SNOW-CSA Database Administration and CMDB Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

After upgrading to a new version, a CMDB administrator notices that many CI records have been flagged as 'unverified' and their operational status changed. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

A scheduled job from the Discovery application marked CIs as unverified.. After a version upgrade, the Discovery application's scheduled jobs (e.g., 'Discovery Status Update' or 'Operational Status Update') automatically flag CIs as 'unverified' and reset their operational status to 'In Use' or 'Unverified' to force re-validation. This is a built-in safety mechanism to ensure that CIs discovered under the old version's logic are re-assessed under the new version's rules, preventing stale or incorrectly reconciled data from persisting.

Answer

The IRE was reconfigured during upgrade.

Answer

The CMDB Data Manager job ran with incorrect parameters.

Answer

The identification and reconciliation rules were updated.

Question 2

A company wants to restrict access to CI records based on the business service they belong to. What feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

CMDB Data Segmentation. CMDB Data Segmentation (option C) is the correct feature because it allows administrators to restrict access to CI records based on the business service they belong to, using a segmentation rule that filters CIs by their 'business_service' field. This is specifically designed for multi-tenant or service-based access control in the CMDB, ensuring users only see CIs associated with their assigned business services.

Answer

ACLs on cmdb_ci table

Answer

CMDB Application Access Control

Answer

Condition-based ACLs

Question 3

A CMDB administrator runs a report and finds that the count of CIs in a certain class is unexpectedly low. They suspect that some CIs were deleted accidentally. How can they verify this?

Accepted Answer

Check the sys_audit table for delete records.. The sys_audit table records all insert, update, and delete operations on CMDB CIs. By querying this table for records with the operation type 'delete' and the affected CI class, the administrator can confirm whether CIs were deleted and identify when and by whom. This is the standard method for auditing historical changes in ServiceNow.

Answer

Query the sys_archive table.

Answer

Use the CMDB Rollback feature.

Answer

Restore from backup.

Question 4

An administrator notices that a CMDB CI class is not visible in the class hierarchy. The class exists in the database but cannot be selected when creating a new CI. What is the likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The class is marked as 'abstract'.. In ServiceNow, a CI class marked as 'abstract' exists in the database but is not intended for direct instantiation. Abstract classes serve as templates for inheritance and are hidden from the 'New CI' selection list, which is why the administrator cannot select it when creating a new CI.

Answer

The class is retired.

Answer

The class has no parent.

Answer

The class has a missing table extension.

Question 5

What is the purpose of the 'Operational Status' field on a CMDB CI?

Accepted Answer

To indicate the CI's current operational health.. The 'Operational Status' field on a CMDB CI in ServiceNow indicates the current operational health of the configuration item, such as whether it is functioning normally, in a degraded state, or down. This field is used to quickly assess the real-time status of a CI, enabling IT operations to prioritize incident response and change management based on the CI's operational condition.

Answer

To track the CI's maintenance schedule.

Answer

To define the CI's business criticality.

Answer

To record the CI's last discovery date.

Question 6

An organization uses ServiceNow Discovery to populate the CMDB. They notice that some CIs are missing required relationships after discovery. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The discovery probes and sensors are not configured to create relationships.. Discovery probes and sensors are responsible for collecting data from devices, but they do not automatically create relationships unless specifically configured to do so. If the probes and sensors lack the necessary configuration to identify and record relationships, the discovered CIs will remain isolated in the CMDB. This is the most common cause of missing relationships after a Discovery run.

Answer

The discovered CIs are in different classes that do not have relationship rules.

Answer

The IRE is set to 'reconcile only' and not 'create'.

Answer

The relationship type is not defined in the CMDB.

Question 7

A CMDB administrator wants to ensure that all changes to CI records are tracked with the user who made the change. What system property must be set to true?

Accepted Answer

glide.record.audit. The `glide.record.audit` system property, when set to true, enables auditing for all records in the system, including Configuration Items (CIs) in the CMDB. This ensures that any change to a CI record is tracked with the user who made the modification, as required by the CMDB administrator. The property is a global audit toggle that applies to all tables, making it the appropriate choice for tracking CI changes.

Answer

glide.cmdb.track.ci.changes

Answer

glide.cmdb.audit.enable

Answer

glide.sys.audit.all

Question 8

A ServiceNow administrator is configuring Data Segmentation for CMDB. Which TWO statements are true about Data Segmentation? (Select exactly 2)

Accepted Answer

It can be used to restrict access to CI records based on user criteria.. Data Segmentation in ServiceNow restricts access to CI records based on user criteria, such as business unit or location, by evaluating conditions against the user's session. This is a row-level security mechanism that filters which CI records a user can see, making Option B correct. It works alongside standard ACLs, which handle field- and record-level permissions, allowing administrators to layer both for granular control, confirming Option E.

Answer

It can be applied to individual CI fields.

Answer

It is configured in the Data Segmentation module under System Security.

Answer

It requires the subscription of a separate CMDB product license.

Question 9

Which THREE of the following are valid options when configuring an Identification and Reconciliation (IRE) rule? (Select exactly 3)

Accepted Answer

Reconcile only. The 'Reconcile only' option in an IRE rule instructs the IRE engine to only reconcile existing CI records against incoming data, without creating new CIs. This is used when you want to ensure existing CIs are updated or validated but no new records should be created from the data source.

Answer

Fuzzy match

Answer

Update only

Question 10

A CMDB administrator is planning to use the CMDB Data Manager to perform data imports. Which THREE statements about the Data Manager are true? (Select exactly 3)

Accepted Answer

It can create relationships between CIs during import.. The CMDB Data Manager can create relationships between Configuration Items (CIs) during the import process. When importing data, you can specify relationship definitions in the import source or transform map, allowing the Data Manager to automatically link CIs (e.g., 'Runs on', 'Depends on') based on the imported data, which is essential for maintaining a complete and accurate CMDB.

Answer

It automatically reconciles imported CIs with existing CIs.

Answer

It can directly import data from external databases.

Question 11

Given the IRE identification rule shown, what will happen when a Discovery probe sends a CI with a name that already exists in the CMDB but with a different business_service?

Accepted Answer

A new CI will be created because the business_service is different.. The IRE identification rule includes both 'name' and 'business_service' as identifying attributes. When a Discovery probe sends a CI with a name that already exists but a different business_service, the IRE does not find an exact match on all identifying attributes. Therefore, it creates a new CI with the same name but a different business_service, rather than updating the existing one.

Answer

The discovery will fail and not create or update any CI.

Answer

The existing CI will be updated with the new business_service.

Answer

The identification rule will match based on name only, ignoring business_service.

Question 12

Based on the sys_audit output, which CI has undergone the most recent change to its operational_status?

Accepted Answer

CI002. The sys_audit table records the timestamp of each change to a CI's operational_status field. CI002 has the most recent sys_audit record for operational_status, indicating it was changed last. The correct answer is B because the audit trail shows CI002's status was updated after CI001's.

Answer

Both CI001 and CI002

Answer

Cannot be determined

Answer

CI001

Question 13

A report using the 'server_by_os' database view is expected to show a record for each server. However, a server without an operating system entry is not appearing in the report. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The join is defined as an INNER JOIN, excluding servers without a matching OS record.. The report is built on a database view that joins the server table with the operating system table. If the join is an INNER JOIN, only records with matching rows in both tables are returned. A server with a null OS field has no matching OS record, so it is excluded from the result set. This is the most likely reason the server is missing from the report.

Answer

The view is missing a required field.

Answer

The view is not refreshed.

Answer

The server's OS field is null.

Question 14

An administrator notices that a scheduled job that queries the cmdb_ci table is taking longer than expected. The job uses a glide query with multiple encoded queries. What is the best approach to improve performance without altering the job's results?

Accepted Answer

Add an index on the fields used in the encoded query conditions.. Adding an index on the fields used in the encoded query conditions directly reduces the number of rows scanned by the database engine when executing the GlideRecord query. This improves query performance without changing the logic or results of the scheduled job, as indexes only affect data access speed, not the data returned.

Answer

Create a database view on the cmdb_ci table and query the view instead.

Answer

Convert the glide query to a direct database query using System SQL.

Answer

Add an index on the sys_created_on field.

Question 15

A company wants to ensure that critical servers in the CMDB have accurate operational status. Which CMDB feature should the administrator configure to automatically update the operational status based on monitoring tools?

Accepted Answer

Identification and Reconciliation. The Identification and Reconciliation (IRE) engine is the correct feature because it processes incoming data from monitoring tools and automatically updates the operational status of CIs in the CMDB. It uses identification rules to match incoming data to existing CIs and reconciliation rules to resolve conflicts, ensuring the operational status reflects real-time monitoring data without manual intervention.

Answer

CI Relationships

Answer

Application Services

Answer

CMDB Health Score