What are the Configuration Item (CI) types?

The CMDB in SolarWinds Service Desk has several out-of-the-box CI types, meaning you can quickly create a CMDB data model reflective of your IT infrastructure. The CI types in Service Desk include Application , Building , Contract , Data Center , Database , Group , Other Asset , Person , Service , Software , System , and Vendor . Creating your own CI types is also possible in Service Desk. Creating custom CI types can help ensure your data model accurately reflects your IT infrastructure. Check out our Configuration item (CI) types documentation for more information.

What is the difference between CMDB and ITAM?

CMDB and IT Asset Management (ITAM) are important elements of IT service management, but they serve different purposes. CMDB is a centralized repository used to maintain information about configuration elements within an organization's IT infrastructure. It provides a comprehensive view of hardware, software, and their relationships. CMDB software serves as the basis for various IT processes, such as change management, incident management, and problem management. It helps organizations understand their IT landscape, track changes, and keep accurate configuration records. ITAM , on the other hand, focuses specifically on managing and optimizing an organization's IT resources throughout their lifecycle. IT resources include hardware, software licenses, contracts, and other technology-related resources. ITAM involves activities such as asset procurement, deployment, tracking, maintenance, and retirement. Its main goal is to help ensure efficient use of resources, minimize costs, and maintain compliance with licensing agreements and regulatory requirements. CMDB tools focus on managing configuration and relationship information of IT infrastructure, while IT asset management solutions focus on lifecycle management and optimization of IT resources. Both are critical to effective IT service management and complement each other to provide a holistic view of an organization's IT environment.

Why is it important to attach CIs to ITSM objects?

By attaching CIs to ITSM objects or processes, you can gain a deeper understanding of your CIs and how they work with one another, enabling you to determine the root cause of issues and can help you minimize downtime. The good news is connecting CIs and ITSM objects or processes is built to be simple using SolarWinds Service Desk. Creating dependencies in SolarWinds Service Desk CMDB can help enable you to understand the relationship between your CIs better. Not only can this give you increased visibility into your network and its assets, but you can also solve problems faster. For example, if your network router has an issue, you can see the servers and computers affected by your network router.

Why are dependencies important in CMDB software?

Dependencies are essential in a CMDB because they can help ensure a clear understanding of the relationships and interdependencies between different configuration elements within an organization's IT infrastructure. By documenting dependencies, the CMDB software can show how different CIs depend on each other to function properly. This information helps in several key areas: Change management : When making changes to an IT system, understanding dependencies can help you avoid unintended consequences and minimize disruption. Incident and problem management : Dependencies can help you detect and resolve incidents or problems by identifying which CIs are likely to be impacted or cause problems. This can also help enable faster resolution of problems. Planning and decision-making: Dependencies provide insight into capacity planning, system upgrades, and technology migrations. They can also help you assess the potential impact and risks associated with changes or investments. By understanding the dependencies in the CMDB, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of how different CIs interact and rely on each other within the IT infrastructure.

What is a CMDB visual map, and why is it useful?

A CMDB visual map represents your CIs and the relationships between them in an easy-to-understand way. Often, these maps are built to display CIs in a tree format, allowing users to immediately see which CIs are root CIs and which are dependent. CMDB visual maps can also allow you to drill down into your CIs and quickly filter by type or dependency to get the most out of your configuration management database software. With the help of a visual CMDB map, you can gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between your CIs and how they affect dependent CIs. You can also pinpoint causes of unavailability, identify a single point of failure and root causes, analyze the impact of a change, and help ensure the continuity of services. A CMDB visual map can provide the information you need to improve key IT service management processes, helping you make more informed decisions and accelerate the problem-solving process.

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What Is a CMDB?

Make Informed It Decitions

Centralize the Knowledge

Track Dependencies

Prevent Serious Problems

Understand your IT environment with a centralized CMDB

A configuration management database (CMDB) provides a centralized, structured record of the configuration items that make up your IT infrastructure. Rather than functioning as a static asset inventory, a CMDB uses a data model to track CI relationships, configuration details, and the services those items support

A CMDB helps IT teams move beyond a basic asset inventory. Instead of only tracking what they own, teams can understand how assets are configured, which services they support, and what may be affected when an incident or change occurs. When connected to IT asset management (ITAM) and IT service management (ITSM) workflows, a CMDB gives service desk agents and IT operations teams the context needed to investigate issues, assess change risk, and make better decisions.

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Make informed IT decisions with complete configuration context

A CMDB gives IT teams a clear view of the configuration items that support business services, including hardware, software, applications, and infrastructure. By connecting incidents, changes, and service requests to the right configuration items, teams can investigate issues with better context and make more informed decisions about what to prioritize next.

SolarWinds Service Desk brings together ITAM and configuration management, helping teams understand what they own, how it is configured, and where it may be affecting service delivery. Use that context to identify recurring issues, plan changes more carefully, and improve the information available to service desk agents.

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Create a trusted source of truth for your IT environment

Centralize the knowledge of every IT asset critical to your organization’s success

When asset and configuration data lives in spreadsheets, disconnected tools, and individual team knowledge, it is hard to know which information is current. SolarWinds Service Desk centralizes configuration items and related details in one CMDB, helping teams maintain a more reliable view of their IT environment.

Populate and maintain CMDB records through manual updates, network discovery, and integrations with tools such as Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Jamf, and VMware vCenter. Connect your CMDB with SolarWinds IT asset management to bring asset lifecycle information, hardware and software details, and service records into the same operational view. And build a more reliable single source of truth for your IT infrastructure with asset discovery, automated discovery, and integrations that keep configuration items and asset inventory data connected.

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Understand dependencies before they create disruption

Understand the full impact of assets through visible dependencies in a configuration management database

An isolated asset record rarely tells the whole story. Applications, devices, services, and infrastructure depend on one another, and a change to one configuration item can affect far more than the system being updated.

Use relationship mapping to understand CI relationships, support service mapping, and conduct change impact analysis before changes affect dependent applications, virtual machines, operating systems, or services. That context helps teams assess the potential impact of planned changes, identify affected services during an incident, and communicate risk before a small issue becomes a larger disruption. Pair this capability with ITSM change management to bring dependency data into change planning and approval workflows.

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Identify recurring issues before they become larger problems

Get ahead of major problems within your IT infrastructure with a CMDB

Connect configuration items to incident management, problem management, and change management workflows to speed root cause analysis, support risk assessment, and help teams address recurring issues before they affect service levels. That makes it easier to spot patterns, investigate likely root causes, and determine whether a problem record or change is needed to prevent recurrence.

SolarWinds Service Desk can also connect with SolarWinds Observability to turn relevant monitoring alerts into incidents automatically. Teams can use the operational context from observability alongside CMDB relationships and service desk history to investigate faster, route work to the right owners, and track resolution through a consistent workflow.

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Get More on CMDB Software

Do you find yourself asking…

What are CMDB tools and how do they work?
What is the difference between CMDB and IT asset management?
What are the CI types and why is it important to attach CIs to ITSM objects?
Why are dependencies important in CMDB software?
What is a CMDB visual map and why is it useful?
Does Service Desk include CMDB and asset management?
What is automated discovery in a CMDB?
How does a CMDB support change impact analysis?

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A configuration management database (CMDB) is an invaluable tool for storing up-to-date information about your organization's components and their relationships. ITIL CMDBs (Information Technology Infrastructure Library Configuration Management Databases) serve as a repository for information about your IT infrastructure's objects, hardware, and software. A configuration management database tool can label your assets as Configuration Items (CIs) and map their dependencies, classifying some CIs in a parent-child relationship.

With a CMDB solution, you can view your CIs and see how they work together to deliver IT services, giving you a deeper understanding of how individual assets affect everyday organizational activities. Configuration management database software can also track your CIs' configuration states and changes, letting you know how often specific CIs malfunctioned, how a failing CI impacted dependent CIs, and how configuration states changed over time.

With configuration management database software and its insights into your CIs, you can understand change impact, resolve problems faster, improve key IT service management (ITSM) processes, and boost IT productivity. A CMDB ITIL can also come in handy for compliance and audits, as you'll have records and visibility into changes, historical data, and the current state of your CIs.

An ITIL CMDB will generally feature access controls, enabling authorized team members to make and track changes. CMDB tools may also automatically scan the network and create CIs, offering easy-to-use dashboards built to provide valuable metrics and analytics.

The SolarWinds Service Desk CMDB includes many out-of-the-box CIs, so there's no need to set up manually. In the CMDB data model, CIs have a parent-child hierarchy. Each child CI type is built to automatically inherit its parent's layout and fields, saving time while providing customization opportunities. If none of the out-of-the-box CIs suit your needs, you can also easily create custom CI types.

A configuration management database (CMDB) is an invaluable tool for storing up-to-date information about your organization's components and their relationships. ITIL CMDBs (Information Technology Infrastructure Library Configuration Management Databases) serve as a repository for information about your IT infrastructure's objects, hardware, and software. A configuration management database tool can label your assets as Configuration Items (CIs) and map their dependencies, classifying some CIs in a parent-child relationship.

With a CMDB solution, you can view your CIs and see how they work together to deliver IT services, giving you a deeper understanding of how individual assets affect everyday organizational activities. Configuration management database software can also track your CIs' configuration states and changes, letting you know how often specific CIs malfunctioned, how a failing CI impacted dependent CIs, and how configuration states changed over time.

With configuration management database software and its insights into your CIs, you can understand change impact, resolve problems faster, improve key IT service management (ITSM) processes, and boost IT productivity. A CMDB ITIL can also come in handy for compliance and audits, as you'll have records and visibility into changes, historical data, and the current state of your CIs.

An ITIL CMDB will generally feature access controls, enabling authorized team members to make and track changes. CMDB tools may also automatically scan the network and create CIs, offering easy-to-use dashboards built to provide valuable metrics and analytics.

The SolarWinds Service Desk CMDB includes many out-of-the-box CIs, so there's no need to set up manually. In the CMDB data model, CIs have a parent-child hierarchy. Each child CI type is built to automatically inherit its parent's layout and fields, saving time while providing customization opportunities. If none of the out-of-the-box CIs suit your needs, you can also easily create custom CI types.
Dependencies show how configuration items rely on one another to deliver a service. When those relationships are documented in a CMDB, teams can better understand the likely effect of an outage, planned change, or recurring issue.

Dependency data helps teams assess risk before making changes, identify potentially affected systems during an incident, and investigate root causes more efficiently. It also supports clearer planning for upgrades, migrations, and capacity changes. This information helps in several key areas:

Change management: When making changes to an IT system, understanding dependencies can help you avoid unintended consequences and minimize disruption.

Incident and problem management: Dependencies can help you detect and resolve incidents or problems by identifying which CIs are likely to be impacted or cause problems.

Planning and decision-making: Dependencies provide insight into capacity planning, system upgrades, and technology migrations.

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