Retrieving configuration records from a configuration management database

1. A method of retrieving a configuration record in a configuration management database pertaining to an IT-infrastructure comprising host devices, a configuration record having attributes and assigned attribute values, the IT-infrastructure being managed by an operation management system providing messages indicating events in the IT-infrastructure, the method comprising:

providing a message comprising a set of unidentified attribute values and an identified host value,

retrieving from the configuration management database one or more configuration records containing the identified host value, and

selecting from the one or more retrieved configuration records a configuration record depending on the number of matches between the unidentified attribute values and the attribute values of the retrieved configuration records, wherein each of the unidentified attribute values includes an attribute value whose semantics are unknown.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operation management system comprises one or more of the following subsystems: an incident management system, a service level management system, an asset management system, and a discovery system and wherein a message indicating an event may pertain to any of the subsystems and is related to the state of the system.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining score values for the retrieved configuration records based on the number of matches.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising extracting the unidentified attribute values and the identified host value from the message.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of matches between a retrieved configuration record and a message is determined by permuting the unidentified attribute values and comparing each permutation with the attribute values of the retrieved configuration records, and the number of matches relates to a permutation with the most identities.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the score values indicate the number of matches.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein a more specialized configuration record obtains higher score values, and a measure for specialization is the distance of a configuration record from its parent record within a containment hierarchy in the configuration management database.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the score values are obtained by adding the number of matches and one tenth of the distance to the parent record, up to a maximum value of 0.9.

9. The method of claim 3 , wherein, if no matches are found, the configuration record of the host is returned.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein a configuration item is a host, a disk drive, monitor, keyboard, printing device, mouse, scanner, a process, a service, an e-mail-server, an employee, a building or a manual.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting configuration records is performed using hash tables.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein agents run on the hosts to provide information about the state of the hosts to the operation management system.

13. A computer system for retrieving a configuration record from a configuration management database pertaining to an IT-infrastructure comprising host devices, a configuration record having attributes and assigned attribute values, the IT-infrastructure being managed by an operation management system providing messages indicating events in the IT-infrastructure, the computer system being programmed to:

provide a message comprising a set of unidentified attribute values and an identified host value,

retrieve from the configuration management database one or more configuration records containing the identified host value, and

select from the one or more retrieved configuration records a configuration record depending on the number of matches between the unidentified attribute values and the attribute values of the retrieved configuration records, wherein each of the unidentified attribute values includes an attribute value whose semantics are unknown.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing program instructions executable by a processor to:

retrieve a configuration record from a configuration management database pertaining to an IT-infrastructure comprising host devices, a configuration record having attributes and assigned attribute values, the IT-infrastructure being managed by an operation management system providing messages indicating events in the IT-infrastructure;

provide a message comprising a set of unidentified attribute values and an identified host value,

retrieve from the configuration management database one or more configuration records containing the identified host value, and

select from the one or more retrieved configuration records a configuration record depending on the number of matches between the unidentified attribute values and the attribute values of the retrieved configuration records, wherein each of the unidentified attribute values includes an attribute value whose semantics are unknown.

15. The medium of claim 14 , wherein the operation management system comprises one or more of the following subsystems: an incident management system, a service level management system, an asset management system, and a discovery system and wherein a message indicating an event may pertain to any of the subsystems and is related to the state of the system.

16. The medium of claim 14 , including instructions executable by the processor to determine score values for the retrieved configuration records based on the number of matches.

17. The medium of claim 14 , including instructions executable by a processor to extract the unidentified attribute values and the identified host value from the message.

18. The medium of claim 16 , including instructions executable by a processor to determine the number of matches between a retrieved configuration record and a message by permuting the unidentified attribute values and comparing each permutation with the attribute values of the retrieved configuration records, and the number of matches relates to a permutation with the most identities.

19. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the score values indicate the number of matches.

20. The medium of claim 16 , wherein a more specialized configuration record obtains higher score values, and a measure for specialization is the distance of a configuration record from its parent record within a containment hierarchy in the configuration management database.

21. The medium of claim 16 , including instructions executable by a processor to add the number of matches and one tenth of the distance to the parent record, up to a maximum value of 0.9, to obtain the score values.

22. The medium of claim 16 , instructions executable by a processor to return the configuration record of the host if no matches are found.

23. The medium of claim 14 , wherein a configuration item is a host, a disk drive, monitor, keyboard, printing device, mouse, scanner, a process, a service, an e-mail-server, an employee, a building or a manual.

24. The medium of claim 14 , including instructions executable by a processor to select configuration records using hash tables.

25. The medium of claim 14 , wherein agents run on the hosts to provide information about the state of the hosts to the operation management system.