SNOW-CSA Database Administration and CMDB Practice Question
A company wants to ensure that when a server CI is retired, all its associated running services are automatically updated to reflect the retirement. What is the best practice?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume a simple business rule on the CI class is sufficient, but the SNOW-CSA exam emphasizes the CI Lifecycle Manager as the best practice for managing CI state transitions and their cascading effects on related records.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use the CI Lifecycle Manager to define a retirement business rule.
The CI Lifecycle Manager provides a dedicated framework for defining lifecycle states and automating actions when a CI transitions between states, such as retirement. By configuring a retirement business rule within the CI Lifecycle Manager, you can automatically update or retire all associated running services when a server CI is retired, ensuring consistency without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure a business rule on the CI class to update related CIs on state change.
Why it's wrong here
Business rules can be used, but CI Lifecycle Manager is the dedicated and recommended approach.
- ✓
Use the CI Lifecycle Manager to define a retirement business rule.
Why this is correct
CI Lifecycle Manager offers built-in capabilities to trigger updates on related CIs when a CI is retired.
- ✗
Use the Relationship Viewer to manually edit each relationship.
Why it's wrong here
Manual editing is time-consuming and prone to human error; not scalable.
- ✗
Create a scheduled job to check for retired CIs and update dependencies.
Why it's wrong here
Scheduled jobs add latency and complexity; event-driven lifecycle management is preferred.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every SNOW-CSA question from scratch — 504 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SNOW-CSA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ServiceNow certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SNOW-CSA exam.