A CMDB helps an organization understand the relationship between the components of a system and to track their configurations.
Federation is usually distinguished from ETL (extract, transform, load) solutions in which data is copied into the CMDB.
Attributes captured by a CMDB vary based on CI category, and can number up to the hundreds.
At a minimum, all software, hardware, network, and storage CI types are stored and tracked in a CMDB.
As enterprises mature, they start to track business CI types in their CMDB, such as people, markets, products, and 3rd party entities such as vendors and partners.
CI types are: A key success factor in implementing a CMDB is the ability to automatically discover information about the CIs (auto-discovery) and track changes as they happen.
There are three specific core challenges to creating and maintaining a Configuration Management Database: Because of the above reasons, companies usually choose to purchase their CMDBs, rather than designing, building, delivering, and supporting them themselves.