CI Life Cycle: Servers (Virtual)

A virtual server (commonly referred to as a "virtual machine," or "VM") is a group of files and other resources residing on one or more physical hosts and managed by a virtual machine monitor control program to appear as a stand-alone physical computer. A virtual machine, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications but unlike a physical computer, a VM only has access to a specific subset of the available physical resources. The virtual machine is defined by a set of specification and configuration files and is backed by the physical resources of a host. VMs allow a single set of physical hosts to run multiple instances of an operating system with the separate VM instances preventing applications from interfering with each other. If one application crashes, it does not affect the programs running in the other VMs.

Like a physical server, a VM can be used for a number of applications, including databases, business applications, network management, email, directory services, etc. The life cycle outlined here applies to any virtual machine irrespective of its application or underlying control program.

Application

This life cycle is typical for the following asset classes:

• Virtual Machines used as servers of all classes

Typical Life Cycle for Virtual Servers

CI Ownership Matrix

Audit & Validation

CIs will be periodically audited and information in the CI record will be validated against the actual asset. Wherever possible, auditing will be automated using a discovery process or some other method that does not require manual intervention. The result of the audit will be reviewed by the auditor who will also arrange for remediation of the differences. The audit process will be scheduled in such a way that every CI is audited at least once a year. Each time an audit is run, the following information will be maintained in a report that is stored with the CI class definition record in ServiceNow:

• Date and time of the audit
• Auditor
• CI class
• Method of audit (i.e. based on automated tools or manual audit)
• Results of the audit
• Revealed differences between CMDB and actual CIs installed
• Effects of the deviations
• Corrections carried out to the CMDB
• Improvement potentials
• Reasons for the revealed differences between CMDB and actual CIs installed
• Measures for the future avoidance of the differences

Suggested Relationships

Configuration items falling into this group of asset classes typically have one or more of the following relationships with other CIs: