ITIL Foundations
by James Pengelly (ed)
Stephen Bajada. (c) 2004. Copying Prohibited.
Reprinted for Elzbieta Pluta, Symantec
[e-mail]
Reprinted with permission as a subscription benefit of Books24x7,
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Table of Contents
Configuration Management.............................................................................................................1
Why Configuration Management?.........................................................................................1
Terms and Definitions............................................................................................................1
Planning Configuration Management
.....................................................................................2
Identification...........................................................................................................................3
Control...................................................................................................................................3
Status Accounting..................................................................................................................4
Verification and Audit.............................................................................................................4
Other Definitions....................................................................................................................4
Benefits..................................................................................................................................5
Exercises Configuration Management (Process).............................................................5
Configuration Management
Why Configuration Management?
The responsibility for businesses to deliver quality IT services economically, efficiently and
effectively is what drives Configuration Management. Configuration Management is the need to
control IT assets and services.
Terms and Definitions
Term Definition
CI Configuration Item. Anything within IT that is decided to be
within scope and can be changed should be considered a
"CI". This could be hardware, software, service level
agreements, job descriptions, and so on.
CMDB Configuration Management Database. The CMDB holds all
detail and relationship information of all CIs associated with
the IT infrastructure.
SCOPE The activities of configuration management include
identification, control, Status accounting and auditing. In
order to be able to do this, the company has to decide what
will be within scope of configuration management. If the
scope is too big then the CMDB might have integrity
issues. If the scope is too small then the CMDB might be
useless.
Configuration management, working with asset management, will ensure that all configuration items
(Software, Hardware and Documentation) are identified, recorded and tracked. All ITIL processes
rely on information supplied by Configuration Management. The information that will be available is:
" CI history (from the point of being ordered to retired).
" Information on all assets (what type of equipment, attributes and location, and so on).
" Information on how much assets are available when a release is being planned.
" The relationship between assets (PCs connected to server for instance).
" Call tracking data used in incident, problem and change management.
" Information on suppliers that are related to either service or asset providers.
" Information on lease management on all assets.
" Information used for auditing company assets to ensure asset management numbers.
" Information for IT Business Continuity Management Process (Base Line).
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ITIL Foundations 2
Planning Configuration Management
Planning the Configuration Management database will need a great deal of input from all IT
departments. The size of the database will depend on the information that the IT departments need
to provide and where it is coming from. The question that will pop up will be "How big or how small
will this database be?".
If the database is too small the information contained in it won't be of much use. There will be an
inability to track down certain CIs or do any trending. If it has too much information it will too
cumbersome to maintain and will soon become riddled with integrity issues. No one will want to
maintain a large database. Also, the cost of managing a large database may outweigh its value. It
really all depends on the scope and the resources to manage it.
The pertinent information may be found in a number of different databases, which needs to be
assembled into one logical format within the incident control system. In the diagram below you will
see that the service desk has access to information from five different databases. Having access to
this information depends on the incident control system tool you are using.
Processes, procedures and activities have to be defined. Who will manage it? There is going to be a
need for processes and procedures that will clearly define accountability and authority for managing
the information. Only the Configuration Management Owner can authorize people such as the
Service Desk Analyst to update or change the Configuration Management Database. The service
desk would be the likely group to do this since they are in contact with between 5 to 10 percent of
the employees of a company daily.
Planning the relationship processes between Configuration Management, Change Management
and Release Management as well as third-party vendors is important. Configuration Management
contains information on all CIs within the infrastructure. This information can help with Release
Rollouts, which are directed by Change Management.
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ITIL Foundations 3
For example, if your company decides to release Windows XP into your infrastructure there are
certain elements that need to be considered:
" How many licenses do we need?
" Is the equipment on which the software will be loaded capable of handling the operating
system?
" Will any training need to take place to make the transition smoother?
If your configuration management database is planned and built properly, this information is
obtainable. A tool that can do this will need to be selected. All of the larger Help Desk / Call Centre
solutions companies are ITIL certified and will be able to supply a tool that can do this for you.
Identification
You now have a configuration management database! So what do you need to do now? The next
step is to decide how you enter the information into your system. You have to decide on an
identifying and labeling procedure. When you decide what CIs are in the scope of your process you
either have to identify and label them yourself or have your third-party providers do that for you. It is
very important that you take care in this step. The Service Desk will need to ask this information of a
user when they call for support. If the information is not clear or understandable then the issue will
take much longer to resolve. Identifying equipment can be very straightforward.
For example: A laptop in company "ABC" located in building "10" on the "3rd" floor can be identified
as follows: ABCLT1003
" ABC - Company
" LT - Laptop
" 10 - Building 10
" 03 - 3rd Floor
This identification will now be associated with information related to that CI. The identification will
also include information regarding who owns the equipment and what version of operating system is
on it, as well as what server and department its associated with. All this information is vital to
understanding the impact that each piece of equipment has on the infrastructure. The business will
also have to decide what level of detail regarding each CI is appropriate - will having information on
the PC, monitor and keyboard be enough, or should the detail be at a deeper level?
Control
The person who owns the Configuration Management Database is called the "Configuration
Librarian". This person decides who has update authority. As mentioned earlier, the Service Desk
would be very helpful in this area considering the amount of contact they have with the users.
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ITIL Foundations 4
Only authorized CIs can be included. This means that if your standard desktop is an IBM machine
then any other manufacturers who are not recognized should not be included in the database.
From the moment that a purchase order for equipment is signed an entry into the database should
be made. This is very important for management to understand what their infrastructure looks like at
the earliest point. Upper management should also have access to this database, in order to find the
answers to simple questions about CIs throughout the company (that is, to determine how many
computers are owned by the company). This information should include all recent purchases. It is
also important for this database to track equipment to the point at which they are retired or disposed
of. This information will be used by a number of different ITIL processes, including IT Financial
Management.
Status Accounting
Status accounting takes into consideration the state of every CI within the company. If a computer is
ordered then its status is "ordered". When the CI arrives it is now in "received" status. When it is
deployed, in "active" status, and so on.
Every CI will have historical data associated with it. This will be beneficial when deciding on a
desktop that you want to use in your company. Historical status information will let you know the
success or failure rate for all CIs. For example if you determine from the data that the current
desktops had a higher than 10% failure rate then you should consider other options for future
acquisitions.
Status accounting information can be used for audit purposes to determine the current equipment
actively being used by the company.
Verification and Audit
Verification and Audits have to be done prior to any major changes and releases to CIs. This will
give your company an idea as to what equipment or technologies are out there and compare it with
the information within the database.
On average, the Service Desk comes into contact with between 5 - 10 % of company users daily.
This means that by asking a few selected questions, they can verify the accuracy of the information
in the database.
Other Definitions
" CI Attributes (unique identifiers)
f& Serial or copy number
f& Model number
f& License number
f& Type
f& Version
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ITIL Foundations 5
" Relationships
f& Connected to
f& Part of
f& Copy of
Benefits
" Configuration Management information that supports all other processes
" Information for impact and trend analysis for problems and changes
" Assists in adherence to legal and contractual obligations
" Reduces risk of unauthorized software
" Helping with financial planning
Exercises Configuration Management (Process)
The ABC Cookie Company needs to set up a configuration management process. How will you
apply the benefits Configuration Management to the ABC Cookie Company?
1. True or false? An Oven is a Configuration Item (CI)
2. What would be an attribute of an OVEN?
3. Which of the following is true?
(A)The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) contains physical copies of
hardware, software and documentation
(B) A job description is considered to be a CI item
A. Both A and B
B. Just A
C. Just B
D. None
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ITIL Foundations 6
Answers
1. An oven is a CI (True)
2. An attribute for an oven could be a rack or thermostat
3. Just B. No physical copies of hardware can be stored in the CMDB. A job description is a
CI because it can be changed.
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