Portfolio and Technology Blog: 20 Years of Tinkering

Many times CMDB projects encounter a situation where the CI's contained in the CMDB become unreliable, and thus the value is lost.  Typically this occurs after a period of time has elapsed from the initial deployment.

The Configuration Librarian.

The Configuration Librarian's responsibility is "…maintaining up-to-date (and historical) records of configuration items.." There is a lot of work implied between the lines in that  description. Regardless, without at least one dedicated Librarian, the CMDB will never be accurate. My experience is CMDB customers usually expect the entire CMDB scope to be automatic. And no matter what your Sales Rep tells you, its simply not true.

And that makes perfect sense. What other Enterprise solution maintains itself without administration? CMDB is no different and requires at the least a nominal investment in time and resources. Honestly, I'd say its much lighter in this regard than most other Enterprise solutions out there. Further, I would suggest a point of contact be made available from every organization involved in the scope (servers, networks, databases, apps, etc).

What separates the HP uCMDB from competitors is the high level of customization available to meet the needs of a unique Enterprise. If OTB discovery and enrichments are not sufficient, the capability is certainly there to expand those functionalities, based upon your own needs. However, this requires knowledgable resources… which comes back to the original point above; time and resources are required (just like any other Enterprise Solution).

Here is a breakdown of the Librarians' Key Activities:

• Assist "ABC" in planning for Configuration Management databases and activities
• Identify Configuration Items under "ABC" management
• Control Configuration Item information
• Perform status accounting
• Perform verification and audit of Configuration Management databases
• Provide management information about Configuration Management quality and operations
• Maintain quality of CI information entered into "ABC" CI Databases
• Collect information about the current state of CIs
• Receive and obtain announcements of significant changes in the state or condition of CIs
• Respond to requests for CI changes and updates from Change Management
• Provide CI information upon request

With at least one dedicated Librarian, depending on scale, you are on the right path to having an accurate CMDB.  Can you spot the gap in your deployment above?

This movie contains a very simple CLIP 9.0 solution demonstration flow.  The CLIP 9.0 solution from HP Software helps IT organizations achieve its goals of IT efficiency, increased automation levels and focusing on the business by implementing the Event and Incident Management ITIL processes and focusing on the inter-connection between them. CLIP addresses the needs to reduce the MTTR, and increase the MTBF allowing higher levels of Service Availability.

Note:  There is no Audio in this video.