CI deletion strategies for pattern discovery

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 5, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of CI Deletion Strategies for Pattern Discovery

    CI deletion strategies allow you to manage configuration items (CIs) in the CMDB when they can no longer be found during pattern discovery. These strategies apply only when using patterns, not probes or sensors. You will define a main CI type, such as an IIS web server, and discover related CIs that populate the CMDB.

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    Key Features

    • Identification of a main CI type and its related CIs during discovery.
    • Manual configuration of relationships between main CIs and related CIs in the Related CI Types table.
    • Deletion strategies that can be defined for related CIs, impacting how they are managed in the CMDB.

    Deletion Strategy Options

    • Keep: Preserves the CI record without changes (default).
    • Delete: Removes the CI record and its relationship to the main CI.
    • Mark as absent: Changes the status of the CI to Absent without deleting it.
    • Delete relations: Deletes only the relationships to the main CI.
    • Mark as retired: Changes the status to Retired, indicating the CI is no longer used.

    Key Outcomes

    Implementing these deletion strategies enables you to maintain a clean and accurate CMDB by managing CIs effectively based on their discovery status. Keep in mind that deletion strategies do not apply to related entries based on other CIs, and the main CI can only be deleted if it is an AWS or Azure cloud database.

    When you perform discovery with a pattern, you can choose what to do with configuration items (CIs) that are in the CMDB but Discovery can no longer find.

    Note:
    Deletion strategies are available only with patterns, not probes/sensors.
    When you use a pattern to perform discovery, you identify a CI Type, which is the main CI you are trying to find, such as an IIS web server or Tomcat server. Discovery can also find related CIs and populate the CMDB accordingly. For example, after Discovery finds an IIS server with the IIS pattern, it can also find these related CIs:
    • The Windows machine that hosts the web server
    • The configuration files for the IIS server
    • The web site that the IIS server hosts
    The dependency map on the main CI also shows the related CIs, as illustrated by the following graphic:
    Figure 1. An example of an IIS server main CI and its related CIs
    related CIs to an IIS server

    After you discover the main CI and its related CIs for the first time using a pattern, you need to manually configure an entry in the Related CI Types [sa_ci_to_pattern] table for each relation between the main CI and a related CI type. These records are where you determine the deletion strategy for each related CI based on its type. Note that you cannot set a deletion strategy for the main CI, except for AWS and Azure cloud databases.

    You can view a list of the relations as the following image illustrates:
    Figure 2. Example CIs related to an IIS server
    CIs related to an IIS server
    The deletion strategy on a related CI takes effect when both of these conditions occur:
    • After you run Discovery with the pattern again.
    • Discovery successfully finds the main CI but cannot find the related CI.

    These deletion strategy options are available:

    Value Description
    Keep Preserves the configuration file CI record and makes no other changes to the record. This option is the default setting.
    Delete Deletes the configuration file CI record from the CMDB, and the relationship to the main CI.
    Mark as absent Marks the Status [install_status] field of the configuration file CI record as Absent, meaning that Discovery cannot find the tracked configuration file. This status does not instruct the system to delete the actual CI or the relationship.
    Note:
    There are two tables that do have their CIs deleted if marked as absent: cmdb_ci_network_adapter and cmdb_ci_ip_address.
    Delete relations Deletes only the CI relationships between the related CI and the main CI.
    Mark as retired Marks the Status [install_status] field of the configuration file CI record as Retired, meaning that Discovery no longer uses this configuration file. This status does not instruct the system to delete the actual CI or the relationship.
    Note:
    Deletion strategies are not available for related entries, which are rules that are based on related CIs. For more information, see Identification rules.