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Business CI Models

The collection of CIs which compose the view content of perspective-based views can be selected in two ways. You can select CIs from the CI Selector and drag them onto the editing pane. In this case, you can build a view by applying a perspective to the collection and the collection cannot be reused in another view without repeating the selection process. The other way to select the CIs to appear in the view is by creating a model.

A model is a reusable collection of CI instances that define a business entity, such as a business service or line of business. By creating a model, you are building a CI collection that can be reused with other perspectives to create different views. Any changes you subsequently make to the model are reflected in all the views based on that model. There are two types of models: instance-based models and pattern-based models.

Instance-based Models

You build an instance-based model by first selecting a business CI to serve as its basis. The available business CIs include group, application, business service, business unit, and line of business. Then, you can add CIs to your model in the following ways:

  • Manually, by dragging CIs from the CI Selector into the Model Editor

  • Revealing related CIs using a reveal path and selecting the ones to add to the model

  • Defining a watchpoint for a selected CI and automatically adding CIs to the model

You can also begin building a model by dragging CIs onto the empty canvas and selecting Create a new model.

The model you create is a CI itself and the CIs in your model are related to the model by Contains relationships. You must save your model before applying a perspective to it to build a view.

Caution The changes you make in a model affect the entire universe, not just the views based on that model. Thus, if you delete a CI from a model, you are deleting the relationship that existed between the CIs from the CMDB.

When working in IT Universe Manager, you can add selected CIs directly to a new model or an existing model. For details, see Add CIs to Model Dialog Box.

Pattern-based Models

Another type of model you can build is a pattern-based model. In a pattern-based model, you define a TQL query to determine the CIs included, rather than selecting them manually. You can base your pattern-based model on an existing TQL query or create a new TQL query.

You must designate at least one query node in the model's TQL query as output for the model. The CIs of that type which match the pattern of the TQL query are the ones included in the model output.

The pattern-based model created is saved as a CI like an ordinary model, and can be used to form the content of a perspective-based view. The new TQL query created is saved as an ordinary query and can be used as the basis for a pattern view.

Pattern-based models are not updated continuously. Each model is calculated at the time it is saved and the TQL query runs at specific intervals to update the model. All existing pattern-based models are updated at the same time. To set the frequency of the pattern-based model updates, click the button in the Resources tab of the left pane to open the Pattern Based Model Scheduler dialog box. The settings you select also apply to all pattern-based models created subsequently. For details, see Pattern Based Model Scheduler Dialog Box.

Note

  • When you export a pattern-based model in Package Manager, the underlying TQL query of the model, as well as an enrichment used to update the model content, are added to the package. When you view the package resource, or deploy or undeploy the package, only those resources are displayed. The model name does not appear. A pattern-based model exported from UCMDB 10.x cannot be imported into a UCMDB version earlier than 10.00.

  • When you delete a pattern-based model (either from the Modeling Studio or from the IT Universe), the Business Enrichment, Job Scheduler, and pattern-based model CI are also deleted.

Defining a Pattern-based Model over an Instance-based Model

When defining a pattern-based model, it is possible build it on top of an existing instance-based model. In this case, only the pattern of the model that you build is visible on the canvas, as in a new pattern-based model. However, the CIs in the instance-based model also remain in the new model and appear in the view results when the model is used to build a perspective-based view. Similarly, when you access the model in IT Universe Manager, both the CIs in the instance-based model and those retrieved by the pattern-based model are visible. The model is saved with the name of the original instance-based model, in effect creating a hybrid model with both instance-based and pattern-based components.

If you delete the model, only the additional pattern-based part of the model is deleted. The model reverts to an instance-based model and the CIs included in it become visible in the Model Editor.

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