Parascope assigns a Criticality Score (0-100) to every Configuration Item, conveying its relative importance based on downstream dependencies, resource size, and inherent type importance.

Overview

The criticality score answers: "If this CI fails, how bad is it?"

High scores (80-100): Core infrastructure—failure causes widespread impact
Medium-high scores (60-79): Important platform services and workloads
Medium scores (40-59): Standard workloads with moderate dependencies
Low scores (0-39): Leaf CIs with limited downstream impact

Scoring Formula

Criticality Score = (
    Dependency_Score × 0.45 +      # Downstream/blast radius impact
    Size_Score × 0.30 +            # Resource footprint
    Type_Criticality × 0.25        # Inherent importance by CI type
) × 100

Weight Rationale

Component	Weight	Why
Dependency Impact	45%	Direct measure of blast radius—if this CI fails, how much else breaks?
Resource Size	30%	Larger resources typically represent more important workloads
Type Criticality	25%	Infrastructure (clusters, nodes) is inherently more critical than leaf CIs

Component 1: Dependency Score (0.0-1.0)

Measures "how many CIs would be affected if this CI fails" using relationship graph traversal.

Algorithm

Traverse relationships up to 3 levels deep
Weight dependents by depth (1.0 at depth 0, 0.5 at depth 1, 0.33 at depth 2)
Weight by relationship type importance
Apply logarithmic normalization (diminishing returns)

Relationship Type Weights

Relationship	Weight	Description
`runs_on`	1.0	Pods running on nodes
`is_contained_by`	0.9	Resources in namespaces
`manages`	0.85	Deployments managing pods
`implemented_by`	0.8	Infrastructure implementation
`member_of`	0.8	Cluster membership
`scheduled_on`	0.75	Workloads scheduled on nodes
`member_of_service`	0.7	Component membership in system
`affects`	0.7	Vulnerability affects asset
`selects`	0.7	Services selecting pods
`member_of_product`	0.65	System membership in domain
`exposes`	0.65	Services exposing pods
`governs_ingress`	0.6	Network policies
`governs_egress`	0.6	Network policies
`depends_on`	0.6	Service dependency
`provides`	0.6	API provision
`uses`	0.55	Resource consumption
`installed_on`	0.55	OS installed on VM/container
`consumes`	0.55	API consumption
`mounts`	0.5	Volume mounts
`stores_on`	0.5	Storage dependencies
`correlates_with`	0.3	Cross-system correlation

Unknown relationship types default to 0.4.

Component 2: Size Score (0.0-1.0)

Compares resource size within type families using percentile ranking.

Type Families

Family	CI Types	Primary Metrics
compute_infra	kubernetes.node, proxmox.node, openstack.hypervisor	CPU cores, memory
compute_workload	kubernetes.pod, proxmox.vm, openstack.instance	vCPUs, memory, disk
storage	ceph.pool, ceph.osd, proxmox.storage	capacity bytes
database	postgresql.server, postgresql.database	connections, size
network	netbox.device, netbox.interface, openstack.network	ports, bandwidth
configuration	kubernetes.deployment, kubernetes.configmap, kubernetes.service	replica count

Normalization

CIs are ranked by percentile within their type family
Composite size: (cpu × 0.4) + (memory × 0.4) + (disk × 0.2)
CIs without size metrics default to 0.3 (below average)

Component 3: Type Criticality (0.0-1.0)

Base criticality tier by CI type.

Score	Tier	CI Types
0.95	Infrastructure	kubernetes.node, kubernetes.cluster, proxmox.node, proxmox.cluster, ceph.cluster, ceph.mon, postgresql.server
0.70	Platform	kubernetes.deployment, kubernetes.statefulset, ceph.pool, ceph.osd, proxmox.storage, netbox.device, postgresql.database
0.45	Workload	kubernetes.pod, proxmox.vm, proxmox.container, openstack.instance, kubernetes.service
0.30	Configuration	kubernetes.configmap, kubernetes.namespace, kubernetes.replicaset, openstack.port, netbox.interface

Unknown types default to 0.5.

Display Tiers

Score Range	Tier	Color
80-100	Critical	Red
60-79	High	Orange
40-59	Medium	Yellow
0-39	Low	Green

API Endpoints

Get CI Criticality Score

GET /api/v1/criticality/ci/{ci_id}

Response:

{
  "ci_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "score": 78,
  "tier": "High",
  "color": "orange",
  "breakdown": {
    "dependency_score": 0.82,
    "size_score": 0.71,
    "type_score": 0.70
  },
  "metadata": {
    "direct_dependents": 5,
    "transitive_dependents": 23,
    "size_percentile": 0.71,
    "type_family": "compute_infra"
  },
  "calculated_at": "2026-01-17T10:30:00Z"
}

Recalculate Scores

POST /api/v1/criticality/recalculate

Request Body:

{
  "ci_ids": ["uuid1", "uuid2"],  // Optional, null = all CIs
  "force": false                  // Recalculate even if fresh
}

Response:

{
  "status": "completed",
  "cis_processed": 819,
  "cis_updated": 312,
  "errors": [],
  "duration_seconds": 1.72
}

Get Criticality Statistics

GET /api/v1/criticality/stats

Returns distribution summary across all CIs.

Bulk Get Scores

POST /api/v1/criticality/bulk

Request Body:

{
  "ci_ids": ["uuid1", "uuid2", "uuid3"]
}

CI List Integration

Include criticality in CI list queries:

GET /api/v1/configuration-items?include_criticality=true

Each CI in the response includes:

{
  "ci_id": "...",
  "name": "pve",
  "ci_type": "proxmox.node",
  "criticality": {
    "score": 92,
    "tier": "Critical",
    "color": "red"
  }
}

Sorting by Criticality

GET /api/v1/configuration-items?include_criticality=true&sort_by=criticality_score&sort_order=desc

Automatic Scoring

Scores recalculate automatically when infrastructure relationships change. New CIs are scored within minutes of discovery.

Manual Recalculation

For immediate recalculation, use the API:

# Recalculate all CIs
curl -X POST https://your-company.parascope.io/api/v1/criticality/recalculate

# Recalculate specific CIs
curl -X POST https://your-company.parascope.io/api/v1/criticality/recalculate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ci_ids": ["uuid1", "uuid2"]}'

Examples

High Criticality CI (Proxmox Node)

Name: pve
Type: proxmox.node
Score: 92 (Critical)

Breakdown:
- Dependency: 0.89 (63 transitive dependents - all VMs/containers)
- Size: 0.85 (high CPU/memory capacity)
- Type: 0.95 (infrastructure tier)

Medium Criticality CI (Kubernetes Pod)

Name: api-server-7d8f9c6b5-x2k4m
Type: kubernetes.pod
Score: 47 (Medium)

Breakdown:
- Dependency: 0.15 (few dependents)
- Size: 0.55 (moderate resource requests)
- Type: 0.45 (workload tier)

Low Criticality CI (ConfigMap)

Name: app-config
Type: kubernetes.configmap
Score: 32 (Low)

Breakdown:
- Dependency: 0.20 (referenced by 2 pods)
- Size: 0.30 (no size metrics)
- Type: 0.30 (configuration tier)

API Reference - Criticality API endpoints
Correlation Engine - Cross-system relationship discovery
Architecture - System design overview

CI Criticality Scoring