Administering MDRs › What is an MDR?

What is an MDR?

The Configuration Management Database Federation (CMDBf), a working group composed of representatives from CA, IBM, HP, Microsoft, and other companies, defines a Management Data Repository (MDR) as anything that collects information about configuration items (CIs).

To create the relationship between an MDR and its CIs when implementing MDR Launcher, do the following:

1. Define the MDR.
2. Define the CIs that reference that MDR.

   You cannot have a CI that references a non-existent MDR, but you can define a CI without defining a MDR association. You can add the MDR information during an update or edit to take advantage of the MDR Launcher capability.

The same CI can be discovered by multiple MDRs. After the CI is discovered, each MDR attempts to manage that CI, and an MDR can do the following actions:

• Discover detailed attributes about the CI.
• Attempt to modify the CI state.

Example: A CI Discovered by Multiple MDRs

A CI is discovered by both Network Management software and an Asset Management software package.

• The network management software maintains information about network configuration and network topology.
• The asset management software contains information regarding cost, depreciation, licensing and maintenance contracts for that particular CI.