CI relationships

Service Manager tracks upstream and downstream relationships between CIs. A relationship between CIs means that there is some dependency between CIs. If an upstream CI has an interruption of service, Service Manager assumes that all CIs with a downstream relationship to the affected CI also have an interruption of service. For example, if a network router has an interruption of service, then all servers and PCs that connect to that router also have an interruption of service.

Any given CI typically has one upstream relationship and one or more downstream relationships. CIs can have logical or physical relationships based on the logical name of the configuration item. CI relationships are independent of baseline, actual or managed states.

CI Relationship section (CI visualization)

Each CI record has a section that graphically displays relationships between CIs and the current state of each item in the configuration. (UCMDB has a similar relationship diagram.) Service Manager gathers information from all available applications to determine the current state of a CI. You can view, add, or update relationships using the graphical interface. Service Manager uses smart indicators to tell you if there are any current issues, related records, or breaches to availability SLAs for the CI.