Mechanism to display graphical IT infrastructure using configurable smart navigation

摘要

A system allows pre-defining CI scope definitions for use by users of a CMDB system. The pre-defined CI scope definitions may be used to expand a starting CI in a graph displaying a portion of the CMDB according to the types of CIs and relationships between CIs defined in the scope definition. The scope definition is converted into one or more CMDB queries that are restricted to a chain of CIs related to the starting CI. The system restricts the visibility of scope definitions to only those applicable to the starting CI.

主权项

1. A method for use with a configuration management database (CMDB) containing configuration items (CIs) that represent elements of an information technology (IT) infrastructure, comprising:
providing a graphical scope definition builder for generating CI scope definitions; identifying a CI scope definition to a user of the CMDB, wherein the CI scope definition is a pre-defined graph pattern that is associated with a CI class and conditions that includes a view template defining how to expand and is responsive to receiving a user-selected starting node representing a first element of the IT infrastructure, wherein identifying the CI scope definition includes:
determining characteristics of the first element by determining a class key and an attribute condition list corresponding to the first element,identifying available CI scope definitions by matching the class key and the attribute condition list corresponding to the first element to a plurality of available CI scope definitions,displaying for the user multiple CI scope definitions from the plurality of the available CI scope definitions that match the class key and the attribute condition list corresponding to the first element, andreceiving from the user a selection of a CI scope definition from the displayed multiple CI scope definitions; receiving a request from the user to expand a CI graph at the starting node; querying the CMDB responsive to the starting node and the selected CI scope definition; and expanding the CI graph at the starting node by adding CIs to the CI graph responsive to the querying to show CIs representing elements of the IT infrastructure that have a relationship to the first element defined by the selected CI scope definition.