Managing relationships between configuration items

Configuration items (CIs) do not exist in a vacuum; CIs affect each other. For example, one CI could use, depend on, be a component of, enable, be a member of, or be located in another CI. Storing these relationships in the CMDB enables you to see how CIs interrelate and affect one another.

The use of relationships is a feature that differentiates between a CMDB and an asset store.

Relationships can be simple, such as a disk drive being a component of a computer system, or more complex. Relationships exist not only between physical CIs, but also between logical and conceptual CIs, such as the software instances and service instance. Relationship data makes the CMDB a powerful decision support tool. Understanding the dependencies and other relationships among your CIs can tell you how upgrading Processor A can improve Server B's performance or which services are affected if Router C failed. Most downtime is caused by issues stemming from configuration changes. Accurate relationship information can help you prevent those issues.

The following topics are provided:

To create a relationship between configuration items

1. Click the Remedyforce CMDB tab.
2. In the left pane of the CMDB Manager, select the CMDB class whose CIs you want to view.
3. In the right pane of the CMDB Manager, select the CI that you want to relate to another CI.
   To search for a CI, type initial characters of the name of the CI or the full name of the class name in the Search text box and click  For example, to search for Email Service CI, you can type Email or Email Service in the Search text box and click . You can also search using data in the Instance ID, Instance Name, Description, Class Name, Asset #, Token ID, and Serial # fields. If you select a class in the left pane, only the CIs of that class are searched. To search all classes, select the Base Element class in the left pane.
4. Click .
5. In the Instance Editor, click the Relationships tab.
6. Click .
7. In the Relationship Name field, type a unique alphanumeric identifier that you want to assign to the current relationship.
8. Click Select Class Instance and perform the following actions in the Select From Class Instances window.
   1. In the left pane, select the class whose CI you want to relate to the current CI.
   2. In the right pane, select the CI that you want to relate to the current CI.

   3. Click OK.
      If you did not specify a name in the Relationship Name field in step 6, the field is populated with a name in the following format:
      
      <Value of Instance Name field on left side> - <Value of Instance Name field on right side>
      
      For example, if the value in the Instance Name field on the left side is Instance Offering and the value in the Instance Name field on the right side is Description, the Relationship Name field is populated as Instance Offering - Description.

      Note

      The Select Class Instance button is not available when you edit an existing relationship.

9. In the Description field, type a description of this relationship.

10. To mark this relationship as deleted, select the Mark As Deleted check box.

    Note

    If this check box is selected, the relationships are only shown in the Relationship list views, but not in CI lookups, Impact Analysis window, or CI Explorer.

11. From the Type list, select the type of the relationship.
12. From the Direction list, select the direction arrow that is updated between the two icons.
    When you select the Source-destination or Destination-Source value in the Type list, the direction arrow is populated.
13. Click .
14. To return to the Instance Editor, click .
    The relationship that you have created appears in the Relationship section.
15. To return to the CMDB Manager, click  .

To navigate to the Instance Editor of related CIs

From the Instance Editor of a CI, you can navigate to the Instance Editor of its related CIs.

1. On the Instance Editor of the CI, click on the Relationships tab.
2. On the list view of the related CIs, click on the CI Name link of the CI whose Instance Editor you want to open.
   The Attributes tab of the Instance Editor of the related CI is displayed.

To launch Configuration Items Explorer from the Instance Editor

From the Instance Editor of the CI, click  to launch the Configuration Items Explorer (CI Explorer) of the CI. For more information, see Working with the Configuration Items Explorer.