Configuration Item (CI) Types

Configuration Item types denote the classification of CIs into different categories. Any organization-specific entity, such as business services, workstations, servers, documents, and even the people working in your organization, can be considered a CI Type.

Each CI Type can be defined with specific attributes and relationships that are unique to the CIs classified under them. CIs can also be classified into subtypes (child CI types). For example, the CI Type Server can contain subtypes such as File Server, Application Server, Database Servers, etc.

To access CI types, go to Admin > Customization > CMDB > Configuration Item Types.

Contents:

List View Actions
Create CI Type
Configure CI Type Fields
Define Relationships
- Add Relationship
Relationship Fields
View History

List View Actions

The CI Type list view is in the form of a tree structure and displays the hierarchy of all available CI types, their API names, and descriptions. CI types are arranged in the parent-child structure.

From the CI Type list view, you can perform the following actions:

View CIs under a CI Type: Click on a CI Type to expand or collapse it to view all child CI Types.
- You can also click Expand all/Collapse all to expand/collapse all CI Types.
Expand/Collapse all CI Types: Click Expand all or Collapse all to view/hide all child CI types.
Add CI types: Click New to create a CI type.
Create new CIs for a CI Type: Click > Create Child CI Type against a CI Type.
Edit or Delete CI Type: Click > Edit/Delete to modify the details of a Ci type or to delete it.

You cannot modify the parent CI type and API name of the CI Type.

You cannot delete the base CI type CMDB.

If a CI under a CI Type is associated with a request, problem, change, or release, the CI Type cannot be deleted.

Deleting a CI type will permanently delete its CIs, child CI types and their CIs, suggested relationships, relationships of all its CIs and all user-defined fields associated with it.

Create CI Type

You can define new CI types to match your business needs.

On the configuration item type list view, click New.
Provide the following information under the Details tab on the New CI Type form.
- Enter a unique display name and display plural name for the CI Type. For example, Workstations, Business Services, Department. This field is mandatory.
- The API name and API plural name will be populated automatically in snake_case. You can modify them, if needed.
- Select a parent CI Type from the available list. This CI Type will be added as a child CI Type under the selected option.
- Add an icon for the CI Type, if required. You can select an icon from the available options or upload a new icon. The supported formats are JPEG, JPG, PNG, and GIF.
Briefly describe the CI Type under Description.
After configuring the details, click Save.

The parent CI type can be any one of the existing CI types only. All the CI types fall under the base CMDB CI type.

You can add a maximum of 5 levels to the CI type hierarchy.

You can only add 300 CI types.

After saving the New CI Type form, the Fields, Relationships, and History tabs will be displayed along with the Details tab in the form. Under these tabs, you can set up the fields for the CI Type, establish relationships for the CI Type, and track the history of any changes made to the CI Type configurations.

Configure CI Type Fields

Under this tab, you can customize the layout of the CI Type form by including the necessary fields. When a CI is added under this CI Type, the fields configured here will be displayed for the CI.

Parent CI Type fields are populated by default and displayed at the top of the page. You cannot edit the layout of the parent attribute. You can view the parent fields by clicking Parent Attribute.

The Fields tab comprises a canvas and a list of fields on the left pane. You can add fields specific to the child CI Type from the left pane.

The Available Fields tab on the left pane contains additional fields configured under Admin > Customization > Additional Fields > CMDB that are not used in the canvas. Drag any field to the layout.
To add multiple fields to the layout at once, click View All. In the slider, select the fields and click Associate.
Click the icon on the left pane to create new additional fields. The New Field section displays various field types that you can use to create additional fields for the CI Type. Drag the field type to the layout and configure its details as required. Refer here to know more about the different field types.
Hover over a section and click to modify section properties. You can provide a name for the section, add help text, adjust the column and label orientation, and customize the font style and background color.
To delete a field or section, hover over it and click .
Click Save to apply the changes.

Define Relationships for CI Type

Relationships shows how the CIs are interconnected and interdependent with other CIs. Learn more about relationships.

You can configure certain relationships between CI types under the Relationships tab. These relationships between CI types are known as Suggested Relationships. When a CI is created under this CI Type, the relationships added here will be displayed for the CI to choose from.

Admins can decide the relationship type, the destination CI type, and the cardinality, based on the organization's requirements or policies.

Child CI types inherit the relationships from parent CI types. Click Parent Relationship at the top of the page to view the inherited relationships. These relationships cannot be edited or deleted.

You can add up to 100 fields for a CI Type.

Add Relationship

To add a relationship, click New, and configure the fields using the pointers below:

Field	Explanation
Source CI Type	The source CI type is auto-selected.
Relationship Type	Define the type of relationship shared between the source and related CI types. The relationship can be either direct or inverse. For example, Uses or Used by.
Related CI Type	Select the CI Type to which the source CI type is associated. For example, User.
Cardinality	Cardinality is the property of a relationship between one CI type and another. Based on the cardinality, you can associate a source CI with single/multiple related CIs and vice-versa. The relationship can be one of the following: One to One One to Many Many to One Many to Many If you do not choose a cardinality, the default value is taken as many to many.
Display name in Source CI Type	Provide a name to be displayed in the source CI Type. For example, Server Used by User.
Source CI Type API name/Source CI Type API plural name	Specify the API names for the source CI type. API names must be in snake_case and cannot be edited. By default, source CI type API names are prefixed with assoc_.
Field to filter list view in Source CI Type	Select filter values for the relationship list view in source CI type. Users can filter the CIs listed in the related CI type based on the fields selected in this drop-down. For example, you can filter the CI Type by Site is New York.
Filter criteria in Source CI Type	Predefine criteria to filter CIs in the related CI types while displaying them in the source CI type.
Display name in Related CI Type	Provide a name to be displayed in the related CI type. For example, People using Server.
Field to filter list view in Related CI Type	Select filter values for the relationship list view in related CI type. Users can filter the CIs listed in the source CI type based on the fields selected in this drop-down. For example, Site
Related CI Type API name/Related CI Type API plural name	Specify the API names for the related CI type. API names must be in snake_case and cannot be edited. By default, related CI type API names are prefixed with assoc_.
Filter criteria in Related CI Type	Predefine criteria to filter CIs in the source CI types while displaying them in the related CI type.

After configuring the details, click Save.

The following image displays the relationship configurations between Server and User:

To edit or delete a relationship, click the or icons.

Relationship Fields

Relationship fields provide more information on the relationship between the CI types. For instance, the relationship attributes between the CI Type Workstation and Software can be the Version of the software installed, Installation path, Installed on, Service pack details, and so on.

You can configure the relationship fields under Additional Fields and Available Fields in the slider.

The parent CI Type's relationship configuration is applied automatically to the child CI Type.

To associate fields already available for the relationship type,

Go to Available Fields.
Select the available fields and click Associate.

To create new fields to collect details about the relationship properties,

Go to Additional Fields.
Click New Field to create an additional field for the relationship.
Select the field type from the drop-down and configure the details as necessary. Learn more about creating additional fields.
To remove an additional field from the relationship form, select the additional field and click Dissociate.

To edit an additional field/available field, click

To remove an additional/available field permanently, click .

View History

The History tab records all modifications done to the CI Type. You can filter the history by date and time, and view it in ascending or descending order.