About
Who the CMDB Guy is
CMDB Guy is Sherief Farid: the technical side, drawn for fun.
I work on the data foundations of the ServiceNow platform: the CMDB, the service model that gives it meaning, the integrations that keep it fed, and the governance that keeps it worth trusting. This site is where I explain that work in plain language.
Most CMDB trouble isn’t exotic. It is the same handful of misunderstandings, met by people who were handed the data and told to fix it. The writing here tries to give them a straight answer — with the actual tables, fields and behaviour, and the release it applies to.
My lab assistants
Rex and Brownie are my lab assistants. They take whatever part a concept needs — the expert, the business owner, the newcomer, the sceptic — so the explanation has someone to explain it to.
Me, drawn
CMDB Guy
Navy suit, green tie, and a habit of asking which release you're on.
Golden retriever
Rex
Glasses, a pointer and endless patience. Rex retrieves things — data included.
Teacup Yorkshire terrier
Brownie
Small, sharp and never short of a question. Usually the first to ask where the value is.
How the writing works
- It starts from the problem, not the product.
- It shows the actual thing: the table, the field, the query.
- It says when something is opinion, and admits what hasn’t been tested.
Independent
CMDB Guy speaks for no company — not a vendor, not an employer. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by ServiceNow.
The other side of me
CMDB Guy is the technical half. The rest of me — family, the outdoors, Rex and Brownie off duty, and of course my wife Lisa, the jewel of our lives — is at sherieffarid.com, along with the long way round to a career in data.
