CMDB
The single source of truth for your IT estate.
The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is the single source of truth for your IT estate, every server, database, application and, critically, the relationships between them. It underpins change impact analysis, event correlation and most of ITOM. A trustworthy CMDB is the hardest and most valuable thing to get right.
- CIs and the class hierarchy
- Try it: query the CMDB
- Relationships are the whole point
- Keeping it trustworthy
- How it's populated
The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is the single source of truth for your IT estate, every server, database, application and, critically, the relationships between them. It underpins change impact analysis, event correlation and most of ITOM. A trustworthy CMDB is the hardest and most valuable thing to get right.
CIs and the class hierarchy
Everything in the CMDB is a Configuration Item (CI), a record extending the base class cmdb_ci. Specific classes extend it in the table hierarchy, inheriting common fields and adding their own:
Try it: query the CMDB
Everything in the CMDB is reachable from a script. Run this to list active configuration items with GlideRecord, then edit it, change the table to incident or add your own gs.info() line:
▸ Press Run to execute.
Runs in a sandbox in your browser. Mock gs and GlideRecord and sample data are provided.
Authoritative sources
- ServiceNow CMDB documentation - CMDB, CI classes and IRE reference
- ServiceNow CSDM framework - Common Service Data Model guidance
Practice challenge
FAQ
What is CMDB in ServiceNow?
The CMDB (Configuration Management Database) is the single source of truth for your IT estate. It stores configuration items (CIs), servers, databases, applications, and the relationships between them, which power change impact analysis, event correlation and most of ITOM.