Business Analysis: Business Requirements DocumentAPI006: Populating CMDB automatically

Version: 1.1

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Stage: Business Analysis

Business Requirements Document

Populating CMDB automatically

API

API006

Document Version: 1.1

Date: 01/06/16

Contents

1Document Management

1.1Contributors

1.2Version Control

2PROJECT OVERVIEW

2.1Description

2.2Objectives

2.3Dependencies and Constraints

3BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

3.1Functional Requirements

3.1.1Server information

3.1.2CSV file

3.1.3Database

3.1.4CMDB

3.2Non-Functional Requirements

3.2.1CMDB upload timing

4DOCUMENT SIGN OFF

1Document Management

1.1Contributors

Role / Unit / Name
Business Analyst (Owner) / Dabal Pedamonti
Project Manager
Project Sponsor
Business Area Manager
Systems Analyst Designer

1.2Version Control

Date / Version / Author / Section / Amendment
1st June 2016 / 1 / Dabal Pedamonti / All / First Draft

2PROJECT OVERVIEW

2.1Description

This project will enable CMDB to be automatically populated with the information about all the servers, both physical and virtual, that are present in the IS system.

So far the data has been uploaded manually in the CMDB making the whole process slow and not really reliable. Thus, making it automatic, we are going to have a better record of the information in term of accuracy. Moreover the process is going to be faster and the updates are going to be constant and regular, like daily (or nightly).

The process of uploading the data into the CMDB has different phases: first it is necessary to gather the information about each of the servers (some data is available on the server other is not) and then, this it converted into a CSV file. After that, the data is inserted into a temporary table and, finally, after it has passed the validation, it is uploaded into the CMDB.

2.2Objectives

  • Develop a mechanism to collect mandatory data from the servers
  • Prepare csv files
  • Load the hardware information into the CMDB

2.3Out of scope

  • Analyse the CMDB structure and the loading mechanism
  • Handle inconsistent data

2.4Dependencies and Constraints

  • Checking the availability of some technical data from the ITI and waiting to get the data from them

3BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

Key: Mandatory (M), Desirable (D), Not required (N/A)

3.1Functional Requirements

3.1.1Server information

The first step is to collect the data from the server, some information is already available but some other is not so, in general the following records are necessary:

ID / Requirement / Category
1.1 / Object ID / M
1.2 / Object type / M
1.3 / Make / M
1.4 / Model / M
1.5 / Specification / M
1.6 / Installed by / M
1.7 / Serial number / N/A
1.8 / MAC Address / N/A
1.9 / Contact / M
1.10 / Order number / N/A
1.11 / Budget holder / N/A
1.12 / Purchase date / N/A
1.13 / Warranty ends / N/A
1.14 / Insured until / N/A
1.15 / Purchase price / N/A
1.16 / Residual value / N/A
1.17 / Depreciation / N/A
1.18 / Location/link / M
1.19 / College/Support group / M
1.20 / School/Division / M
1.21 / Status / M

3.1.2CSV file

In order to load the information into the database tables, the file, containing the data, has to be in comma separated value format (csv), the separator character can be either a comma or a vertical line.

ID / Requirement / Category
2.1 / From the server information (hardware attributes) generate the corresponding csv file / M

3.1.3Database

The database is necessary to keep the information into the tables and to filter only those fields that contain the data that will be uploaded into the CMDB.

ID / Requirement / Category
3.1 / Be able to load on a temporary table the information gathered in the csv file / M
3.2 / Adding a field for each attribute
3.3 / Add an extra field in order to check the validity of all the mandatory attributes, marking those that are missing a mandatory attribute / M
3.4 / Load the data of only those elements that have passed the validity check into a new table in order to be ready to be uploaded in CMDB / M

3.1.4CMDB

The configuration management database (CMDB) is where all the data, that has been collected and validated, will be stored.

ID / Requirement / Category
4.1 / Be able to upload the information about the server into the database / M
4.2 / Consider the problem of how the data should be overwritten / M

3.2Non-Functional Requirements

3.2.1CMDB upload timing

Ref / Requirement / Category
5.1 / Determine how often the CMDB has to be updated / M
5.2 / Calculate how long each uploading procedure is going to take / D

4DOCUMENT SIGN OFF

Project Manager / Iain Fiddes / Date
Application Head / Stefan Kaempf / Date
Dev Tech Lead / Gillian Henderson / Date
ISAC Development lead / Geir Granum / Date
Application Management / Andrew Gleeson / Date
Business Analyst / Dabal Pedamonti / Date

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