Creating and updating configuration items

You can create and update configuration items (CIs) to represent a physical, logical, or conceptual entity that is part of your IT environment. A CI instance has configurable attributes. Examples include computer systems, buildings, employees, software, and business services. To be able to create and update a CI, the system administrator must enable CI management, and assign you the required Remedyforce CMDB user permissions for the CI Management View. For more information, see Enabling-CI-management and Managing-Remedyforce-CMDB-user-permissions.

Note

You can also create instances of the type CI/Asset, which can be categorized as a CMDB record which is both a CI and an asset. To be able to create and update CI/Asset instances, the system administrator must enable both CI and asset management, assign you the required Remedyforce CMDB user permissions for both CI Management View and Asset Management View.

To create or update a configuration item

  1. Click the Remedyforce CMDB tab.

    Note

    If you do not have the Create, Edit, and Delete permissions on the class of a CI, the New and Save toolbar icons on the Remedyforce CMDB tab are disabled. For more information, see Managing-permissions-for-CMDB-classes.

  2. In the left navigation pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab list view page, select the class in which you want to create or update a CI.
    Classes and related CMDB instances (such as CIs, assets, and CIs and assets) are displayed on Remedyforce CMDB list view page depending on the CI and asset management configuration set by the system administrator and the CMDB user permissions assigned to you. For more information, see Overview-of-the-Remedyforce-CMDB-tab.

    Note

    You cannot create CIs of abstract classes. For more information about abstract classes, see BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0 architecture.

  3. In the right pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab, perform one of the following actions:
    • To create a new CI, click New.

    • To update an existing CI, select that CI on the right panel and click Edit.

      To access the Remedyforce CMDB tab, and create and update CI and CI/Asset instances, the system administrator must assign you the required CMDB user permissions. For more information, see Creating and updating configuration items.

  4. On the General tab of the Attributes section in the CMDB Instance Editor, enter the attribute values for the CI.
    The Class Name attribute indicates the class whose CI you are creating. 
  5. (Optional) On the Specifications tab of the Attributes section, enter more attribute values for the CI.
    The Specifications tab contains attributes that are specific to the CI class. If you are creating a CI for the Base Element class, no attributes are displayed on the Specifications tab. For more information about the out-of-the-box attributes which are specific to a class, see BMC-Helix-Remedyforce-CMDB-Common-Data-Model.
  6. (Optional for CMDB 1.0 only) On the Custom tab of the Attributes section, enter the custom attribute values for the CI.
    The Custom tab appears in the Instance Editor when the system administrator creates custom attributes for a CMDB class and makes these custom attributes available for a class. When you create a CI of the class, these custom attributes appear in this tab as custom attributes of the CI.

  7. Click Save.
    For the saved records, the Source field is set to Remedyforce UI. You can use the Source field to generate reports and also when you enable and configure reconciliation. This field is not available on the Instance Editor by default.
    The following attribute fields on the Attributes > General tab are automatically populated:

    • Created Date–This attribute is set to the date and time at which the CI is created.
    • Last Modified By–This attribute is set to the user who last modified the CI.
    • Last Modified Date–This attribute is set to the date and time at which the CI was last modified.

    The Class ID attribute is set to the ID of the class whose CI is being created.

  8. To return to the Remedyforce CMDB tab list view page, click Back.

Attributes on the General tab

The General tab contains attributes that are common across all the CMDB classes. However, the system administrator can add more attributes to the form. The following table describes the attributes that are available on the General tab by default.


Updating the class of a CMDB instance

Updating the class name of a CMDB instance (CI, asset, or CI and asset) is not supported from the CMDB Instance Editor. In BMC Remedyforce CMDB 2.0, if you wish to update the class of a CMDB instance, you must perform one of the following actions:

  • If the number of CMDB instances are few, you must note the details of those CMDB instances, delete those CMDB instances, and create new CMDB instances of the required class with the details you have noted.
  • If the number of CMDB instances are high, you must first export those CMDB instances to a .csv file, update the class name on the .csv file, delete the existing CMDB instances on the Remedyforce CMDB, and import the CMDB instances from the .csv file to the Remedyforce CMDB using an import tool (for example, Data Loader). For more information about importing data using an import tool, see Importing-data-into-BMC-Remedyforce-using-data-import-tools-other-than-Pentaho-packages.

Related topics

Linking-supporting-information-to-a-configuration-item

Managing-relationships-between-a-configuration-item-and-other-CMDB-instances

Managing-relationships-between-an-asset-and-other-CMDB-instances 

Creating-services

Overview-of-the-Remedyforce-CMDB-tab