Data Relationships Framework

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Data Relationships Framework

    The Data Relationships Framework (applicationsngrcrelconfig) is integrated by default with the BCM application starting in the Xanadu release. It provides a foundational framework to fetch and manage dependencies in Business Impact Analyses (BIAs), plans, and events from multiple data sources such as CMDB, BIA, and BCP. The framework enables configuration of main object types (main nodes) and their relationships to child nodes, supporting efficient dependency updates and retrieval across these sources.

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    Key Features

    • Unified API: Offers a single API to fetch dependencies from various sources, simplifying integration and data retrieval.
    • Main Node Configuration: Allows administrators to define main nodes including their source, table, and filter conditions, controlling how and what dependency data is pulled.
    • Node Relationship Configuration: Supports mapping relationships between main nodes and child nodes (e.g., assets, risks) to understand and manage dependency hierarchies.
    • Scheduled Dependency Updates: A scheduled job periodically scans configurations and fetches updated dependencies to keep related BCM records current.
    • Performance Control: Administrators can optimize performance by selectively configuring sources and filters to limit data fetching to necessary information.
    • Role-Based Access: Roles such as Data Relationships Framework administrator and reader define permissions for configuring and viewing relationship data. All BCM users have reader access by default.
    • Support Tables and Modules: Introduces new tables for main node and relationship configurations, and modules for administrators to manage these configurations directly within the application navigator.

    Practical Use and Configuration

    BCM administrators use the framework to:

    • Configure main nodes as sources for impact analysis, planning, and event dependency updates.
    • Define relationship registries to specify how objects relate within BCM's 360-degree relationship model.
    • Set properties governing framework behavior and data retrieval.
    • Manage dependencies such as mapping incidents to assets and risks, enabling comprehensive impact assessments.

    Examples include configuring incident records as main nodes linked to affected assets and risks, with defined limits on the depth and breadth of dependency graphs.

    Limitations

    • Fetched data for one object cannot be reused for other purposes within the framework.
    • Only the predefined sources within the framework can be used for fetching dependency updates; creating custom sources is not supported.

    Next Steps for BCM Customers

    • Create Main Node Configuration Records: Define sources and filtering criteria for dependency data retrieval.
    • Create Relationship Registry Records: Establish and manage object relationships within the BCM environment.
    • Configure Framework Properties: Adjust settings to tailor data fetching and framework behavior.

    These configurations empower BCM users to maintain accurate, up-to-date dependency mappings essential for effective business continuity and impact analysis.

    The Data Relationships Framework application (sn_grc_rel_config) supports the BCM application with the underlying framework to fetch the dependencies in the BIAs, plans, and events from different sources such as CMDB, BIA, and BCP. Beginning with the Xanadu release, the Data Relationships Framework (sn_grc_rel_config) application is installed with the BCM application by default.

    Framework for fetching the dependencies

    The Data Relationships Framework (sn_grc_rel_config) stores the configurations for how a main object type can relate to other object types. It enables the users to configure the source (main node) for the dependency updates, configure its relationship with the child nodes, and fetch the dependencies for the selected object.

    A scheduled job scans the object configuration data at regular intervals and checks if any dependencies have been updated. If any changes are observed in the dependencies, the scheduled job fetches the dependencies of the selected object from one of the configured sources such as BIA, BCP, or CMDB.

    Benefits of the Data Relationships Framework

    The Data Relationships Framework provides the following benefits for the BCM application users:
    • Provides a single API to fetch the dependencies from different sources.
    • Supports the configuration of the main node (source) and maintains its relationships with its child nodes such as assets, risks, and so on.
    • Enables the users to control the performance by selecting different sources.

    Roles associated with the Data Relationships Framework

    The following roles are associated with the Data Relationships Framework application.
    Table 1. Roles associated with the Data Relationships Framework
    Roles Description
    Data Relationships Framework administrator [sn_grc_rel_config.admin] Configures the relationship of the object types such as the relationship of the main node to the child nodes.
    Data Relationships Framework reader [sn_grc_rel_config.reader] Views the data for the object types as defined in the Data Relationships Framework.
    Note:
    All BCM application users have the Data Relationships Framework reader role.

    Tables for the framework

    To support the Data Relationships Framework, the following new tables have been added and existing tables have been revised.
    Table 2. Tables used for the Data Relationships Framework
    New and existing tables Table Description
    New table Main node configuration [sn_grc_rel_config_main_node_confi] Table to store the configuration of the main node from where the dependencies are fetched.
    New table Node relationship configuration [sn_grc_rel_config_node_rel_config] Table to store the configuration that determines the dependencies of the main node and child nodes. It also maintains a reference to the main node configuration.
    Existing table Relationship registries [sn_data_registry_relationship] Table to determine the relationship of an object with other objects.

    Modules for configuring the relationships

    The BCM application users can navigate to Data Relationship Framework in the application navigator and access its modules for configuring the relationships.

    Module path.

    The Data Relationships Framework application consists of the following modules:

    1. Main node configuration: Configure the details of the main node such as its name, source, table name, filer conditions, and so on as shown in the following examples.

      Main node configuration.

      The following main node configurations are provided as sources with the base system as shown in the following example:

      Base system configuration.

      • BIA upstream dependency
      • BIA downstream dependencies
      • CMDB
      • Plan primary assets
      • Plan related assets
      The BCM administrators use the main node configuration to perform the following tasks:
      • Configure the Impact analysis dependency update configuration module and fetch the dependency updates into a BIA (add the dependency updates to the BIA) from these sources.Sources.
      • Configure the Planning dependency update configuration module and fetch the planning dependency updates into a plan (add the updated related assets to the plan) from these sources.
      • Configure the Event dependency source configuration module and configure the sources for the event dependency updates (add the updated impacted assets to a recovery event).
      Note:
      All the information on how data should be pulled is stored in the Main node configuration, which is attached to the records. This configuration determines the order in which the data is pulled. To reduce the amount of data pulled and how it is pulled, you need to configure the conditions in both the Main node configuration and the records. This ensures that only the necessary data is retrieved.

      The main node configuration records for plans and CMDB are shown in the following examples.

      Main node configuration for a BCP.

      Sample main node configuration.

      For information on creating a main node configuration record, see Create a main node configuration record.

    2. Relationship registries: Configure the relationship registries for the main node. Relationship registries are part of the 360-degree configuration in GRC where a user can define how one object has a related object. The configuration details of a relationship registry record such as its name, table, relationship type, relationship table, and so on are shown in the form.

      New relationship registry record.

      A sample relationship registry record for a BIA and BIA template is shown in the following example.

      Sample relationship registry record.

      For information on creating a relationship registry record, see Create a relationship registry record.

    3. Properties: Configure the properties of the Data Relationships Framework as shown in the following example.

      Properties for the Data Relationship Framework.

      For information on configuring the properties, see Configure the properties for the Data Relationships Framework.

    Use cases for the Data Relationships Framework

    The Data Relationships Framework is used to configure the node and asset relationships such as mapping a main node to its child node or mapping an asset to a risk.

    Consider the following use case that shows the main node configuration and its relationships.

    Data relationship framework.

    In this example, INC1010 is the main node where the source is an Incident. INC1010 has two child nodes:
    1. Asset A: The affected configuration item for Asset A is Risk A.
    2. INC1011: The affected configuration items (CIs) for INC1011 are Asset B and Asset C. For Asset B, the affected configuration item is Risk B.
    With the underlying Data Relationships Framework, the following relationships are configured:
    • Main nodes:
      • INC1010 -> Asset A
      • INC1010 -> INC1011
    • Node relationships:
      • Asset A -> Risk A
      • INC1011 -> Asset B
      • INC1011 -> Asset C
      • Asset B -> Risk B
    • Input nodes:
      • Source = Incident
      • Record = INC1010
      • Max Levels = 5
      • Max Nodes = 1000
    • Output nodes:
      • INC1010
      • Asset A
      • INC1011
      • Risk A
      • Asset B
      • Asset C
      • Risk B
    • Edges:
      • INC1010 -> Asset A
      • INC1010 -> INC1011
      • Asset A -> Risk A
      • INC1011 -> Asset B
      • INC1011 -> Asset C
      • Asset B -> Risk B

    Limitations of using the Data Relationships Framework

    The Data Relationships Framework has the following limitations:
    • The data fetched for an object cannot be reused for another purpose.
    • The sources provided in the framework must be used for fetching the dependency updates into an object. It is not possible to configure your own sources for fetching the data.

    For more information on the administrative setup for the configuration records, see Dependency Configuration records.