CMDB – Yet Another MIB? On Reusing Management Model Concepts in ITIL Configuration Management

Abstract

Abstract. According to ITIL, a CMDB (Configuration Management Database), containing a logical model of the IT infrastructure, forms the basis for effective and efficient IT Service Management. However, a common understanding of what constitutes a CMDB has not yet been established. By contrast, concepts for building and using MIBs (Management Information Base) -also aimed at providing logical models of the IT infrastructure -have long since been established in the area of systems management.This paper presents an overview of the CMDB and MIB concepts, discusses how they relate to each other and compares them based on the main purposes of a CMDB. It discusses whether modeling approaches used for MIBs can be reused for CMDBs. To this end, a criteria catalog based on core CMDB concepts and basic information requirements of ITIL's Service Management processes are derived, and the challenges of implementing a CMDB reusing concepts of common management models are discussed. Concluding, basic approaches towards integrating CMDBs and MIBs are presented.

On tool support for Service Level Management: From requirements to system specifications

“…This is why adaptability is an important requirement on an information model in the area of ITSM (cf. [12]) and should be considered during its design.…”

“…al. [12], different information models from practice and research -among them the Common Information Model (CIM) and the Shared Information/Data Model (SID) -have been analyzed with respect to their capability to model ITIL information artifacts. The SID [13] has turned out as most promising, since SID has been developed to support and underpin eTOM's information artifacts and was the first information model tightly coupled to management processes.…”

A Model Based Framework Supporting ITIL Service IT Management

“…In 2006, Brenner and al. established a set of criteria for evaluate the possible reuse of CIM to build a CMDB [6]. They give a comprehensive overview of the criteria and illustrate how CIM fulfill these criteria.…”

Towards Semantic Interoperability in Information Technology: On the Advances in Automation

“…As MIB is limited in describing a single system, a view of the entire infrastructure, including the relationships between its components, is not supported by the model. In practice, this gap is often filled by functionalities provided by SNMP-based network management tools which, for example, support the visualization of network topologies (Brenner et al, 2006). Aside from the fact that, in general, the research initiatives are committed to the use of technologies and tools, it is also observed that they are characterized by specific purposes in relation to peculiar applications in information systems that restrict their conceptualizations.…”