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title: Learn the CMDB Lifecycle
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portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/service/264-0-0/it_srvcs_undertstand_cmdb.md
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description: Understand the full lifecycle of configuration data in your Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Knowing how configuration items (CIs) , CI types, CI attributes, and CI relationships work together helps your team build a structured, reliable asset inventory and maintain data accuracy across systems.
products:
  - Service Cloud
  - Agentforce IT Service
release: "264"
---
# Learn the CMDB Lifecycle

Understand the full lifecycle of configuration data in your Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Knowing how configuration items (CIs) , CI types, CI attributes, and CI relationships work together helps your team build a structured, reliable asset inventory and maintain data accuracy across systems.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: Lightning Experience</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: <strong>Enterprise</strong>, <strong>Performance</strong>, and <strong>Unlimited</strong> Editions with Agentforce IT Service that have CMDB and Service Graph enabled.</td></tr></tbody></table>

CMDB provides a structured and centralized way to model your IT landscape. CIs represents physical or virtual asset like laptops, servers, business applications or cloud services. The CIs are grouped by CI types. CI types define the expected structure, behavior, and attributes for each CI. Attributes capture operational details, such as ownership, version, or IP address.

You can also create relationships between CIs to reflect real-world dependencies, such as an application hosted on a server or a VM connected to a network device. Service graphs visualize these relationships, helping teams understand service dependencies and respond to incidents or changes with greater accuracy. CMDB enables clean data management through identification rules.

![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-it_service-264-0-0-production-enus/0a574a10-4c7a-4681-aacf-0767f8beaad4/images/icon_example.png)

Example : Building Your IT Asset Inventory with CMDB

Consider a scenario where your IT team needs a clear picture of all employee laptops and how they connect to your network. You start by defining a CI type called laptop, which establishes the structure for all laptop records in the CMDB. The CI type includes key attributes like serial number, operating system, MAC Address, assigned user, and location.

Each attribute is paired with an attribute type. For example, serial number is a text field, assigned user references an internal user record, and location links to a site object. These attribute types ensure consistency and data integrity across all records of this CI type.

When new laptops are issued, you create CIs of type laptop and fill in the attribute values. For example, a laptop assigned to a sales executive includes details like its serial number, macOS version, and current office location.

To map dependencies, you define relationships between laptops and other CIs, such as the applications they run or the network switches they connect to. The relationships are displayed in a service graph, giving your team a visual way to understand how devices, users, and services are linked across the IT environment.