Future system that can participate in systems management activities until an actual system is on-line

A hardware configuration manager, comprising:

• a configuration management database including an object that is created as corresponding to a future system for an existing production environment, the future system including new hardware in addition to existing hardware of an existing system for the existing production environment, the object representing:
• a proposed new hardware configuration item for an existing production environment and its hardware configuration management software;
• a completed detailed setup of the management of the proposed hardware configuration item before the proposed hardware configuration item is available, the setup including at least configuring policies of the proposed hardware configuration item;
• and
• a device to:
• mark the object within the configuration management database as being a future system that does not yet exist and not a ready system that currently exists;
• discover a system that now exists and that corresponds to the object;
• in response to discovering the system that now exists and that corresponds to the object,
• mark the object as ready within the configuration management database;
• and
• prevent scheduled tasks from running until a predefined period following activation of a new hardware configuration item that has the completed detailed setup and the proposed hardware configuration item is mapped thereto.

A method of hardware configuration management, comprising:

• creating an object within a configuration management database, the object corresponding to a future system for an existing production environment, the future s stem including new hardware in addition to existing hardware of an existing system for the existing production environment, the new hardware not yet part of the existing system, including:
• adding a proposed new hardware configuration item to an existing production environment and its hardware configuration management software;
• completing a detailed setup of the management of the proposed hardware configuration item before the proposed hardware configuration item is available to the production environment, the setup includes at least one of configuring monitoring and policies of the proposed hardware configuration item;
• marking the object within the configuration management database as being a future system that does not yet exist and not a ready system that currently exists;
• discovering a system that now exists and that corresponds to the object;
• in response to discovering the system that now exists and that corresponds to the object,
• marking the object as ready within the configuration management database;
• and
• preventing scheduled tasks from running until a predefined period following activation of an actual new hardware configuration item that has the placeholder stub added and the detailed setup completed.