Checklist CMS CMDB

ITIL Process: ITIL V3 Service Transition - Service Asset and Configuration Management

Checklist Category: Checklists ITIL V3 Service Transition

Source: Checklist "Configuration Management System (CMS)/ Configuration Management Database (CMDB)" from the ITIL Process Map V3

The Configuration Management System (CMS) is a coherent logical model of the IT organization’s infrastructure, typically made up of several Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) as physical sub-systems.

It is used to store information on all Configuration Items (CIs) under the control of Configuration Management. CIs are mainly hardware or software items and are characterized by their attributes (recorded in the CI’s Configuration Record) and their relationships to other CIs.

Depending on the type of CI, typical attributes of a CI Record include:

1. Unique identifier
2. Name
3. Description
4. CI owner/ person in charge
5. Classification
   1. Category (e.g. Service, Hardware, Software, Document, Staff ...)
   2. Type (e.g. Server, Printer, ... - refinement of the classification into categories)
6. Manufacturer information
   1. Manufacturer name
   2. Serial number
   3. License number/ reference to license contract
7. Version
8. Modification history of the CI Record
   1. Date of creation
   2. Modifications
   3. Description of modification
   4. Date
   5. Person in charge
9. Location
   1. Physical location, if applicable
   2. Logical location, if applicable (e.g. fileserver directory)
10. Status history (description of the life cycle of a CI with status values, as for example „Undergoing Test“, ..., „Active“, ..., „Undergoing Maintenance“, ..., „Out of Operation“, ...)
    1. Present status and version
    2. Status and version history (historical Changes to the status of the CI or Changes planned for the future)
       1. Status change
       2. Description
       3. Time and date of the Change in status
11. Relationships to IT services
12. Relationships to other CIs, e.g.
    1. Is a component of
    2. Is associated with
    3. Uses
    4. Is a characteristic of
    5. Is a new version of
    6. Will be replaced by
13. Relationships to other data objects within Service Management
    1. Incident Records
    2. Problem Records
    3. Known Errors
    4. Change Records
14. License details
15. Document references
    1. Contractual documentation
    2. Operating documentation
    3. User documentation
    4. Emergency-relevant documentation
    5. Other documentation