Configuration Management

Objectives:
• Providing information on the IT infrastructure
o To all other processes
o IT Management
• Enabling control of the infrastructure by monitoring and maintaining information
on:
o All the resources needed to deliver services
o Configuration Item (CI) status and history
o Configuration Item relationships

Tasks:
• Identification and naming
• Management information
• Verification
• Control
• Status Accounting

Asset:
Component of a business process like people, accommodation, computer systems,
paper records, fax machines, etc.

Configuration Management Database:
A database, which contains all relevant details of each Configuration Item (CI) and details of the important relationships between CIs.

A Configuration Item (CI):
• Is needed to deliver a service
• Is uniquely identifiable
• Is subject to change
• Can be managed

A Configuration Item (CI) has:
• a Category
• Relationships
• Attributes
• a Status

Variant:
A Configuration Item (CI) that has the same basic functionality as another Configuration Item (CI) but is different in some small way (ex: has more memory)

Baseline:
A snapshot of the state of a Configuration Item and any component or related Configuration Items, frozen in time for a particular purpose (such as the ability to return a
service to a trusted state if a change goes wrong)
Configuration Management supports all other processes!
Scope vs. Detail
Relationships – Common Types:
• Is a component of
• Is a copy of
• Relates to
• Relates with
• Is used by