The main issue is that you need to determine whether you are more on the
enterprise config or element config side. You probably don't want to try
to roll your own element manager.

Since you mention dependencies, I assume you are more at the enterprise
level. If I were on a budget I would roll my own. For single user: MS
Access or FileMaker Pro. Multi-user: some simple MySQL/PHP or MSSQL/ASP.
The core data model is not that hard and CMDB is by definition data
centric; there are not complex algorithms or business logic.

Application generators capable of taking a data model and automatically
creating candidate screens can be helpful.

I think Skeptic (www.itskeptic.org) recently put out a post on open
source CM tools, but some might be more at the element level. Source
code configuration management, while essential for the SDLC, are also
not at all suitable for CMDB as it is generally understood.

-Charlie



On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:47:13 -0000, "edhlbm" <edhlbm@...> said:
> So, I cannot buy a CMDB and I do not want to maintain a complex
> spreadsheet - are there any simple tools that just allow you to define
> dependencies and then provide some basic query capabilities?
>