CMDB mistakes can quickly turn into nightmare scenarios if not properly managed. In an episode of Cask NX's Distillery Podcast, Sean Dawson and Chris Padmore shared real-life examples of CMDB challenges and the costly errors they can cause. More importantly, they discussed practical solutions and prevention strategies to keep these issues from arising in the first place. Here are some key insights from their conversation to help you avoid these pitfalls and keep your CMDB running smoothly.
The phantom update
One dark and stormy night, a large enterprise IT team was conducting its typical updates to the CMDB. Suddenly, an application goes down, followed by another, and another, and another. The team goes into a panic trying to diagnose the issue before the entire system comes crashing down around them.
“It turns out the culprit was an error in the update to the CMDB,” Chris said. “So when they made that last change to the CMDB, they accidentally removed one of the core dependencies of the server they were running on.”
So how can you protect yourself from living this nightmare? “Your friend there is going to be the Discovery tool,” Chris said. “It’s going to make sure that as it’s scanning and it sees dependencies between IT components, that those dependencies are properly associated in the CMDB.”
The ghost server
You’re sitting at your desk when a call comes in. “It looks like server 123 is down,” it says. Server 123? You don’t remember there being a server 123. But you look it up, and there indeed is a server 123 in the CMDB. It isn’t pinging, there are no tickets associated with it, no applications are running on it, and nobody is requesting it—no one but this one phantom caller.
You ask the server team. Their chilling response? “That IP address doesn’t exist.”
“Turns out that server used to be a server, used to exist in the CMDB,” Chris says. “But it was decommissioned. And somewhere along the lines, when someone was doing their job of decommissioning it, breaking its dependencies, they left something intact.”
Prevent your decommissioned servers from haunting you by employing a closed-loop change process. Document that a server has been decommissioned and create a task as simple as “unplug from the wall,” sending someone down to the basement to eliminate the server from the premises.
AI gone wrong
AI was built to be our friend. To automate tasks that would take too long—like flagging inconsistencies in the CMDB—and allow us to spend more time looking after our clients’ needs. But what happens when AI becomes “self-aware” and thinks that it knows better than we do?
You log into the CMDB and find that the AI has gone AWOL: hundreds and hundreds of servers and databases in the wrong operational statuses. The ServiceNow machine learning module has marked IT assets as invalid, incorrect, non-discoverable, or non-operational, based upon changes that were made earlier. Many relationships have been removed, and many resources are tied to the wrong services.
How do you keep your AI from going rogue?
“You want to make sure that you are not going full unsupervised learning to start out with what your CMDB AI updates,” Chris says. “You want some validation. It learns by observing what you’re doing and seeing what’s in the system. But you do have to coach it, especially if you’re just starting out. You want to go and make sure that the updates it thinks it’s making are valid.” It takes patience and careful observation to keep your AI performing as expected.
We’re with you for what comes next
You're working in a rapidly shifting environment.
Global dynamics, AI advancements, heavy competition–the only certainty is change.
We get it. And we’re here to help you harness the full potential of ServiceNow to simplify transformation.
Let's navigate the future together.
Avoid horror stories
with Cask NX
If these CMDB horror stories have left you with a case of the goosebumps, don’t worry: Cask NX is here to help. As a trusted ServiceNow elite partner, we can help you guard against these common pitfalls and make sure that you reach your ServiceNow goals. Contact us today to learn more, or watch the full podcast episode to learn more from these stories.
We’re with you for what comes next
You're working in a rapidly shifting environment.
Global dynamics, AI advancements, heavy competition–the only certainty is change.
We get it. And we’re here to help you harness the full potential of ServiceNow to simplify transformation.
Let's navigate the future together.
LET'S INNOVATE
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