Service Mapping Configuration
About 20% of the CIS-SM exam — see all 6 domains.
This domain covers how you stand up application services and the maps that represent them, and how you steer the mapping process.
Top-down vs. bottom-up
Service Mapping is fundamentally a top-down discovery technique. You begin at the business-visible top of a service, its entry point, and discover downward through every CI the service depends on. This differs from bottom-up (horizontal) Discovery, which scans the network broadly and populates the CMDB without knowing which CIs belong to which service. Top-down produces a precise, service-scoped map; bottom-up produces a broad inventory. Service Mapping reuses the same application patterns that Discovery uses but drives them from the top.
Entry points
An entry point is the front door of an application service: the address from which mapping begins. Common entry point types include a URL/web endpoint, a host-and-port, or a load balancer virtual address. Entry point types are extensible: you can create entry point types when an application is reached in a way the out-of-the-box types do not cover. The entry point seeds the map; everything below it is discovered by following connection sections tier by tier.
Application services and service maps
The modern unit Service Mapping produces is the application service (the CSDM-aligned term; older releases called this a business service). An application service map is the visual, navigable graph of the entry point plus every discovered CI and relationship beneath it. You will see references to classic Service Mapping maps (the established top-down, pattern-driven mapping experience), which the exam still treats as core.
Ways to populate an application service:
- Pattern-based / top-down: define an entry point, discover downward. Most accurate, fully dependency-aware.
- Tag-based: populate the service from cloud or resource tags so that any CI carrying the matching tag is included. Strong fit for dynamic cloud workloads.
- Dynamic CI group: define a query; CIs matching the query are members and membership refreshes automatically.
- Manual: explicitly add CIs.
Traffic-based discovery as a configuration option
You can enable traffic-based discovery at two scopes: for a specific application service, or for CI types / specific CIs. When enabled, Service Mapping uses observed network traffic to find connections it could not otherwise parse. This is the configuration-side counterpart to the pattern-side connection-section tuning covered in Domain 1.
Steering and maintaining maps
- After the first discovery, review the map, then run scheduled rediscovery to keep it current.
- Use skip errors to let discovery continue past a failing node so you can map the rest and fix the failure later.
- Remove CIs that do not belong to the service to keep the map clean and the impact calculations accurate: mark a boundary on the connector, or set User decision to Remove for an unwanted traffic-based connection.
Fast-recall: Domain 2
- Service Mapping = top-down from an entry point; bottom-up Discovery = broad CMDB inventory.
- Entry point types: URL/web, host:port, load balancer; entry point types are extensible.
- Produces an application service (CSDM term) and an application service map.
- Populate by: top-down pattern, tag-based, dynamic CI group, or manual.
- Enable traffic-based discovery per service or per CI type/CI.
- Skip errors to continue; remove non-member CIs to keep maps accurate.
Sample questions from this domain
Three of the 60 in this domain, with the reasoning. The full set is in the question bank.
Which type of service is typically the parent that groups application services to represent something the business consumes?
- A. Business service ✓
- B. Technical service
- C. Service instance
- D. Dynamic CI group
Why: A business service represents a capability the business consumes, and through its business service offerings it sits above the application services that deliver it. A technical service (technology management service) is consumed by IT or by other services, not by the business. Service instance is the class that application services themselves belong to (cmdb_ci_service_auto), so it is the child here, not the parent. A dynamic CI group is a way to populate an application service from a CMDB query; it does not represent a consumable business capability.
In Service Mapping, what does an application service (cmdb_ci_service_discovered) represent?
- A. A discovered, mapped set of CIs and relationships supporting one logical service, anchored by entry points ✓
- B. A set of CIs returned by a CMDB query and refreshed on a schedule, not traced from entry points
- C. A single host CI with its installed software, found by horizontal Discovery and grouped under one service record
- D. A business service offering that states availability commitments and depends on the services that deliver it
Why: A mapped application service (cmdb_ci_service_discovered) is the set of CIs and relationships that support one logical service, discovered top-down from its entry points. A service whose members come from a CMDB query is a dynamic CI group (query-based service), a different population method. One host found by horizontal Discovery is an infrastructure CI, not a service. A business service offering belongs to the CSDM sell and consume layer and depends on application services; it is not the mapped service itself.
What information must you provide to create a new application service for top-down mapping?
- A. The service name and at least one entry point ✓
- B. The service name and a tag key and value its CIs share
- C. The service name and a CMDB query that selects its CIs
- D. The service name and its MID Server cluster
Why: For top-down mapping you give the service a name and at least one entry point; Service Mapping then discovers the connected CIs from there. A tag key and value is the input for tag-based mapping, a different method that needs no entry point. A CMDB query populates a dynamic CI group, also a different method. MID Server selection is configured separately (IP ranges, capabilities, applications) and is not an input you must provide to create the service.