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Process Factsheet: Configuration Management

The document discusses configuration management and its goals of accounting for IT assets and configurations to support incident, problem, change, and release management. It describes configuration management activities like planning, identification, control, status accounting, and verification to produce configuration baselines and databases.

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56 views

Process Factsheet: Configuration Management

The document discusses configuration management and its goals of accounting for IT assets and configurations to support incident, problem, change, and release management. It describes configuration management activities like planning, identification, control, status accounting, and verification to produce configuration baselines and databases.

Uploaded by

edy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PROCESS FACTSHEET

CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
WHY:
The tools are flexible. One can have from three or four seats to hundreds of seats. It's applicable to
large teams as well as small. However, companies shouldn't merely consider their size when hunting
for Configuration Management tools. They must consider the complexity of the IT Infrastructure
problem. The question is not a test of how big the shop is but how complex the management problem
is. After all, companies can find themselves needing to grow or expand a unit rapidly. You need a tool
that will meet your needs today but that will let you grow as well.

GOAL:
 Account for all the IT assets and configurations within the
organisation and its services
 Provide accurate information on configurations and their
documentation to support all the other Service Management
processes
 Provide a sound basis for Incident Management, Problem
Management, Change Management and Release Management
 Verify the configuration records against the infrastructure and
correct any exceptions.

ACTIVITIES:
Configuration Management planning
A Configuration Management plan should define:
 The purpose, scope and objectives of Configuration Management
 Related policies, standards and processes that are specific to the support group
 Configuration Management roles and responsibilities
 CI (Configuration Item) naming conventions
 The schedule and procedures for performing Configuration Management activities:
configuration identification, control, status accounting, configuration audit and
verification
 Interface control with third parties, e.g. Change Management, suppliers
 Configuration Management systems design, including scope and key interfaces

Configuration identification
CIs are the components used to deliver a service. The CIs include software, documentation
and SLAs
Also identify the relationship between CIs and the attributes for every CI.

Control of CIs
The objective of configuration control is to ensure that only authorised and identifiable CIs
are recorded in the CMDB upon receipt.

Configuration status accounting


Status reports should be produced on a regular basis, listing, for all CIs under control,
their current version and Change history. Status accounting reports on the current,
previous and planned states of the CIs should include:

 Unique identifiers of constituent CIs and their current status, e.g. 'under
development', 'under test', 'live'
 Configuration baselines, Releases and their status
 Latest software item versions and their status for a system baseline/application
 The person responsible for status change, e.g. from 'under test' to 'live'
 Change history/audit trail
 Open Problems/RFCs.

Copyright The Art of Service 2002


GPO Box 2673, Brisbane QLD 4001, Email: service@artofservice.com.au , web: www.artofservice.com.au , OTC: www.itsm-learning.com
Phone: 1300 13 44 99. See also: http://www.itil-itsm-world.com
PROCESS FACTSHEET
Configuration
verification and audit
Service Desk staff, while
registering incidents, can
do daily verification.
Configuration audits
should be considered at
the following times:
 Shortly after
implementation of
a new
Configuration
Management
system
 Before and after
major Changes to
the IT
infrastructure
 Before a software
Release or installation to ensure that the environment is as expected
 Following recovery from disasters and after a 'return to normal' (this audit should
be included in contingency plans)
 At random intervals
 In response to the detection of any unauthorised CIs
 At regular intervals

RESULTS:
 Configuration Baseline (Complete overview of CIs and relationships)
 Configuration plan
 Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
 Ongoing management of CMDB to support all other ITIL processes with accurate
information on CIs and their relationship

COST:
Personnel – audit verification staff, database management team (Set-up and ongoing)
Accommodation – Physical location (Set-up and ongoing)
Software – Tools (Set-up and ongoing)
Hardware – Infrastructure (Set-up)
Education – Training (Set-up and ongoing)
Procedures – external consultants etc (Set-up)

The costs of implementing Configuration Management will be outweighed by the benefits.


For example, many organisations cannot function satisfactorily unless they can handle a
high volume of software and hardware Changes without sacrificing quality. Without
adequate control, organisations are at risk from such things as computer fraud,
inadvertent software corruption, software viruses and other malicious software. The
damage caused by these can be enormous.
BENEFITS:
 Providing accurate information on CIs and their documentation.
 Controlling valuable CIs.
 Facilitating adherence to legal obligations.
 Helping with financial and expenditure planning.
 Making software Changes visible.
 Contributing to contingency planning.
 Supporting and improving Release Management.

Copyright The Art of Service 2002


GPO Box 2673, Brisbane QLD 4001, Email: service@artofservice.com.au , web: www.artofservice.com.au , OTC: www.itsm-learning.com
Phone: 1300 13 44 99. See also: http://www.itil-itsm-world.com
PROCESS FACTSHEET
 Improving security by controlling the versions of CIs in use.
 Enabling the organisation to reduce the use of unauthorised software.
 Allowing the organisation to perform impact analysis and schedule Changes safely,
efficiently and effectively.
 Providing Problem Management with data on trends.

Copyright The Art of Service 2002


GPO Box 2673, Brisbane QLD 4001, Email: service@artofservice.com.au , web: www.artofservice.com.au , OTC: www.itsm-learning.com
Phone: 1300 13 44 99. See also: http://www.itil-itsm-world.com

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