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Step 1: Create CMDB Project
First, we need a project. The configuration are is not important for at the moment, so you could choose a Task Management Template , because the default configurations are easy easily adjustable for our case. We will name the project CMDB but you can choose whatever name fits your requirements.
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We want to have the following assets in our use case: Server, Application and Database. Each asset is represented by an issue type. In this step, we create all needed issue types without doing further configuration. This will be done later on.
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Step 3: Create Relations
Now we want to create relations Advanced Links between our assets/issue types. We want to have the following info:
Which application run runs on a server?
Which server is connected to an application?
Which database is used by which application?
Which application is connected to which database?
To get this information we need to create these relationsAdvanced Links:
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Step 4: Configuring Screens, Screen Schemes and Workflows
Now we continue with configuring the screens and screen schemes. In this step, you would have to consider, what kind of information you want to track in your issue types and replace the default schemes with your own schemes and screens. We keep the default schemes from the template but make small adjustments to the workflow , because we want to see if an application/server/database is active or inactive. Also, we make sure that our project contains our new issue types:
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Workflow:
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Step 5: Configure
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Advanced Links
Now we are finally ready to do the relation Advanced Link configuration which will connect our issue types with each other. We go back into the app administration and click on the first relation Advanced Link field we want to configure. We start with…with the Application on server.
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Applications on Server
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At first, we set the context. The relation outward field ‘Applications on Server’ should show all linked applications, which are installed on a specific server. Therefore we need to restrict the context as shown:
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Now we click on Configure to continue:
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to the CMDB project and Server issue type.
Data Logic
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→ Maximum Selection: At at first we set Maximum Selection to 0 , because we want to be able to select unlimited applications.
→ Selectable Issues: Then then we provide a JQL that defines the issues we are able to select. We have to imagine, that the current relation field we are configuring show shows all all applications on a specific server (we consider a database also as an application in this case). So we have to provide a JQL which will limit our options to issues from type application and database. This is the most important step in the whole configuration!
→ Searching User: In in case we want to use a special user for searching , because we want to restrict the visibility of certain assets, then we could optionally choose a searching user. In our case we use the default searching user, which is the admin user.
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Display Style
The display styles defines define the appearance of the issue panels/tables in the issue view and how related issues are displayed. We want to show related issues in a table, which is displayed on the left side (below the description box). The table should contain the key, summary and status of related assets:
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Application Server
Next, we want to configure the opposite direction. We want to configure a relation an Advanced Link field that is placed in the application issue type and shows the server on which the application is installed. So we have to set the context like this:
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Data Logic
This time we only want to select 1 item, because every application belongs to exactly 1 server. So we set Maximum Selection to 1. As for selectable issues, we want to be able to select only servers.
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We keep the style we used above but this time we use the list style for displaying related issues. Feel free to adjust the display style to your own requirements.
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Step 6: 🎉 Creating Assets and Start Linking Them 🎉
Congratulation! Now your project is ready for a CMDB use case and you can start creating assets and linking them. First, we create a server and an application. To link the two issues to each other, click on the three dots as shown in the screenshot:
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Now the relation Advanced Link panel appears in the issue view. Click on the pencil to add related issues:
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link icon to open the issue search panel.
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Now we can choose the application server. Because we defined the selectable issues query and also set the maximum selection to one, we are allowed to choose exactly one server:
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After submitting you successfully linked the server to the application and you will get a new element in your issue view:
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This is how what your panel will look like. According to the configuration in the Display Style section, your panel will can look different.
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And here is the cool thing: When you click on the issue key of the linked server you will get directly to the issue and you will see, that we created also a link to the opposite direction. That means, that the server will show related applications: (if the panel does not appear directly, click again on the three dots and choose “Relations”)
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Step 7: Continue with more
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Advanced Links
We configured successfully the Server - Application Relation. To complete our use case we do the same for Application - Database. The whole process is exactly the same. Use the following settings to complete the configuration:
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