Managing Configuration Items › CA CMDB Data Maintenance › Extending CA CMDB › Adding a New CA CMDB Family or Class › Define a New CI Family

Define a New CI Family

Before you create a configuration item family, determine whether a suitable family already exists in the Configuration Item Family List. If not, you can create new families as an alternative method of organizing or classifying CIs using existing attributes.

If the new family that you need cannot use an existing extension table (or the default table), complete all the additional preparations outlined in Constructing a New Attribute Framework. The new extension table can be used to define new families.

To define a CI family using the Administration interface

1. Navigate to the Configuration Item Family List.
2. Click Create New.

   The Create New Configuration Item Family page appears.

3. Enter a unique name for the new family.
4. Verify that the Record Status field is set to Active.
5. In the Extension Name field, select the extension table that identifies the type of family that you want to create. This may be a new extension table that you created recently.

   For example, if you are adding a family for an unspecified type of hardware, select ci_hardware_other. This type ensures that when you create configuration items whose classes use the new family, the appropriate attributes display on the Attributes tab. If you do not select a table name in the Extension Name field, the default table is used and only default attributes appear when you create a configuration item within the new family.

6. Type a description in the Description field.

   The description you enter displays in the Configuration Item Family List for informational purposes.

7. Click Save.

   The configuration item family is defined.

Now that your new family is defined, you can add classes to it as described in Define a New CI Class.