Exploring Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

    The Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB) application leverages generative AI to enhance CMDB management by summarizing key details of configuration items (CIs) and providing guided remediation for duplicate CIs. It is supported starting from the Xanadu patch 3 release and integrates with large language models such as Gemini and Claude to deliver its capabilities.

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    Key Features

    • CI Summarization Skill: Provides concise summaries of critical CI information directly within CI forms, workspaces, or lists. This summary includes discovery details, ownership, associated business services, security vulnerabilities, and related records (incidents, alerts, problems, change requests). This helps streamline workflows in Incident Management, Change Management, and Event Management by offering quick access to relevant CI data.
    • Manage Duplicate CIs Skill: Offers step-by-step guidance for CMDB administrators to identify and remediate duplicate CIs, which can compromise CMDB integrity. Features include reviewing deduplication tasks, creating and assigning deduplication templates, previewing remediation results before application, and identifying root causes of duplication to prevent future occurrences.
    • Service Graph Connector Diagnosis Skill: Automates diagnosis and recommendations for errors in Service Graph Connectors, which are integrations that bring third-party data into the CMDB. This reduces manual effort and expedites resolution of data flow issues that affect CI accuracy within the CMDB.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Improves efficiency by delivering AI-driven insights and summaries of CI data, enabling faster decision-making and issue resolution.
    • Enhances CMDB health by simplifying the detection and remediation of duplicate CIs through guided workflows and template-driven actions.
    • Reduces troubleshooting time for Service Graph Connector errors, ensuring more reliable and consistent CI data ingestion.
    • Supports proactive CMDB maintenance by helping identify root causes of duplication and connector issues, contributing to ongoing data quality improvements.

    With the Now Assist for Configuration Management Database (CMDB) application, you can use generative AI to summarize the discovery and ownership details and related information for a configuration item (CI). Now Assist for CMDB can also generate step-by-step guidance to help you remediate duplicate CIs.

    Supporting information for Now Assist for CMDB

    Now Assist for CMDB is supported starting with Xanadu patch 3.

    Now Assist for SGC supports the following LLM models:
    • Gemini
    • Claude

    Now Assist for CMDB overview

    Now Assist for CMDB provides the following skills:

    CI summarization skill

    View a concise summary of key configuration item (CI) data directly on a CI form, in the workspace, or from any list. The summary can include discovery and class details, associated business services, security vulnerabilities, and related records like incidents, alerts, problems, and change requests. Summary information is useful while working in applications such as Incident Management, Change Management, and Event Management.

    The summary includes discovery (most recent discovery and last discovered time), ownership, and key related items, such as open incidents, alerts, problems, upcoming change requests, and security vulnerabilities. Additionally, the summary lists the service instances that the CI is part of.

    Summary information.

    Manage duplicate CIs skill

    Duplicate CIs interfere with the integrity, reliability, and general health of CMDB. Resolve deduplication tasks with support from Now Assist. CMDB administrators follow step-by-step guidance to perform remediation, and can preview remediation results before applying a template. The manage duplicate CIs skill accelerates the work that you normally perform manually.

    In this example, the manage duplicate CIs skill presents a list of classes with duplicate CIs and suggests possible actions. You can select an option or enter the action text in your own words:
    • Review deduplication tasks, create deduplication templates, assign tasks to templates, and run the templates.
    • Preview the results of applying a deduplication template before you decide to apply it.
    • Identify the root cause of duplications so that you can review the groups of deduplication tasks that share a common cause and possibly avoid the issue in the future.

    Selecting duplicate CIs to remediate.

    Service Graph Connector diagnosis

    Service Graph Connectors are integrations that facilitate data ingestion from third-party sources into the CMDB. Errors in Service Graph Connectors can disrupt the flow of configuration item (CI) data resulting in inconsistencies between the actual state of CIs and their CMDB records.

    The Service Graph Connector diagnosis skill automates error diagnosis and recommendation generation, enabling CMDB installation administrators to identify and resolve the issues. This automation reduces manual effort and saves time in debugging Service Graph Connectors issues.

    To learn more, see Use Now Assist to diagnose a Service Graph Connector issue.

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