Configuration Items (SP) Application

A configuration item (CI) is any component of an information technology infrastructure that is under the control of configuration management. Configuration items can be individually managed, and they are usually treated as self contained units for the purposes of identification and change control.

All configuration items are uniquely identified by names and other attributes. The lowest level CI is usually the smallest unit that will be changed independently of other components. CIs vary in complexity, size, and type. They can range from an entire service, which may consist of hardware, software, and documentation, to a single program module or a minor hardware component.

You can associate customers with CIs to keep the CI records restricted to the users with permission to access the data of a customer. One of the associated customers is the primary customer and this customer can be copied to a ticket or work order when an agent selects a CI. The customer and location or the customer and asset can be used to find a customer agreement and pricing schedule, service level agreement, and response plan to apply to the ticket or work order.

You use the Configuration Items (SP) application to define, create, and manage relationships among CIs according to relationship rules that you specify in the Relationships application.

In the Configuration Items (SP) application you create the CIs that you want to be under configuration management and change control. The CIs you create in the Configuration Items (SP) application are sometimes referred to as "authorized CIs," or just "CIs".

In the Actual Configuration Items application, you can view the CIs that a discovery tool finds. The tool discovers the CIs and their attributes as they are currently configured on your systems. When the tool discovers CIs, the CIs are referred to as "actual CIs".

The Configuration Items (SP) application contains the following tabs:

List: to search for records.

Configuration Item: to add, view, modify, or delete CIs.

Related CIs: to display and manage CIs associated with the current CI record.

See Also

Configuration Items Process Overview

Create a Configuration Item