Imports

The CMDB imports page allows you to import CI data from Numara Asset Manager, a CSV file, or a SQL database. You can import the data "on-demand" by going to the Imports page and telling FootPrints to perform the import immediately or you can schedule the imports. Any data that can be saved in a CSV file or SQL database table can be imported, including the output of barcode scanners.

It is very important to note that, before you import any data into your CMDB, you must create your CI Types, Attributes, Relationships, and Statuses.

The CMDB import feature is extremely flexible and has been designed so that you can import data from a variety of sources to update the same CMDB. In addition, you can schedule your imports to be performed automatically and without any further intervention. For example, you can set up a schedule of imports to update a specific CMDB with data from Numara Asset Manager once a week and, at the same time, update the same CMDB from a SQL database on a different night every week. In addition, you can do immediate imports from a .CSV file to again update that same CMDB whenever you create the file. Furthermore, you can do all of these things with a variety of CMDBs. It is this flexibility that allows Numara Configuration Management to scale up to large organizations or work easily, quickly, and seamlessly within a small organization that has a single CMDB with a limited amount of data.

In order to import data from Numara Asset Manager, you must first create the ODBC Data Source.

Creating an ODBC DSN for Numara Asset Manager or a SQL Database Import

To create the ODBC Data Source:

1. On the computer where FootPrints is installed, select Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Data Sources (ODBC). The ODBC Data Source Administrator is displayed.
2. Select the System DSN tab.
3. Click the Add button.
4. Pick the ODBC driver for the type of database you are connecting to. If an ODBC driver is not listed for the database, you must obtain the driver from the manufacturer. If connecting to Numara Asset Manager, highlight "SQL Server" in the list and click the Finish button. The following instructions apply to SQL Server only. Please visit the website of the manufacturer of the database type you are connecting to for more information on configuration.
5. The Create a New Data Source to SQL Server wizard is displayed. Give the new data source a name in the name field.
6. In the Description field, enter any description you like for this data source.  For example, you might use "Data source for NAM for theCMDB import".
7. In the "Which SQL Server do you want to connect to?" field, select the SQL Server that contains the data you want to import from the drop-down field. If importing from Numara Asset Manager, this will be the SQL Server in which Numara Asset Manager stores its repository.
8. Click the Next button.
9. On the next page, select the SQL Server authentication radio button.
10. In the Login ID field, enter a login ID that has Read permissions for the Numara Asset Manager database.
11. In the Password field, enter the password, if there is one, for that Login ID to the Numara Asset Manager database. If there is no password configured for that ID, leave the field blank.
12. Click the Next button.
13. On the next page, if the default database for the login ID is not the database to which you want to connect, check the "Change the default database to:" checkbox and select database from the drop-down field. The database will be named “AssetManager” if you are connecting to Numara Asset Manager.
14. Click the Next button.
15. On the next page, accept all default selections and click the Finish button.

Imports Page Controls

Most of the controls on the Imports page only become useful when you have created rule sets for imports. The following explains the controls on this page:

• New—Click this button to create a new import rule set.
• Edit—To edit an existing rule set, highlight the rule set in the list, then click the Edit button.
• Delete—To delete an existing rule set, highlight the rule set in the list, then click the Delete button.
• Run—To run an import "on demand", i.e., manually, highlight the rule set in the list and then click the Run button. If the rule set requires email summaries of the results of the import be sent out, then when the import finishes, email summaries are sent to the specified email addresses. In addition, if the rule set requires it, then pop-up windows containing the results of the import are displayed to the designated agents. You must enter your password to run the import.
• Refresh—Refreshes the page.
• Headings—Headings in the list are Ruleset, Next Run, Previous Run, and Status. Clicking on the headings sorts the list according to that heading.
• Ruleset—The name of the rule set.
• Next Run—The date on which the next import will be run.
• Previous Run—The date on which the import was last run.
• Status—Displays the status of the most recent import. Clicking on the Completed status displays a summary report on the import. The summary contains information on:
• the date and time that the import was run
• the status of the import
• the number of records in the CMDB to which the data was imported
• the number of records that were created
• the number of records that were updated
• the number of records that were rejected.

Within this summary report, if you click on the icon, a detailed report on the import is displayed as a pop-up window.