Configuration management maintains configuration items (CIs) to manage and deliver an IT service. CIs are tracked in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). The CMDB stores and manages system component records with their attributes such as their type, owner, version, and dependency with other components. The CMDB keeps track of whether the server is physical or virtual, the operating system and its version (Windows 2012 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.0), the owner of the server (support, marketing, or HR), and whether it has dependency on other servers such as order management, and so on.
Configuration management is different from asset management. As you learned in the previous section, asset management is much faster. It manages the entire life cycle of an asset, from planning to retirement, while CMDB is a component of asset management that stores configuration records of an individual asset. As shown in the following diagram, configuration management...
