Configuration Management:

Getting Started

Presented By: Tony Iannetta, Evergreen Systems

1
 Overview
• What is Configuration Management

• Why Configuration Management

• The Scope of Configuration Management

• What You Can Learn

• Getting Started

• Q&A
 What is Configuration Management: 3 Legs

Three major components of the configuration management system

1. Configuration management (CM) is a set of policies, processes
and disciplines for effectively identifying, controlling, auditing and
managing configuration data

2. Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB) the data

repositories for the identification of all configured items (CI’s), their
attributes and their relationships to other CIs and the related IT
data that supports the service management processes

3. Configuration Management Automation (CMA) the body of

technologies necessary to effectively execute the auditing,
controlling, visualizing and managing of all configuration data.
 What is Configuration Management

In some sense, it is the natural progression of an IT Asset Management

Database….

Configuration Management

Asset Management

Inventory
Management
 Why Configuration Management: Reason 1

Regulatory Compliance – The Y2K of IT

Regulatory compliance includes configuration integrity of the
production environment

• The three pillars of configuration integrity:

1. Configuration Management and CM automation
2. Change Management disciplines and automation
3. Identity and access management (IAM)

• Implications
1. Reduce IT audit and compliance efforts by 60-80%
2. 80-90% fewer penalties

2005 Gartner, Inc. 29 November 2005/ID number G00131741

 Why Configuration Management: Reason 2

Improving service quality

Configuration management contributes to improving quality of
service by
– maintaining the information necessary to ensure IT changes do no
harm – 87 % of all IT incidents are caused by poor change
management.
– Increase speed and responsiveness to changes in the business
AND

Lowering cost of service delivery

Configuration management contributes to lowering the cost of service by:
– Increasing utilization of existing IT resources
– reducing the investment in IT infrastructure

2005 Gartner, Inc. 29 November 2005/ID number G00131741

 Why Configuration Management: Reason 3

Aligning IT with the business

Configuration management contributes to improving alignment of IT with
the business by
– Enabling service level uptime agreements
– Enabling rapid development of new services or changes to existing
services as the market dictates
– Demonstrating the same rigor in IT that the business puts toward it’s
customer.
2005 Gartner, Inc. 28 September 2005/ID number G00131333

Business Service Management (BSM) the real end game

Stages of BSM of global $1B+ companies
– Chaotic – 35% - limited formal processes for managing IT
– Reactive – 44% - IT inventory management implemented project by project
with some basic ITIL processes
– Stable – 14% - Integrated service delivery. IT asset management integrated
with ITIL
– Proactive – 7% - Business service framework
– Predictive – 1 % - Resource allocation to business need

Forester Research Inc. “IT Asset Management, ITIL and the CMDB Paving the Way for BSM”, October 2005
 Why Configuration Management: Reason 4

It’s the Center of a System…

Innovation
Improvement
Change
Build/
Buy
Change
Corrective RFC’s Management
Measures (Plan)

Problem Configuration Release

Management Management Management
(Act) (Register) (Do)

Incident
Management
Analysis/ (Check) Install
Evaluate
 Why Configuration Management: Reason 5

…and Not Just the Support System

IT Service Continuity
Service Level
Management
Use standard configurations from the CMDB
Management
(baselines) to specify disaster recovery Needs information about services and the
requirements and check that these relationships
configurations are available at the disaster between services and the underlying infrastructure
recovery site. CIs.

Capacity and Availability

Management Financial Management for
Use the CMDB to identify the CIs that contribute to a
service and for Component Failure Impact Analysis IT Services
(CFIA). Needs information about the use of services and CIs.
Use data from the CMDB to plan the optimization of the
IT infrastructure, to allocate the workload, and to
develop a capacity plan.
 The Scope of Configuration Management: The Process
a set of policies, processes and disciplines for effectively identifying, controlling, auditing and
managing configuration data CM

Determine Policy, Strategy and Objectives for available

Start Plannng
information. Identify tools, resources and how information should
be shared RFCs and Tasks
Scope, Policy, etc.
Selection and identification of CI structures into the CMDB
Identification
including data “owners”, relationships and documentation.

Family, Structure
Support reporting
Recommended Scope, Policy Changes
Reporting requirements from ITIL
Ensure only authorized CI’s are captured Control process areas in
“receipt to disposal”. Also ensures no CI’s support of process
are added or modified within the CMDB Procure,PReceive, deploy, Maintain, retire function and CMDB
Report
Recommended Scope, Policy, Identification Changes
without appropriate control documentation. data integrity.
(example-an approved Change Request). Status Collects and monitor CI history and
Accounting current status for completeness and
accuracy.
Status Change
Status Change
Completed Tasks and Closed Changes Verification
and Auditing
Perform physical audits and reviews to ensure data
is complete and accurate
Measure, Feedback, Recommend

CM
 The Scope of Configuration Management: The Control Process

Action is
CI is an
RFC/Task Yes Maintenance
Asset?
?

Yes Identifc
ation
Change No
Mgmt
Recommended Changes to Structure

Identific Change
ation New or Changed Asset CI ITAM Process Completed Task or Change Mgmt

Plannin
Recommended Changes to Policy, Scope g

Non Asset
New or Changed Non-Asset CI RFC/Task Family Control
Process
 The Scope of Configuration Management: The Control Process
Linking the Process to the Data
Data Capture Server Receive to Deploy

Operations Decommission
Deploy – Deploy – Deploy –
Receive Break/fix upgrade/ Rename/
Stage Install Operational
modify Inventory/ retire

Attribute Attribute Attribute Attribute Attribute Attribute

Internal Asset ID Shelf Hostname Lifecycle Status Env Status Lifecycle Status
Asset Tag Region CPU Environment Status Change Date
Asset Class City Num CPUs Backup / Exception GCM
Serial Number Office Total Memory Backup hostname
Barcode Floor OS Backup Active
Primary PO Number Data Hall MAC(s)
CSG
Cost Center Cabinet GRIPs ID
DNS Domain Information
IP Addresse(s)
Model OS Domain Information Server Type(s)
Vendor Backup Needed Active State
Lifecycle Status GRIPs ID Reservation Status
Lifecycle Status Change Date Memory Type DR- Repurpose- Status
Created by HBA Type Compute Farm
Created Date HBA Num Compute Farm Type
Last Modified By NIC Type HW Support Group
Last Modified Date NIC Num HW Support Group e-mail
Clustered Build Platform Support Group
Purpose Platform Support Group e-mail
Asset Parent
Asset Lease Start Date
Asset Lease End date
Backup Media Server
Backup schedule
Backup Retention Policy
Handover Date
Accepted Date
WWN(s)
DNS Alias(s)
Network Interface name(s)
Virtual IP(s)
 The Scope of Configuration Management: The Control Process
Linking the Process to the Data
Data Capture Application Design to Deploy

Optimize
Deploy – Operations
Design Build Deploy Rename/
Operational Patch/upgrade
Inventory/ retire

Atributes Atributes Atributes Attribute Atributes Attribute

Application Name SLA Hyperlink New Development Costs Application Name Lifecycle Status
Lifecycle Status
Application Identifier IT Operations Owner Production Metrics Application Identifier
Application Description Support Contacts Support Metrics Application Description
Business Function performed Network Topology Business Function performed
IT Services supported Application Technologies IT Services supported
Lifecycle Status Change Date Outsourced Functions Lifecycle Status Change Date
Lifecycle Status Outsource Partners Lifecycle Status
Executive Sponsor OLA Hyperlink Executive Sponsor
Geographies Supported Geographies Supported
Business Criticality Business Criticality
Business Owner SLA Hyperlink
IT Development Owner Business Owner
Data Base Technologies IT Operations Owner
Dependent Applications IT Development Owner
System Architecture Support Contacts
User Interfaces Data Base Technologies
Application Technologies Dependent Applications
System Architecture
User Interfaces
Network Topology
Application Technologies
New Development Costs
Annual Operations Costs
Annual Support Costs
Annual Maintenance Costs
Outsourced Functions
Outsource Partners
Production Metrics
OLA Hyperlink
Support Metrics
 The Scope of the Configuration Management: The Data

• CMDB – Configuration Management Data Base Ideally defines what we have, who uses it, how
CIs interact with and impact other CIs, which services and business processes the CIs support

• CI – Configuration Item (a category, type or family of IT components such as ‘servers’ or

‘applications’) – IT Asset management is a good source of CI’s but not all assets are CI’s and not
all CI’s are assets.

– Logical CI – The logical grouping of physical entities. The top tiers of a hierarchy

– Physical CI – A physical, tangible IT component that performs a specific function. The lower
tiers of a hierarchy

– Virtual CI – Performs the same function as a physical CI but does not have a physical form

• Attribute – a data field associated with the CI

• System of Record – the official owner of an attribute (accountable for accuracy)

 Hierarchical/Logical Relationships

KEYBANK
Company

Service (A)

Provider Technical
Organization

System (A)

Support
Group

Technology Technology Technology Technology Technology

Support
Business Business
Server Database Document
T eam Application Application

Logical
Physical

Incident 001

Person Database 123

Server A
Application ABC Application XYZ

Adapted from “Modeling the Enterprise IT Infrastructure, A Service Management Approach”, by David Chiu and D.L. Tsui, BMO Financial, 2004
 Functional Relationships

Company
KEYBANK

Service (A)

Provider Technical
Organization

System (A)

Support
Gr oup

Technology Technology Technology Technology Technology

Support
Server Business Business
Database Document
Te a m Platform Application Application

Logical
Physical

Incident 001

Person Database 123

Server A
Application ABC Application XYZ
Owns Belongs to

Runs on (installed on) Runs (contains) Runs (contains)

Receives Datafeed Creates Datafeed

Adapted from “Modeling the Enterprise IT Infrastructure, A Service Management Approach”, by David Chiu and D.L. Tsui, BMO Financial, 2004
 The Scope of the Configuration Management: The Technology

The Vendor Landscape is everchanging……

Charles Betz, ERP4IT

 The Scope of the Configuration Management: The Technology

A Successful Configuration Management Technology Platforms

should….
• Act to federate (Integrate) key vendors and tools
• Support reconciliation of CIs – real time discovery
– Application and infrastructure discovery
• Support/Enable automated mapping of CI relationships
– Relationship visualization
– Correlates relationships back to the business service or process
• Support/Enable synchronization of the environment
 Agentless Passive Discovery & Mapping

Intranet
Server Server

Switch Router Switch

Server Server

Server
Server

Collector Collector
Appliance Appliance
Discovery & Mapping
PROS Aggregator
CONS
• No Network Bandwidth Needed • No Deep Dive Server Discovery
A
• 24/7 Discovery B C • Can only Read Header data if
packets are Encrypted
• Discover What You Don’t Know D F
E

• No Credentials or Agents to Install

 Agentless Active Discovery & Mapping

Server

Server
Server
Network

Login Credentials
(WMI, SNMP, SSH)

Discovery & Mapping

PROS Server
CONS
• Deep Dive Data without Agents • Must Define IP Search Ranges
to Install A
B C • Security Risk
• Simple Maintenance and
Upgrades D F • Network Bandwidth Impact
E
 Agent Discovery & Mapping

Delta Results
Server
Results

Results
Server Server
Network

Manual & Sched Requests

Results

Discovery & Mapping

PROS Server
CONS
• Deepest Data Detail Dive • Mustinstall and Maintain Agents
A on Target Servers
• No need for Security Credentials B C
• Must Define IP Search Ranges
• Less Network Bandwidth Needed D F
E
• More Costly
 Configuration Management Technologies and Integration

Service Management
Incident/Problem Mgmt
Create / Relate

Purchasing Inventory
Change Mgmt
Control Discovery & Mapping
(Asset Agent & Agentless
Repository)

Create Asset Create Change

Asset
Management Reconciliation

Create Update Create Update

CI Attributes

Create Purchased CI CMDB

CMDB Update

Business Process
Physical CI
&
Logical CI
Application Portfolio
 CMDB Types

Centralized Federated Real-time/Virtual

Service Mgmt Service Mgmt System
Service Mgmt
System
System
Application

Asset Mgmt Asset Mgmt CMDB Access Forms

System System

Reconciliation
Applic Mgmt Applic Mgmt Linking Logic
System System
Only Critical
Attributes
Identity Mgmt Identity Mgmt Stored and all
System System Relationships Virtua
l
Discovery CMDB Discovery CMDB
&
&
Mapping
Mapping
System
System Reconciliation
Business
Network
Process
Physically
Store all CIs,
Attributes, and
Relationships Discovery
Desktop &
Mapping

Etc…
 Best Practices and Lessons Learned

• Executive Commitment
– Early, Continuous, Visible high-level sponsorship is critical
• Scope and Charter
– Start with “easy wins” and high-value efforts.
– Fully define set of definitions of terms and concepts
– Get assets under control first with policy adherence
– Consider IT Governance Strategy when developing Configuration Management strategy
• Marketing and Adoption
– Include stakeholders in policy and process design for buy-in
– Focus extra effort on cross-departmental processes and hand-off’s
– Identify “your job will get harder” cases for extra training and support
– Over-communicate with all stakeholders
– Embrace conflict: it means people care and are paying attention
• Process
– CHANGE MANAGEMENT – CHANGE MANAGEMENT – CHANGE MANAGEMENT
– Build policies and processes for ongoing development
– Start with Asset Management (Receipt to Disposal)
• Technology
– Know what you have before you acquire more stuff
– Develop configuration management disciplines before automating
• Data
– Use the processes to drive the data requirements (just enough data)
– Data accuracy and control to ensure ongoing accuracy is critical
– Reduce the number of repositories
– Start with a wide and shallow approach for CI relationships
 Getting Started

Begin by…..
• Establish a reasonable scope
• Document terms and concepts
• Documenting the current state of IT data and process
• Develop a product portfolio of current technologies
• Formulate the future state of IT data, process and technologies
• Formulate a roadmap and break it into doable phases
• Position for organizational change
• Establish a comprehensive foundation
• Establish data integrity
• Integrate with the enterprise
• Establish linkages
• Perform audits
Configuration Management
Questions?