Integrating with Other Products › CA CMDB Integration › Categorize the Asset and Configuration Item Records

Categorize the Asset and Configuration Item Records

In this step to integrate CA APM and CA CMDB, you can categorize and control the asset and CI records when defining an asset in CA APM by selecting or clearing the Asset and CI check boxes. This flexibility is provided because CIs that CA CMDB creates may not be relevant to CA APM and conversely, assets that CA APM creates may not be relevant to CA CMDB.

Consider the following information when using these check boxes:

Default Values

• All new asset records that CA APM creates are initially set both as an Asset only and Managed by CA APM. On the New Asset page in CA APM, the Asset check box is selected, the Managed by CA APM check box is selected, and the CI check box is not selected.
• All asset records that CA CMDB creates (with or without CA Service Desk Manager) are initially set to CI only. On the CI pages in CA CMDB, the CI? column heading is set to Yes and the Asset? column heading is set to No.
• Both CA APM and CA CMDB have the Asset and CI fields available on the New Asset and CI pages. However, the Managed by CA APM check box is only viewable in CA APM. The existing audit and security features for each product applies to these check boxes.

Appearance

• The Asset and CI fields appear in CA APM and CA CMDB even when other CA Technologies products are installed. The Asset and CI fields do not appear in CA Service Desk Manager when CA CMDB is not installed.
• The CA APM administrator can configure the user interface and move the Asset and CI fields to a new location, make the fields read-only, required, or optional, and hide the fields.

  Note: For more information about configuring the user interface, see the Administration Guide.

Viewing and Updating

CA CMDB

• By default, the CA CMDB analyst and administrator can update the Asset and CI field values.
• CA CMDB, by default, does not allow the Asset? value to be changed when the Asset? value is set to Yes.

CA APM

• By default, CA APM sees asset and CI records.
• The CA APM administrator can configure the user interface and move the Asset and CI check boxes to a new location, make the check boxes read-only, required, or optional, and hide the check boxes. After you select the CI check box and save the asset, the CI check box is not available and you cannot change the setting.

  Important! We strongly recommend that you configure the CI check box in CA APM as read-only and restrict changes to the check box to only the CA CMDB analyst and administrator.

• An asset in CA APM in which the Managed by CA APM check box is selected is always an asset. You cannot save an asset in CA APM in which the Managed by CA APM check box is selected without also selecting the Asset check box.

Searching

CA CMDB

• The CA CMDB search initially displays, by default, all records. However, an option is provided to filter records.

  Note: If CA Service Desk Manager is installed, the same default search rules apply.

CA APM

• The default asset search includes a drop-down list for Managed by CA APM, CI, and Asset. This flexibility is provided so that you can differentiate between assets and CIs.

Hardware Reconciliation

Hardware reconciliation analyzes all asset and CI records. Searches provide a way to view any CIs that are related to discovered assets as the result of running hardware reconciliation. A CA APM user can view the exceptions and determine whether they want to select the Asset check box. As a result of selecting the Asset check box, the asset records are available in a CA APM asset search.