About the Configuration Management Database

Configuration management refers to defining the configurations of devices in the Questra IDM Application Suite. A device's configuration is the combination of software and hardware used in its original manufacture or installation and in its ongoing maintenance. For example, when manufactured or originally installed, a device will have a specific known configuration. But over time, its configuration will change as its software is periodically updated, and as old and/or failed hardware is swapped out with new hardware.

As a configuration administrator, you use the Configuration Management Database (accessible with the CMDB Editor) to set up defined configurations, which you can then associate with device types. These defined configurations serve several purposes:

They can be compared to devices' actual configurations, which are read by the Service Agent on the devices. Users can view a device's actual configuration on in the Device Summary when the context is set to the device. Additionally, they can run reports on actual configurations.

They can be used when creating a software package to specify a prerequisite configuration (if any) and/or the resulting configuration once the package is installed on a device. For more information, see Adding software packages.
They can be used to set up dynamic groups of devices selected for membership in the appropriate groups according to their configurations. For more information, see Understanding dynamic group definitions.

Consider the following examples of defined configurations. Assume that you want to define different configurations of laptops in your organization, those used by managers, by sales personnel, and by developers. Each would be associated with configuration types such as operating systems, disk space, and memory. You might be planning to set up dynamic groups for each type of laptop, and you might be anticipating needing to distribute different software packages to each type of laptop in the future. Your defined configurations for these three different configurations of laptops might look like the following:

Manager Laptop
OperatingSystem = Windows XP Pro SP2
DiskSpace = 30 GB
RAM = 256 MB

Sales Laptop
OperatingSystem = Windows XP Pro SP2
DiskSpace = 30 GB
RAM = 256 MB

Developer Laptop
OperatingSystem = Windows XP Pro SP2
DiskSpace = 40 GB
RAM = 1 GB

Another example of a defined configuration would be that of the file server used for the Questra IDM Application Suite:

File Server
OperatingSystem = Solaris 9
DiskSpace > 500 GB
DiskRaidLevel = 5
RAM = 2 GB
EthernetSpeed = 1 GB

With the CMDB Editor, you define configurations from the top down rather than the bottom up. First, you define the configuration's metadata, then you create and associate configuration types with its, and finally you associate device types with it.