

time trying to

get 100% attributes. Decide what you consider

FOCUS

Managing an IT &

Service infrastructure

Is the same as managing

a number of coke

CMDB

High Level CMDB Process Framework

Start

Are we Classifying CI/Assets correctly?

Are they easy to identify & report on? Is the information accurate Are we seeing the benefits/value? Operational & Financial Worth/value Alignment to industry best practice & standards

Risk

The 4 “R’s”

Focus on these 4 simple questions

What do you want from your CMDB?

1.

Should we buy X more of these computers

?

2.

What equipment & applications is causing us problems

?

3.

Should we renew this maintenance contract

?

4.

Is the supplier meeting their agreements

?

5.

What has been the performance of supplier X

?

6.

How many of these items have we got

?

7.

What services are running on server X

?

8.

What other business services are effected/at risk if we turn this

server off

?

Configuration & Service Relationships

Payroll Service

1. Who do we keep informed/when 2. What other services are effected 3. Who needs to fix it/be involved 4. How long will it take

5. How long have we got

6. What service needs to be restored first 7. What is its business priority & impact?

If the

Payroll Service fails

1. Who do we inform & when 2. What computer is it on

3. Who needs to fix it/be involved 4. How long will it take

5. How long have we got 6. How do we do it

7. What is its business priority & impact?

If Server

X

Accounts Department

Server X

Backup server

What are the maintenance functions & routine activities

Assigned to support team

for repair

CMDB Automation Uses

event detected for

SERVER X

Major Incident

recorded against Server X in ITSM tool

Related Major Incidents

recorded against affected Service's running on Server X Affected CI passed to ITSM Tool

CIdetail & Related

Services

Obtained from CMDB

(+SLAs, priority, impact etc)

Service Desk

Server X

Payroll Service

Affected Business users

automatically notified Billing Service Server X Restored (1st₎ Business Service's restored Requests auto-closed Business users notified

NOTE: 3 service incidents generated for this outage

e.g Your own scripts, Network/hardware Monitoring, Security, Operational Events

Each customer who reported an incident against any of the services receives an automatic receipt & closure notification

(Asset & Configuration Mgt. Database)

CMDB

Identify & agree high level scope

of CMDB

Scope & level of detail required

(phase 1)

1. Phased approach recommended - Identify

a) Critical services

b) Underpinning services, critical servers & devices

c) Critical applications

d) Licensed applications

e) VIP People & places

f) Devices & Services required for Business continuity

g) Support for related Key ITSM processes (e.g. Change &

incident)

Phase 1 - Key Steps Required

1. Produce required ITSM policies, processes &

procedures for maintaining CMDB

2. Collect information relating to IT products & services

within key locations

3. Identify & collect critical servers & services for all

locations

4. Provide phased collection for each site

(e.g.

Period1=Kettering, Period 2=London)

Team Questions*

1. In order to obtain team buy-in & contribution, we need to

ensure there is a direct benefit for each team –

“

What’s in

it for me

”

– What decisions does the business want to make?

– What does change & problem management need?

– What do applications support need?

– What does finance need?

– What does the Service Desk need?

– What does business continuity need?

– What do the other teams need (e.g. networks, operations)?

– Facilities & telecoms?

CMDB Data Population &

Maintenance

Data availability/sources

1. What have we got; where is it; who owns it?

– Master source of Supplier & Contact data

– Asset databases

– Spread sheets

– LDAP databases may contain additional information

– HR, Pat testing, facilities databases

Data collection methods

1. Manually

- can be time consuming

2. Semi-automatic

- with Bar code scanners

– Resource intensive, but accurate

3. Auto-discovery

- Discovery tools can be expensive & resource

intensive.

You still have to manage the exceptions

4. Required Activities

-– Obtain details from discovery supplier which components will be identified & what will not be identified

– We need to Identify what elements of the discovery data is required (defining the filters)

– Check mapping to ITSM tool is possible & at what level of integration will be available

TOOLS

(A fool with a tool is still a fool)

1. Standalone Asset/CMDB tool will limited its

value

2. You will need an integrated IT Service

management software tool to best

exploit

your

CMDB investment

3. The tool will fail without underpinning policies,

processes & procedures, which are

available

followed

Process Reinforcement Statements

1. A process exists to produce

quality products & services

2. A process which inhibits quality

is a bad process

3. Process, whether defined or

understood, always exists

4. Process must evolve to be

successful

Marval Process Improvement process

Education

1. Hold awareness, benefits & training sessions

before you start (not after)

2. Run usage scenarios for policies, processes,

procedures & workflows

3. Understanding the processes, procedures &

workflows required to support the CMDB

4. How to use the new processes, procedures &

workflows from within your ITSM tool

Reporting & Governance Actions

1. Is there any Governance/regulatory requirements & evidence

required

2. Identify who needs what information from the CMDB – e.g.

– Applications team – Service Desk – Finance department – Change management – Quality assurance – Contracts/license management – Others

Business Continuity Actions

1. Identify critical Hardware components (e.g.

– Servers

– Routers

2. Identify critical Services & Applications running on critical

hardware

3. Identify critical applications/source which should be part

of the Definitive Software Library

4. Assign Business impact & risk ratings to critical items

5. Identify required reporting & audit checks

Asset & configuration item life-cycle

CMDB Process workflows

CMDB Process Requirements*

1. Identify high level processes required 2. Define support process & procedures

required to maintain the CMDB (e.g.

• Take-on • Moves • Disposals

• Ownership changes

• Configuration & relationship changes • Audit

• Loan

Related CMDB Process

Requirements

1. For all ITSM processes ensure they have an Update CMDB

step before closure (e.g. Incident, Change)

SOLVED

CI Classification rules

1. Keep them

simple

2. Only maintain to the level of detail you need & have the

resource to keep it up-to-date

3. Identify what you want to report on

before

you define the

classifications

4. Decide

who

needs to know

what

&

why

5. You must be able to make a

decision

on the collected

data

Data & its classification is the Key

1. No matter which service management processes you

implement, the data used will make them effective

a) Configurations are constantly changing, last week’s correct

data could be obsolete this week

b) Your configuration data must be available

to all

of your ITSM

processes, even the most accurate data is useless if you can’t

get to it

CMDB CI Categorisation*

1. High level grouping

– Category

(e.g. hardware, software, documentation)

– Major type

(computer, database) - *

– Minor type (e.g. Backup-server), use for detailed

classification

– Logical or physical CI

Logical configurations items

1. Is generally used a Grouping item

2. Makes CMDB maintenance/searcing easier

3. Used to identify a ‘Service’ or grouping CI’s

– FINANCIAL (LOGICAL) • Application 1 • Application 2 – Training-room1 • Location • PC 1 • PC 2 • Projector

Minor type consideration

1. Use a minor type to maintain the right level of detail

needed

1. Backup-Server – 20 pieces of data 2. PC – 10 pieces of data 3. Printer – 3 pieces of data

Hardware Computer Backup server Email server Database server Network Category Hardware Software Application Documentation Service Software Application Payroll System

Define CI Organisational Grouping activity*

1. Define organisational structure to support

reporting & grouping – e.g.

– Department

– Division

– Site

– Location

– Region

Define Misc. CI Attributes

1. System ID 2. Cost centre 3. DSL Item 4. DHS item

5. Business continuity item 6. Last audit date

7. Next audit date

8. Last preventative maintenance 9. Service state

– Under warranty – Under maintenance – None

CI Status Codes*

1. Describing the current operational state of a CI.

E.g. – Active – Disposed of – Damaged – Free – Under Change – Reserved – In Repair – In Test – Stock

SLA & OLA CI assignment*

1. Maintenance contracts

– CI Exceptions

2. Asset/CI

3. Services

4. CI major types (e.g. web server, email servers)

5. Locations

6. People + suppliers

7. Departments

ITIL CI Relationships

1. Child of

2. Concerns

3. Connected with

4. Depends upon*

5. Is a copy of

6. Is part of

7. Runs on

8. Uses

Conclusion

• Building an effective CMDB is NOT difficult, it just

requires:

1. Attention to detail

2. Having the right policies, processes & procedures in place

3. People to follow process

4. Demonstrable business & operational benefits

5. Hard work

ICT’s role is to help the business do things

F

aster,

More

_R

eliably

More

_E

fficiently

More

_C

ost effectively

With the

evidence

to prove it

The End

Thanks for listening

[email protected]

www.marval-group.com

CMDB Work Packets

Breaking in down into smaller

chucks really works

Objective

1. To Identify the required work packets that will contribute to the

delivery of a phase 1 Project

2. Assign activities, roles & responsibilities

– Project – Process – Technical – Data

5 days

• Process: Identify related ITSM

CMDB process, sub processes & activities. E.g. Change

control, availability CW4

1 day

• Technical: If required,confirm

from discovery tool supplier which components will be identified & what will NOT be identified for all required

platforms. CW3

2 days

• Process: Define CMDB

process activity owners, roles & responsibilities

CW2

5 days

• Project: Define business case,

& obtain management sponsorship CW1

Estimate in

man-days

Owner(s)

Description

Task

30 days

• Data: Collect information relating

to Critical IT products & services CW7

30 days

• Process: Produce required

ITSM policies, processes & procedures & workflows for maintaining the CMDB

CW6

5 days

• Project: Agree CI scope & detail

(Stage 1) – Business Critical & underpinning services

– Critical servers/devices – Critical services – Critical applications – VIP People & places

– Devices & Services required for Business continuity

– Support for related Key ITSM processes (e.g. Change & incident)

CW5

Estimate in

man-days

5 days

• Technical: Review

requirements for data

integration & maintenance with

ITSM tool CW12

60 days

• Technical: Identify critical

relationships of which

applications & services run on which server for each

site/location CW11

3 days

• Project: Define plan &

time-lines for non-critical CI collection for remaining sites CW10

5-240 days

• Data: Identify & collect critical

servers & services for remaining (locations/Sites) CW9

Estimate in

man-days

30 days

• Data: Business continuity

-Identify critical Hardware components (cross ref. with critical servers activity)

CW16

15 days

• Project: Identify reporting &

governance/evidence

requirements for support teams & business

CW15

30 days

• Project: Create CMDB

training program

for:-• CMDB Awareness & benefits sessions • New Process & procedure training • Using new processes, procedures &

workflows from within ITSM tool

• Sample usage scenarios for new processes, procedures & workflows

CW14

5 days

• Technical: Create a test

system/environment for new CMDB database & test

CW13

Estimate in

man-days

15 days

• Data: Business continuity

-Assign Business impact & risk ratings to critical items

CW20

10 days

• Data: Business continuity

-Identify critical applications which should be part of the Definitive Software Library (Master software source code) CW19

30 days

• Data: Business continuity

-Identify critical Services &

Applications running on critical hardware

CW18

15 days

• Data: Business continuity

-Identify critical Services & Applications CW17

Estimate in

man-days

2 days

• Technical: Finalise & agree

organisational structure to support reporting (e.g.. site, department, region etc)

CW24

2 days

• Technical: Define & agree

technical major type CI

attributes. E.g. category, major & minor types

CW23

1 day

• Technical: Finalise & agree CI

Relationships CW22

10 days

• Process: Business continuity

- Identify required CI reporting, audit checks & processes including DSL verification CW21

Estimate in

man-days

60 days

• Project: Identify external, internal business services, Operational & Core Services

CW27

30 days

• Project: Identify & agree what

SLA/OLAs should be attached to which CI’s (service, people, places etc)

CW26

1 day

• Technical: Finalise & agree CI

Status codes CW25

Estimate in

man-days

3 days

• Technical: Transfer

re-configured CMDB to live environment & test

CW30

30 days

• Project: SLAs: Identify

business & supplier; related licences, contract & SLA details.

• Identify any contract conflicts & overlaps

CW29

90 days

• Project/technical: Map

external, internal business services, Operational & Core services & relationships to

Underpinning CIs

(output=revised service catalogue & SLA Targets)

CW28

Estimate in

man-days

10 days

• Tool: Review CMDB exploitation – e.g. Emailing, Service desk,

system mgt. & event mgt. tools

CW34

3 days

• Technical: Review application support for CW32

CW33

90 days

• Project: Review, document & confirm requirements for

application management Identify for each application:- e.g.

• Underlying database version

• Application interfaces

• Developed with

CW32

10 days

• Process: Important: Review &

modify related ITSM workflows , processes & procedures to

include a ‘Update CMDB step’ CW31

Estimate in

man-days

What’s in a Configuration Item?

Data is the Key

1. No matter which service management processes you

implement, the data they use will make them effective

– Your configuration data must be accurate, which means it must be updated frequently

– Configurations are constantly changing, so last week’s correct data could be horribly obsolete this week

– Your configuration data must also be available to all of your IT processes, because even the most accurate data is useless if you can’t get to it

Understanding a CMDB Model

1. Relationships between CIs

– Relationships make the CMDB a powerful decision support tool – Relationships allow you to understand the dependencies among CIs

2. Related Data

– Includes information related to CIs, such as incidents, change requests, contracts, Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

– Contains information about your CIs & forms an important part of your IT infrastructure

Value Proposition

1. Relationships between CIs bring it all together

2. CMDB provides a single source of record that can be leveraged by

all ITSM processes

3. Configuration Management provides better control, integration &

decision support across your organization

4. It is critical to ensure the CMDB always provides accurate

information about your infrastructure

The CMDB Challenges

1. To have the plan & processes in place to keep it up-to-date

• Start with a phased approach, critical servers & services first

• If you find it difficult – hire a “STOREMAN” not an IT guy

2. To identify how to better exploit the CMDB to make

informed decisions & risk assessments

3. Note:

Discovery tools will help but are not a substitute for

good change control

Start

Discover

components

Discover

Assets

Add CI (s) to

CMDB

Use it

End

_{2. Define CI}

Yes

End

NO

Are CI’s for this

asset defined

Do you need to manage CI

The End

Thanks for listening

[email protected]

www.marval-group.com