The cmdb_ci_database table

While working with Database discovery, we can observe the application navigator have 3 visibilities for Database  

• Navigator >> Configuration >> Database Servers 
• Navigator >> Configuration >> Database Instances  
• Navigator >> Configuration >> Database Catalogs

Once after a successful discovery, the expectation is to have the Database entries to "Database Servers" respective to their classification as below.

Clicking any of the types of databases listed in the image above (for example "Navigator >> Configuration >> Database Servers >> MSSQL") will take you to "cmdb_ci_database"  and might not contain records even after a successful Discovery.

The "cmdb_ci_database"  table is a legacy table and is not populated by Discovery or Service Mapping. It is one of the original tables which was initially created during the creation of the concept of CMDB for the platform.

After adopting the ITIL procedure, ServiceNow used the concept of "Database instances" and not "Database Servers"

Instead you will see the data in the following tables below:

• cmdb_ci_db_instance
• cmdb_ci_db_db2_instance
• cmdb_ci_db_mysql_instance
• cmdb_ci_db_mssql_instance
• cmdb_ci_db_syb_instance 

Azure Database is still using this table currently.

1) cmdb_ci_database table is still used to store Azure MSSQL databases.
2) Azure database discovery is done using the pattern "Azure Database".
3) This would load the data under cmdb_ci_cloud_database ( database instances ) and also cmdb_ci_database ( these are the actual databases running on the instance).
4) This process would also build a "Contains:: Contained by" relationship between these two tables.

• "cmdb_ci_database" can be used for customization(If required).
• To derive the information about the data collected and the tables populated during database discovery you can refer the Database Discovery documentation.