Data Integrity - Attributes and Data Sources
About 27% of the CIS-HAM exam — see all 5 domains.
Garbage in, garbage everywhere. This domain is about getting trustworthy attribute data into asset records and keeping asset and CI views aligned.
Asset State ↔ CI Hardware Status mapping (a top exam topic)
The asset carries a lifecycle State/Substate. The CI carries a Hardware Status (and historically an Install Status). HAM Pro keeps them consistent through a state-mapping table that defines, for each asset state+substate, the corresponding CI Hardware Status and substate. Know that:
- In HAM Pro, the modern mechanism maps asset state → CI Hardware Status (e.g., asset In use maps to CI hardware status Installed/On).
- Classic Asset Management mapped asset state → CI Install Status; HAM Pro layers Hardware Status (operational lifecycle of the device) on top. Be ready to distinguish Install Status (legacy/operational presence) from Hardware Status (HAM lifecycle).
Attributes that matter
- Manufacturer = the company that built the device. Vendor = the supplier/reseller you bought it from. They are frequently different — a classic distractor.
- Model (
cmdb_model) classifies the product; Model category governs how the model behaves (asset class, whether it produces a CI, depreciation defaults). - Serial number, asset tag, warranty expiration (drives repair-vs-replace), cost / purchase order / contract, assigned to, location, cost center.
Data sources and ingestion
- Discovery populates/updates CIs (and feeds asset attributes) for network-reachable hardware.
- Import sets + transform maps load external data (vendor feeds, spreadsheets). A coalesce field is the match key that lets a transform update an existing record instead of inserting a duplicate. Missing/incorrect coalesce → duplicate records on every run (very common exam scenario).
- CMDB reconciliation rules / data source precedence decide which authoritative source "wins" per attribute when multiple sources disagree (e.g., Discovery vs. the asset record for Location).
Normalization vs. reconciliation
- Normalization standardizes raw values (e.g., "HP", "Hewlett-Packard", "HP Inc." → one canonical manufacturer; Hardware Model Normalization cleans model/manufacturer data).
- Reconciliation aligns asset and CI records (and de-duplicates), working best on already-normalized data. They are distinct, sequential ideas — normalization first, then reconciliation is reliable.
Data hygiene / certification
- Data Certification schedules attestation that specified records meet defined filters/quality rules, generating tasks for owners to correct or confirm data.
- CMDB Health scores Completeness, Compliance, and Correctness; CMDB Data Manager drives attestation/retirement tasks. Healthy CMDB data underpins trustworthy asset data.
Sample questions from this domain
Three of the 79 in this domain, with the reasoning. The full set is in the question bank.
Which field on a hardware asset uniquely identifies the individual physical device from its manufacturer?
- A. Model
- B. Serial number ✓
- C. Asset tag
- D. Model category
Why: The serial number is the manufacturer-assigned unique identifier for an individual device. Model and model category classify the product type, and asset tag is an internally assigned organizational identifier, not the manufacturer's unique ID.
What is the purpose of an asset tag in HAM Pro?
- A. An organization-assigned identifier used to physically label and track an asset internally ✓
- B. A manufacturer-assigned identifier printed at the factory
- C. The depreciation method for the asset
- D. The stockroom location code
Why: An asset tag is an internally assigned identifier used by the organization to label and track assets. The manufacturer-assigned identifier is the serial number; depreciation method and stockroom are separate attributes.
During reconciliation, ServiceNow attempts to match incoming hardware data to existing records. Which attribute is most commonly used as the primary identifier for matching a physical device?
- A. Purchase order number
- B. Serial number ✓
- C. Assigned to
- D. Cost center
Why: Serial number is the most reliable unique identifier for matching a physical device during reconciliation. Assigned to, cost center, and purchase order number are not unique to a single device and can change over time.