2.2.1 Define configuration item classes and managed items

This section describes the use cases for defining classes of configuration items and managed items to optimize managed items.

Suppose you are operating an in-house service that creates and provides, for each department, a test environment for software under development in your company.
If the “CMDB” function is used to manage the provided test environment as configuration items, it is possible to use the configuration item classes that exist by default to manage each of the elements (such as computers and software) that make up the test environment. However, this can result in redundant administrative procedures, such as the presence of unnecessary fields in each class or the need to create and associate multiple configuration items of different classes.
This section describes the procedure for creating a class that represents the “test environment” to be provided as a single configuration item, and summarizes only the necessary information.

Assume that the following fields are required as a result of the operational management study.
The fields [Name], [Deployment State], [Incident State], and [Attachments] are created automatically.

Description
Customer (recipient department), Owner (member of the recipient department)
FQDN
IP Address
Version of the software to be tested
Edition of the software to be tested (Basic, Premium)
Date when provision of the test environment started
Date when provision of the test environment ended
Size (Large, Medium, Small) indicating the performance of the computers in the test environment

FQDN and IP Address, which are mentioned above, are fields that are already defined. Definitions of the other fields will be newly created.

[Create a class]

1. Select [Admin] from the main menu, then click [Administration]-[General Catalog]. The [General Catalog Management] screen will appear, open [List]-[ITSM::ConfigItem::Class].

2. Click the [Add Catalog Item] button, enter the following information in the [Add Catalog Item] fields and click the [Save] button to create a class for the configuration item. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for catalog items (create a class)

Field	Value
Name	TestEnvironment
Permission Group	Specify "itsm-configitem".
Categories	Specify "Default".
Validity	Select "valid".
Comment	Provided test environment.

[Create a text field]

3. From the main menu, select [Admin] and then click [Administration]-[Dynamic Fields]. On the [Dynamic Fields Management] screen, click the [Actions]-[ITSM ConfigItem] field on the left and select [Text].

4. The [ITSM ConfigItem: Add Text field] screen opens. Enter the following information and click the [Save] button to add a field. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for dynamic fields (text)

Field	Value
Name	Specify "TestEnvironmentVersion".
Validity	Specify "valid".
Label	Specify "Version".

[Create a multi-line text field]

5. On the [Dynamic Fields Management] screen, click the [Actions]-[ITSM ConfigItem] field on the left and select [Textarea].

6. The [ITSM ConfigItem: Add Text field] screen opens. Enter the following information and click the [Save] button to add a field. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for dynamic fields (textarea)

Field	Value
Name	Specify "TestEnvironmentDescription".
Validity	Select "valid".
Label	Specify "Description".
Number of rows	Specify "8".

[Create a field for possible values]

7. Select [Admin] from the main menu, then click [Administration] - [Dynamic Fields]. The [Dynamic Fields Management] screen appears. Click the [Actions]-[ITSM ConfigItem] field on the left and select [Dropdown].

8. The [ITSM ConfigItem: Add Dropdown field] screen appears. Enter the following information and click the [Save] button to add a field. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for dynamic fields (dropdown)

Field	Value
Name	Specify "TestEnvironmentEdition".
Validity	Select "valid".
Label	Specify "Edition".
Possible values	Click the [Add value] button and add the following: Key: Basic, Value: Basic Key: Premium, Value: Premium
Default value	Specify "Basic".

9. Similarly, specify the following settings to add a dropdown field.

Name: TestEnvironmentSize
Label: Size
Possible values
- Key: Large, Value: Large
- Key: Medium, Value: Medium
- Key: Small, Value: Small
Default value: Medium

[Create a customer field]

10. On the [Dynamic Fields Management] screen, click the [Actions]-[ITSM ConfigItem] field on the left and select [Reference]-[CustomerCompany].

11. The [ITSM ConfigItem: Add CustomerCompany field] screen opens. Enter the following information and click the [Save] button to add a field. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for dynamic fields (customer)

Field	Value
Name	Specify "TestEnvironmentCustomer".
Validity	Select "valid".
Label	Specify "User department".

[Create a customer user field]

12. On the [Dynamic Fields Management] screen, click the [Actions]-[ITSM ConfigItem] field on the left and select [Reference]-[CustomerUser].

13. The [ITSM ConfigItem: Add CustomerUser field] screen opens. Enter the following information and click the [Save] button to add a field. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for dynamic fields (customer user)

Field	Value
Name	Specify "TestEnvironmentCustomerUser".
Validity	Select "valid".
Label	Specify "User".

[Create a date field]

14. On the [Dynamic Fields Management] screen, click the [Actions]-[ITSM ConfigItem] field on the left and select [Date].

15. The [ITSM ConfigItem: Add Date field] screen opens. Enter the following information and click the [Save] button to add a field. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for dynamic fields (date)

Field	Value
Name	Specify "TestEnvironmentProvisionStartDate".
Validity	Select "valid".
Label	Specify "Provision start date".

16. Similarly, create a date field as shown below.

Name: TestEnvironmentProvisionEndDate
Label: Provision End Date

[Set class fields]

17. From the main menu, select [Admin] and then click [CMDB Settings]-[Config Item].

18. When the [Config Item Management] screen opens, click "TestEnvironment" created in "Create a class" from [List].

19. "TestEnvironment" is added to [Actions]. Therefore, click the [Change class definition] button to open the [Edit definition] screen.

20. Enter the following in [Change]-[Definition] and click [Save and finish] to create a class of configuration items representing the test environment.

---
Pages:
  - Name: Summary
    Layout:
      Columns: 3
      ColumnWidth: 1fr 1fr 1fr
    Content:
      - Section: Contact
        RowStart: 1
        ColumnStart: 1
      - Section: Environment
        RowStart: 1
        ColumnStart: 2
      - Section: Period
        RowStart: 1
        ColumnStart: 3
      - Section: Description
        RowStart: 2
        RowSpan: 2
        ColumnStart: 2
        ColumnSpan: 2

Sections:
  Description:
    Type: Description
    Header: Description
  Contact:
    Content:
      - Header: Recipient department
      - DF: TestEnvironmentCustomer
      - DF: TestEnvironmentCustomerUser
  Environment:
    Content:
      - Header: Environment information
      - DF: ITSMNetworkInfo-FQDN
      - DF: ITSMNetworkInfo-IPAddress
      - DF: TestEnvironmentVersion
      - DF: TestEnvironmentEdition
      - DF: TestEnvironmentSize
  Period:
    Content:
      - Header: Provision period
      - DF: TestEnvironmentProvisionStartDate
      - DF: TestEnvironmentProvisionEndDate

Some of the labels of classes that exist by default are provided with translations of values, so English field names such as “Description” will be translated and displayed when the display language is set to Japanese. To change the display language, use the icon for changing the language for Ops I. For details, see “Functions > Basic window structure” in “JP1 Cloud Service/Operations Integration User’s Guide”.
For labels that have no translation provided, they have been created in Japanese since the primary display language is Japanese.

[Specify fields to trigger updating the class version]

Specify configuration item fields that will increment the configuration item version when the field is updated. Here, you will configure settings so that the configuration item version will be incremented when a change occurs to the following fields of the created class.

FQDN
IP Address
Version
Edition
Size

21. From the main menu, select [Admin] and then click [Administration]-[General Catalog]. The [General Catalog Management] screen will appear, open [List]-[ITSM::ConfigItem::Class].

22. Click "TestEnvironment" created in "Create a class", enter the following information in the [Edit Catalog Item] fields, and then click the [Save] button. For fields that are not mentioned below, leave the default values unchanged.

(Table) Input details for catalog items (modifying a class)

Field	Value
Version Trigger	Select the following. DynamicField_ITSMNetworkInfo-FQDN DynamicField_ITSMNetworkInfo-IPAddress DynamicField_TestEnvironmentEdition DynamicField_TestEnvironmentSize DynamicField_TestEnvironmentVersion