CMDB - Yet another MIB? On reusing management model concepts in ITIL configuration management

Abstract

According to ITIL, a CMDB (Configuration Management Database), containing a logical model of the IT infrastructure, forms the basis for effective and efficient IT Service Management. However, a common understanding of what constitutes a CMDB has not yet been established. By contrast, concepts for building and using MIBs (Management Information Base) - also aimed at providing logical models of the IT infrastructure - have long since been established in the area of systems management. This paper presents an overview of the CMDB and MIB concepts, discusses how they relate to each other and compares them based on the main purposes of a CMDB. It discusses whether modeling approaches used for MIBs can be reused for CMDBs. To this end, a criteria catalog based on core CMDB concepts and basic information requirements of ITIL's Service Management processes are derived, and the challenges of implementing a CMDB reusing concepts of common management models are discussed. Concluding, basic approaches towards integrating CMDBs and MIBs are presented. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2006.