I had the occasion today to build a brand new network from scratch. The network was a very simple one. Its only purpose for existence is to act as a buffer between my company's LAN and a government site accessed through a virtual private network (VPN).
I took the opportunity to write down the architecture of the network as configuration items, from the top down as recommended by the ITIL chapter on configuration management. I identified the route as the top component (Route to <Government Network>). From there I listed the other LANs (or rather, the virtual LANs: VLANs). Then I broke everything down into routers, switchport configurations, configuration files, static routes, one computer with just the two (2) NICs involved, the network address translation (NAT) scripts, everything.
Once I plonked down the CIs, I created the diagram. Once I created the diagram, I started experimenting with OTRS (Open source Ticket Request System) 's ITSM (IT Service Management) CMS (Configuration Management System) module. The number of default CI types (computer, hardware, software, locations) weren't sufficient so I had to create a bunch of new CI types. In OTRS, these are called ITSM::ConfigItem::Class items. Not easy to find the links to set these up! Then I needed to create a bunch of other ITSM::ConfigItem classes for locations and Ethernet interface types so I could create pull-down menus in the new CIs. Lastly, I needed to program (!) some Perl structures to handle the new CI types. OTRS is powerful, but the documentation is pretty sparse for their CMS. Fortunately, I have a grip on the code (or more to the point, copy-paste-edit from the defaults). Tomorrow, I'll put in the fields I've missed.
Eventually, I can tie in another system to audit the CIs in the OTRS CMS against their real-life objects! Looking forward, looking forward.
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