System Center Service Manager 2010 SP1 Glossary

Applies To: System Center Service Manager 2010

Term Definition

action log

A record of the actions that have been taken during the lifetime of an incident to resolve the incident. Examples include comments by the analyst, communications from the user, attachments, and task outputs.

activity

A unit of work that is performed as part of managing a problem, resolving an incident, or completing a change request or any other work item.

activity implementer

A user who has been assigned the Activity Implementer role and who implements an assigned manual activity.

automated activity

An activity that is automatically completed by Service Manager.

business service

A collection of features and functions that enable a business process, including configuration items, metadata, and the people associated with the process.

change creator

The user who creates a new change request.

change manager

A user who coordinates change requests. Some of the tasks include adding or removing activities, voting on behalf of the change advisory board, overriding votes, or putting change requests on hold.

change request

A means of proposing a change to any component of an IT infrastructure or any aspect of an IT service. It may be a document or record in which the nature and details of and the justification and authorization for the proposed change are entered.

class

A named descriptor for a set of objects that share the same attributes, operations, methods, relationships, and behaviors.

classification

The placement of an incident into a hierarchy of descriptors that indicate what the incident is generally about. For example, an incident could be classified as being related to software, and then to Microsoft, and then to Word 2003.

combination class

A feature in Service Manager that is used mostly in reports and in views to display information from multiple classes that are defined in Service Manager.

configuration item

Any component that needs to be managed to deliver a service. In Service Manager, configuration items might include services, hardware, software, buildings, people, and formal documentation, such as process documentation and service level agreements (SLA).

configuration item class

A collection of configuration items. Groups can contain members of different configuration item classes (for example, a computer and a user).

connector

A software component that is the integration mechanism between Service Manager and an external system. It is used for data transfers from these external systems to Service Manager.

DWDataMart database

The database that includes the reporting data, stored for the long-term.

DWRepository database

The database that includes the transformed data from the DWStagingAndConfig database.

DWStagingAndConfig database

The database that includes copies of management packs, configuration items, and work items.

extraction, transformation, and loading

The act of extracting data from various sources, transforming data to consistent types, and loading the transformed data for use by applications.

filtered view

A view to which a set of conditions have been applied to reduce the total number of displayed objects.

groom

To permanently remove data from the data warehouse.

history

A record of all the changes to an object’s properties and relationships. History exists for all objects, such as configuration items and work items.

incident

A way of tracking any event that is not part of the standard operation of a service and that causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or a reduction in, the quality of that service.

knowledge

Information that can help an end-user or analyst solve a problem.

list

An administrator-defined customization that enables users to classify objects such as incidents, change requests, activities, or configuration items. For example, a list might be "Location" or "Organization."

list item

An option that constrains the values that users can enter for a specific list. For example, "Redmond" might be a list item for "Location."

management pack

A grouping of classes, workflows, views, forms, reports, and knowledge that extends Service Manager with the information necessary to implement all or part of a service management process. For example, the Incident management pack provides the necessary information to enable Service Manager to implement the incident management process.

notification subscriber

The user who receives notifications.

notification subscriber address

A package that contains information about how to reach a particular user. It includes items such as the protocol to use and the target address.

notification subscription

A package that contains the notification subscriber, the notification subscriber address, and any additional information, such as when to send specific types of notifications.

problem management

The process by which the root cause of one or more incidents is identified and by which a workaround or a permanent fix is found.

problem record

A record that tracks the identification, investigation, and resolution of a root cause.

queue

A holding container for work items. Members of a queue must be of the same work item class (for example, only incidents).

review activity

A step in a review process in which users approve or deny change requests.

reviewer

The user who completes an approval activity.

role-based security

A method of limiting access to the Service Manager console.

Self-Service Portal

A Web interface that is configured by an administrator so that end users can search knowledge, create requests, and read IT announcements.

service component

The set of configuration items that are used to deliver a business service, such as computers, Web sites, databases, and other application components.

service dependent

The people or services in an enterprise that rely on a business service. These people and services are affected by the output and downtime of the business service.

Service Manager console

The console that is used by help desk analysts and administrators for help desk functions such as change, incident, problem, and configuration management.

Service Manager data warehouse management server

The Service Manager management server that performs the management functions for the data warehouse.

Service Manager database

A database that includes all the work items, configuration items, and administrative settings for the product.

Service Manager IT portal

A Web interface designed for information technology (IT) managers and IT professionals so that they can view and manage incidents, changes, and assets. It can also be used to examine metrics and reports.

Service Manager management server

The server that hosts the System Center Data Access Service service and Microsoft Office SharePoint sites.

Service Manager reporting server

The server that hosts Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

service map

A representation of a service from the perspective of the business and user that shows critical dependencies, settings, and areas of responsibility.

software provisioning

The act of configuring software packages in the Service Manager console and supplying the requested software packages to computers, as requested by Self-Service Portal users.

task

An action that a user accomplishes by using the Actions pane and the context-sensitive menu that affects non-Service Manager objects.

Tasks pane

A pane in the Service Manager console that contains tasks that a user can perform.

template

A method that is used to populate initial values in a class, such as a change request or incident.

user role

A method of granting permissions to specific users for groups of data. These permissions are based on a user role profile.

user role profile

A set of permitted operations and classes of data that users need access to so they can perform specific job duties.

workflow

A sequence of activities, actions, or tasks through which documents or items are passed as part of an automated business process.

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