Governance
35%of exam
CMDB HealthData ManagerAttestationDuplicates
Insight
20%of exam
Query BuilderUnified MapImpact AnalysisService Mapping
Ingestion
19%of exam
IREService Graph ConnectorMultisource CMDBReconciliation
Configuration
15%of exam
CSDM Fundamentals
11%of exam
Five DomainsBusiness AppApplication ServiceService Offering
Quick Facts
- Exam Code
- CIS-DF
- Credential
- Data Foundations (CMDB/CSDM)
- Questions
- ~75 (sources vary 60-75)
- Time
- 90 minutes
- Pass Score
- ~70% (unpublished)
- Format
- MCQ + multi-select + drag-drop
- Level
- Implementation Specialist
- Delivery
- Online proctored
CMDB Health Three Cs
Complete, Compliant, Correct in that priority order
Completeness: attributes filledCompliance: standard matchCorrectness: dupes orphans stale
Retire vs Archive
Retire
- Status change only
- Stays in cmdb_ci
- Reversible action
Archive
- Moves to archive tables
- Read-only after move
- Removed from active
Status change vs relocation
Lifecycle Action Picker
- CI no longer active→Retire(Status change only)
- Need audit trail kept→Archive(Read-only, out of active)
- Permanent removal needed→Delete(No recovery possible)
- Require owner sign-off first→Attestation(Runs before the action)
CMDB Health KPIs
- Completeness
- Required and recommended attributes filled
- Compliance
- Passes Desired State audit
- Correctness
- No duplicates, orphans, or staleness
- Health Score
- Failure ratio across submetrics
- Staleness Rule
- 60-day no-update default
- Required Attribute
- Mandatory in System Dictionary
- Recommended Attribute
- Flagged in CI Class Manager
- Orphan CI
- No configured relationship rules
- Duplicate CI
- Matches existing identification rule
- Desired State Audit
- Checks configuration standard match
Data Manager Lifecycle Actions
Retire, then Archive, then Attest, then Delete last
Retire: soft status stopArchive: read-only relocationDelete: permanent removal
Completeness vs Compliance
Completeness
- Attributes are populated
- Required plus recommended
Compliance
- Passes Desired State audit
- Matches config standard
Filled in vs correct
CMDB Health Triage
- Attribute value is missing→Fix completeness(Populate the field)
- Fails configuration standard→Fix compliance(Run Desired State)
- Two records clearly match→Fix correctness: duplicate(Merge the CIs)
- No relationships found→Fix correctness: orphan(Add rule first)
CMDB Data Manager
- Retire
- Changes CI status only
- Archive
- Moves record to read-only
- Delete
- Permanently removes the record
- Attestation
- Owner verifies before action
- Data Manager
- Replaces legacy Data Certification
- Policy
- Scheduled lifecycle governance rule
- lifecycle_stage
- CSDM governance tracking field
- Governance Goal
- Long-term CMDB trustworthiness
Duplicate Remediation
- Detection Method
- Reuses identification rule matching
- Remediation
- Merge or delete duplicate
- Serial Number
- Preferred duplicate matching key
- Manual Setup
- Orphan rules need configuration
Query Builder Views
- Query Builder
- Multi-class relationship-aware queries
- Unified Map
- Combines Dependency and Service Mapping
- Dependency Views
- Top-down dependency visualization
- Service Mapping
- Discovers app-to-infra dependencies
- Impact Analysis
- Relationship-driven change risk
- Business Service Map
- Rolls up service health
- Relationship Direction
- Parent-child traversal path
- Reporting
- Built on accurate CMDB
IRE Processing Order
Identify the CI, then reconcile the data source
Identify: match or createReconcile: precedence decides winner
Identification vs Reconciliation Rules
Identification Rule
- Matches or creates CI
- Runs first in IRE
Reconciliation Rule
- Sets source precedence
- Runs after identification
Match first, write second
Ingestion Method Picker
- Standard app integration exists→Service Graph Connector(Preferred, certified method)
- No connector is available→Custom Import Set(Higher maintenance option)
- Need infrastructure CI discovery→Discovery(Agentless automated scan)
- Sources conflict on values→Reconciliation rule(Sets source precedence)
- Multiple valid sources write→Multisource CMDB(Tracks field-level source)
IRE Rules
- IRE
- Identification and Reconciliation Engine
- Identification Rule
- Matches or creates the CI
- Reconciliation Rule
- Sets data source precedence
- Match Order
- Identify runs before reconcile
- Ambiguous Match
- Raises error, not merge
- Data Source
- Only authoritative source writes
- Partial Payload
- Updates only sent fields
- Precedence Conflict
- Reconciliation rule decides winner
Import Set vs Service Graph Connector
Custom Import Set
- Manual transform maps
- Higher maintenance cost
Service Graph Connector
- Prebuilt certified integration
- IRE-aware ingestion
Custom build vs prebuilt
Ingestion Methods
- Service Graph Connector
- Preferred certified ingestion method
- Import Set
- Custom staging table load
- Discovery
- Populates infrastructure CIs automatically
- MID Server
- On-premises data collector agent
- Multisource CMDB
- CMDB 360 field tracking
- Field-Level Tracking
- Per-attribute source history kept
- Reversion
- Restores a prior source value
- Best Practice
- Connector over custom Import Set
Identifier Selection
- Choosing the match attribute→Serial number(Stable identifier choice)
- Attribute changes frequently→Avoid IP address(Volatile identifier risk)
- Multiple identifiers are needed→Prioritized entries(Ordered match list)
- Child needs parent match→Dependent entry(Requires parent identifier)
CI Class Manager
- CI Class Manager
- Graphical class configuration tool
- Table Inheritance
- Extends the cmdb_ci base
- Attribute Design
- Adds fields to a class
- Identifier Entry
- Prioritized attribute match order
- Dependent Entry
- Requires a parent identifier
- Stable Identifier
- Serial number, preferred choice
- Volatile Identifier
- IP address, avoid using
- Extend Class
- Preferred over creating new
Relationships And Schema
- Relationship Type
- Directional link between CIs
- Containment Pair
- Contains and contained by
- Hosting Pair
- Runs on and runs
- Dependency Pair
- Depends on, used by
- Class Hierarchy
- Rooted at cmdb_ci table
- Schema Map
- Visualizes class relationships graphically
CSDM Five Domains Order
Foundation, Design, Build, Manage, then Sell or Consume
Foundation: base dataDesign: planned architectureBuild: services existSell/Consume: offered and used
Business App vs Application Service
Business Application
- Owned software product
- Design-time entity
Application Service
- Operational technical service
- Runtime instance
Product vs running instance
CSDM Five Domains
- Foundation
- Locations, users, and groups
- Design
- Planned service architecture stage
- Build
- Application and infrastructure services
- Manage Technical Services
- Operate live technical services
- Sell/Consume
- Offerings sold and consumed
- Business Application
- Owned software product entity
- Application Service
- Operational technical service instance
- Business Service
- Customer-facing service capability
- Service Offering
- Sellable service tier variant
Business Service vs Service Offering
Business Service
- Customer-facing capability
- One per service
Service Offering
- Sellable variant or tier
- Many per service
Service vs its packaging
CSDM Alignment
- CI Alignment
- Correct class-to-CI mapping
- Service Modeling
- Maps CIs to services
- App vs Service
- Application owns service instances
- Consumer/Provider
- Relationship role pairing
- Business Capability
- What the organization delivers
- Common Model Goal
- One shared platform language
Common Traps
Archive ≠ Delete
Archive keeps the record ≠ Delete removes it permanently
Identification ≠ Reconciliation
Identification finds the CI ≠ Reconciliation sets write precedence
Business App ≠ Application Service
App is owned product ≠ Service is running instance
Orphan ≠ Duplicate
Orphan lacks relationships entirely ≠ Duplicate matches an existing CI
Completeness ≠ Compliance
Completeness checks fields filled ≠ Compliance checks standard match
Import Set ≠ Service Graph Connector
Import Set is custom ≠ Connector is certified prebuilt
Discovery ≠ IRE
Discovery finds infrastructure CIs ≠ IRE identifies then reconciles data
Last Minute
- 1.Governance weighs 35%, largest domain
- 2.Three Cs: Complete, Compliant, Correct
- 3.Staleness default is 60 days
- 4.Orphan rules ship unconfigured, build manually
- 5.Identification matches, reconciliation sets precedence
- 6.Prefer Connector over custom Import Sets
- 7.Serial number beats IP as identifier
- 8.CSDM has five ordered domains
- 9.Business App differs from Application Service
- 10.Archive is read-only, Delete is permanent
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