Description:
Software Management in ITAM and CMDB
Solution:
Importing and Managing Software with both ITAM and CMDB
Scenario:
Challenge:
Due to the differences in which CMDB and ITAM/APM view and process software assets, a revised loading procedure is outlined below to address these differences. Please consider the following when loading software data into the MDB.
Overview:
From an ITAM/APM perspective, software assets represent the purchased entity of the license and do NOT represent individually installed instances of software. The latter is more common for the CMDB. When brought into the MDB via the ITAM Data Importer tool or added using the ITAM/APM Web UI, these assets are not registered using CORA registration. The mechanism used to determine if CORA is used is driven by the Asset Type (family) of these records. The Asset Types (family) assigned to ITAM/APM software records should have the "is_software" attribute set to true so that they are displayed in ITAM/APM as software assets. This designation not only prevents CORA registration of the asset but also insures the UI screens are presented correctly for software assets.
Note that for these types of assets (i.e. ITAM/APM software license assets) the CI flag should be set to false since these types of records are not considered CI's for use in the CMDB. These types of records should be loaded into the MDB using the ITAM Data Importer.
CMDB Software CI's ARE individually installed instances of software and need to be registered via CORA in CMDB to participate in CMDB relationships; therefore the "is_software" attribute of the Asset Type (family) should be false to ensure CORA registers the software CI (i.e. instances). The CI flag should be set to true so these records do not show up in ITAM/APM and should be loaded into the MDB using the GRLoader application.
When managing both software assets/licensing in ITAM/APM and software CIs in CMDB, ensure you have separate Asset Types (families) setup to ensure no conflicts. Because of the "is_software" attribute condition to differentiate between an ITAM/APM software asset/license and a CMDB software CI, you cannot use the same Asset Type (family). For example, if both solutions are managing Window XP software, you need two separate Asset Types (families), one for ITAM/APM licenses and one for CMDB software CIs. We recommend you use the OOTB Asset Type (family) of "Software" in ITAM/APM to only manage software licenses.
Best Practices: