In the Actual Configuration Items application, you can view the configuration items that a discovery tool finds. The tool discovers the configuration items and their attributes as they are currently configured on your systems. Discovered configuration items are referred to as "actual configuration items."
In the Configuration Items application, you create configuration items that conform to rules and relationships that you specify. These configuration items are the ones you want to maintain under configuration management and change control. They are in effect "authorized" configuration items.
You can create an "authorized" configuration item record that is based on an actual configuration item record. When you do this, you create a link between the authorized configuration item and the actual configuration item. You can also create an authorized configuration item and then link it to an actual configuration item. You can create these links in both the Configuration Items and Actual Configuration Items applications.
You can also create an "authorized" configuration item that is independent of any actual configuration item record, because not all configuration items are discoverable.
Authorized configuration items are generally referred to as just "configuration items."
A discovery tool can discover vast amounts of data. You typically use only subsets of the data when you create your "authorized" configuration items.