Overview of the Remedyforce CMDB tab

The Remedyforce CMDB tab enables you to view the CMDB classes, and manage the CMDB instances. A CMDB instance represents a record in the Remedyforce CMDB, which can be classified as configuration item (CI), asset, or both CI and asset.

The following topics are provided:

Viewing classes and managing configuration items and assets

You can view classes, and manage related CIs and assets on the Remedyforce CMDB tab based on the following configurations set by the system administrator:

• CI and asset management configurations
• Remedyforce CMDB user permissions

CI and asset management configurations

Classes are displayed on the left pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab based on the CI and asset management configurations set by the system administrator.

• If the system administrator has enabled both CI and asset management, the top of the left navigation pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab displays the following tabs:

On the Remedyforce CMDB tab, the CI, Asset, and All tabs are displayed to you only if the system administrator has assigned you the required CMDB user permissions (Update and Delete, Update, or Read-Only) for both CI Management View and Asset Management View. For more information, see Remedyforce CMDB user permissions.

• If only CI management is enabled, the left pane displays only the CI classes and All CIs (Base Element) is displayed at the top of the class hierarchy and is not highlighted.
• If only asset management is enabled, the left pane displays only the asset classes and All Assets (Base Element) is displayed at the top of the class hierarchy and is not highlighted.

For more information about the enabling CI management, see Enabling CI management; for more information about enabling asset management, see Enabling asset management.

Remedyforce CMDB user permissions

System administrators can assign the following user-specific CMDB user permissions for CI Management View and Asset Management View to restrict what non-administrator users can view and manage on the Remedyforce CMDB tab:

• Update and Delete
• Update
• Read-Only
• None
• Hidden

If the system administrator has enabled both CI and asset management, and has assigned you Hidden permissions for one of the views (CI Management View or Asset Management View), the top of the left pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab does not display the CI, Asset, and All tabs. You must be assigned at least Read-Only permission for both CI Management View and Asset Management View for these tabs to be displayed. For more information about, see Managing Remedyforce CMDB user permissions.

Following is an example of the Remedyforce CMDB tab when both CI and asset management are enabled and you have been assigned Update and Delete permissionfor both CI Management View and Asset Management View:

When you click on the All tab, in the Tile and List views, class names are followed by the class type (for example, CI, Asset, and CI and Asset); in the Tree view, the class type is displayed in a tooltip for the Asset and CI and Asset classes.

Irrespective of CI and asset management configuration, the left pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab does not display any hidden classes in the Tile, List, and Tree views. However, when you search for instances, CIs and assets of hidden classes are displayed in the search results.

From the Views menu (), you can perform the following actions:

• To view instances of subclasses of the selected class, select the Include instances of subclasses option.
• To view the instances of the selected class, select the Configuration Items option.
• To view only the Business Services, select the Business Services option.

The Configuration Items and Business Services options are enabled only if you select the All CIs (Base Element) class in the left pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab.

Viewing classes and related CMDB instances

The following table lists the types of class which displayed on the left pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab, the related CIs and assets of a class which are displayed on the right pane, and the attributes which are displayed the Instance Editor form, based on the CI and asset management configuration. For more information about the out-of-the-box attributes that are specific to a class, see BMC Remedyforce CMDB Common Data Model.

Searching for CIs and assets in the list view

The list view on the Remedyforce CMDB tab displays all instances of the class that is selected in the left navigation pane, along with instances of its child classes. You can use the Search box to search for CIs and assets based on specific keywords. Alternatively, in BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0, you can use search filters () to perform a precise search based on multiple criteria.

How the search feature works in the CMDB list view

You can either perform a keyword-based search or apply filters to CIs and assets in the list view. When you apply a filter, the keywords that you have specified in the Search box are cleared. Similarly, when you specify keywords in the Search box, the applied filter is cleared. To indicate that a filter has been applied to CIs and assets in the list view, the filter icon changes from to .

The following table describes how search works in the list view:

To create, apply, and save a filter

Create filters to search for CIs or assets based on multiple criteria. You can apply dynamic filters or choose to save filters that are frequently used.

Consider the following points when creating a filter:

• • A maximum of 20 filters can be created. Each filter can contain a maximum of 20 criteria.
    The performance of search filters might be impacted based on the number of defined filter criteria and the data type of fields in the filter criteria.  
  • Filters are defined for the specific class that is selected in the Class Name = selectedClass filter criterion. Note the following points about selecting a class in the Class Name filter criterion:
    • When a class is selected in the left navigation pane, you can create filters for that class only.
    • When All Instances (Base Element), All CIs (Base Element), or All Assets (Base Element) is selected in the left navigation pane, you can define filters for any class in the hierarchy.
  • The AND logical operator is used for all filter criteria by default and cannot be modified.
  • In the filter criteria, you can select only one value for fields of the Picklist (Multi-Select) data type.
  • Filter criteria can be defined on all supported fields of the class that you have selected in the Class Name filter criterion and its parent classes.
    You cannot define filter criteria for fields of the Long Text Area and Text Area (Rich) data type. To search for CIs and assets based on values in any fields of these data types, use the keyword-based search box.

  • Operators that are available for a filter criterion are based on the data type of the selected field:

    Data type	Supported operators
    Text	=, !=, LIKE, NOT LIKE, STARTS WITH
    Phone, Check box, Lookup, Picklist	=, !=
    Currency, Number, Percent, Date, Date/Time, Picklist	=, !=, >, >=, <,<=
    Email	=, !=, LIKE, NOT LIKE
    Text Area	LIKE, NOT LIKE, STARTS WITH
    Formula	Supported operators are displayed based on the data type of the Formula field. For example, the operators displayed for a field of the Formula (Text) data type are =, !=, LIKE, NOT LIKE, STARTS WITH.
    Geolocation	=, !=, >, >=, <,<=

To update, delete, or clear filters

You can update or delete saved filters, and clear dynamic or saved filters that are applied to the list view. On the Remedyforce CMDB tab, select a class in the left navigation pane, and perform one of the following actions:

• •  Click the filter icon () and click Clear Applied Filter to clear the dynamic or saved filter that is currently applied to CIs and assets in the list view.

  • Click the filter icon (), and from the Selected Filter list, select the filter that you want to update.
    

    Consider the following points when updating a saved filter:

    • If you update the filter criteria and click Save, the filter criteria is updated. However, you must click Apply to filter CIs and assets in the list view based on the updated criteria.

    • If you update the filter criteria and click Apply, a new dynamic filter with the updated criteria is applied to CIs and assets in the list view. Also, the Selected Filter list displays the None value.
  • Click the filter icon (), and from the Selected Filter list, delete the appropriate filter.
    

    

Working with CIs and assets

The following table lists the actions that you can perform from the Remedyforce CMDB tab. You can perform only those actions for which your system administrator has granted you access.

Related topics

Coexistence of assets and CIs in Remedyforce CMDB

Tracking CI updates by using the Chatter Feed

Configuring BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0