Representing CIs and their relationships in the Common Data Model

A CI or relationship classification is described by using common attributes that describe the base class (BMC_BaseElement ) and by using attributes of subclasses of the BMC_BaseElement class. Relationships are modeled as a base relationship class (BMC_BaseRelationship ) with subclasses for different types of relationships. 

BMC Discovery is one of the main data providers of BMC Helix CMDB because BMC Discovery discovers CIs and their relationships. These discovered CIs and relationships ultimately make up the service models, and makes it possible for consumers to create service models. The CIs and relationships include:

• Computer systems including servers, routers, physical and virtual systems, and operating systems
• Applications
• Software servers including specialized elements such as SAP, Siebel, and mainframe infrastructure components
• Databases
• Business process definitions
• Network elements

You can also create the service model by using classes from the CDM, or create a part of the service model by using an extension to the CDM. For models that require extensions to the CDM, the term data model is used.

Attributes are categorized as follows:

• Key attributes: attributes that must be populated/defined for a given class to create a specific CI.
• Additional attributes:  attributes that are optional and can be populated/defined to further classify a CI or relationship.

For more information about modifying the CDM, see Modifying the data model by using Class Manager.