CSDM life-cycle terms

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of CSDM life-cycle terms

    The Common Service Data Model (CSDM) life-cycle terms define standardized concepts used across ServiceNow AI Platform and many ServiceNow products. These terms help customers understand and manage the life-cycle states of Configuration Items (CIs), assets, and Install Base Items (IBIs) consistently throughout their product life cycles.

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    Key Concepts

    • CI (Configuration Item): A record in the CMDB [cmdbci] table representing any component managed in the system.
    • Life-cycle value pair: A combination of life cycle stage and life cycle stage status that fully describes the current state of a product instance. These stages cover the entire life cycle from inception/procurement to operation and end of life.
    • Life cycle stage: Broad phases such as Operational or End of Life that a CI moves through during its life cycle.
    • Life cycle stage status: Specific status within a stage, for example, a CI in the Operational stage might have statuses like In Use, In Maintenance, or End of Support.
    • Legacy values: Older status types such as install status and operational status used before CSDM life-cycle values were introduced.
    • Asset: A record in the asset [almasset] table representing physical or logical assets.
    • Install Base Item (IBI): A record in the [sninstallbaseitem] table representing items sold or provided as services to customers.
    • Product instance (PI): A logical grouping of Asset + CI + IBI records representing instances of products across their life cycles.

    Life Cycle Mapping and Inheritance

    • The life cycle mapping table [lifecyclemapping] contains predefined rules to map legacy status values to CSDM standardized life cycle value pairs. This ensures consistent interpretation of older data within the new model.
    • For Business Application records, life cycle stages reflect application-specific phases (e.g., Ideation, Design, Operational, End of Life), configured via the lifecyclecontrol table for the cmdbcibusinessapplication class.
    • Business Application life cycle stages inherit additional stages (like Deploy and Inventory) from parent CI classes through an aggregation-based inheritance model. This means child classes extend rather than override parent life cycle definitions, which can result in Business Applications showing infrastructure-related life cycle stages that may not be semantically significant but is expected behavior.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables consistent tracking and management of product instances across assets, CIs, and IBIs throughout their life cycles.
    • Supports integration of legacy data by mapping older status values to current CSDM life-cycle stages and statuses.
    • Provides clear visibility into the operational and maintenance states of physical and logical components, improving asset and service management accuracy.
    • Offers flexibility to represent business applications’ life cycles while preserving alignment with infrastructure lifecycles through inheritance, aiding in comprehensive service modeling.

    Most ServiceNow products and ServiceNow AI Platform applications align closely with the Common Service Data Model. This table defines terms as they are used across the ServiceNow AI Platform.

    Terms related to life cycle

    CI
    Configuration item: Record in the CMDB CI [cmdb_ci] table.
    life-cycle value pair

    A life-cycle value pair is the combination life cycle stage and life cycle stage status values for a CI, asset, or IBI over the life cycle of a product instance. The pair of values fully describe the life-cycle state of the product instance.

    The standard CSDM life-cycle value pair covers all phases of a product instance life cycle.
    • A life cycle stage is one of the broad phases that a CI moves through, for example from inception or procurement to operation and then perhaps to end of life.
    • life cycle stage status is the particular status of a CI within its current life cycle stage.
    For example, a tangible/physical CI in the Operational stage might change stage status over time from In Use to In Maintenance to End of Support. A different tangible/physical CI might go from In Use to End of Support without ever having been in In Maintenance status.
    Allowed life-cycle values during the Operational stage of a tangible/physical CI life cycle
    CI legacy values
    Value types that were in place before CSDM life-cycle values were implemented:
    • install status
    • operational status
    • hardware status
    • hardware substatus
    asset
    Production asset: Record in the asset [alm_asset] table.
    install base item (IBI)
    Install-Base-Item: Record in the install base item [sn_install_base_item] table. Any item that is provided as a service or sold to your customer is tracked as an Install Base Item (IBI). The Model category table associates Asset, CI, and IBI for the item.
    product instance
    A product instance (PI) is comprised of an operational asset (asset), an install-base-item (IBI), and a configuration item (CI). A PI is a logical grouping of the [Asset/CI/IBI] that represents instances of products (goods and services) throughout their life cycles in ServiceNow applications and workflows. Possible formulations:
    • Asset+CI+IBI
    • Asset+CI
    • Asset+IBI

    Life cycle mapping table

    The base system includes the life cycle mapping [life_cycle_mapping] table. The table is prepopulated with mappings between widely used legacy status values and the equivalent CSDM life cycle stage and life cycle stage status values. Each record in the table (called a mapping rule) specifies how to map a legacy status value, based on its table, to the best-fit CSDM life-cycle value pair.

    The table typically contains multiple record entries per class, each entry that maps a specific legacy status to a life-cycle value pair. When there are multiple record entries for a class, the entries are prioritized by importance and likelihood for containing meaningful values for the mapping process. The highest priority rule is used when multiple candidate rules apply.

    Mapping rule that specifies the mapping between a legacy status value and the equivalent CSDM life cycle stage and life cycle stage status values.

    See Map legacy status values to CSDM life-cycle values and How life-cycle values for Asset, CI, and IBI are synchronized.

    Life Cycle Stage inheritance for Business Application records

    Business Application records define a restricted set of Life Cycle Stage values that are intended to reflect application planning and usage, such as Ideation, Design, Operational, and End of Life. These life cycle definitions are configured using the life_cycle_control table specifically for the cmdb_ci_business_application class. When you view or edit a Business Application record, however, additional Life Cycle Stage values such as Deploy and Inventory might also appear. These stages are not defined directly for Business Application, but are inherited from parent CI classes (for example, cmdb_ci) through the aggregation-based inheritance model that is used by life_cycle_control. In this model, life cycle definitions from the current CI class are combined with life cycle definitions from all parent classes in the CMDB class hierarchy. Child classes therefore extend parent life cycle definitions rather than overriding them. As a result, Business Application records can display Life Cycle Stage values that are applicable to infrastructure or hardware CIs but might not be semantically meaningful for applications. This behavior is expected and working as designed.

    In contrast, in sys_choice inheritance definitions in child tables override the values in parent tables.