Managing Configuration Items › CMDB Visualizer

CMDB Visualizer

CA Service Desk Manager lets you align your IT components (configuration items, or CIs) with your business services. CA CMDB defines relationships among CIs, as when a group of CIs work to provide a business service. CMDB Visualizer lets you see the entire picture of your CI relationships, and provides you with functions to manage the relationships. Working from a focus CI (any CI of interest), you can use the Visualizer to display up to nine levels of related CIs.

CA uses a provider/dependent model to define relationships among CIs. All CIs that contribute to a business service are providers to that business service (the dependent). In much the same way, providers can also be dependents that rely on other CIs. You can use Visualizer to perform the following provider/dependent analyses:

• Browse

  Displays unfiltered view of all CIs.

• Impact Analysis

  Starts with a focal CI (provider) and searches for its dependents.

• Root Cause

  Starts with a business service (dependent) and view all the CIs that are providers to that service.

• Cause and Effect CIs

  Combines impact analysis and root cause in one search.

• Trace Relation

  Displays all possible relationships based on levels. If you select only one CI, this filter displays the Browse view.

• Shortest Path

  Displays the shortest chain of relationships based on levels.

CMDB Visualizer lets you do the following actions:

• Visualize multiple levels of CIs from a configurable graphical view
• Monitor or cancel rendering progress
• Search using flexible criteria
• Filter based on CI families, relationship types, and other attributes
• Display CI relationships
• Trace a relationship between two CIs
• Visualize a dependency chain
• Invoke CA CMDB directly from Visualizer
• Display CI attributes and properties
• Save graph metadata
• Print the graph layout
• Find a specific CI on a displayed graph
• Create a CI (depending on role)
• Create new CI relationships (depending on role)
• Use the Scratchpad to store key CIs
• Display CI status
• Hide or reveal a CI in the Visualizer layout
• Role-based data security
• Launch external MDRs
• Obtain online help for Visualizer features