What is a primary purpose of a CMDB?

• A. To maintain licensing information only.
• B. To store configurations and relationships among configuration items.
• C. To manage user access control lists.
• D. To store hardware warranties.

Answer: (B)

A CMDB’s main purpose is to capture configurations and the relationships among configuration items. It acts as a single source of truth for IT assets, detailing not only each item’s attributes (like version, owner, status) but also how items connect and depend on one another. This enables accurate impact analysis, faster root-cause investigations, and informed change planning because you can see how a change to one item might affect others and the overall service.

Licensing information is typically handled by software asset management systems, not the CMDB’s core function. Managing user access lists falls under identity and access management, not configuration data. Hardware warranties may be recorded as asset details, but they are not what defines the configuration or the relationships between items. Therefore, storing configurations and relationships among configuration items best captures the CMDB’s purpose.