Configuring the Product Catalog for normalization

If you use the option to create Product Catalog entries with the Normalization Engine, you must make sure that the products are correctly created.

For the Normalization Engine to normalize CIs successfully, you must complete the following steps to configure the Product Catalog.

1. Create or import Product Catalog entries for the class instances that you want to normalize. 
   The Normalization Engine uses product definitions to normalize CIs. You must populate the Product Catalog by importing products, manually creating products, or using the Normalization Engine to create products. For more information about methods to populate the Product Catalog, see Adding Product Catalog entries.
   
   
2. Add a Market Version value to each software product entry, as needed. 
   For more information on using the Market Version, see Normalization and the Product Catalog.
   
   
3. Create product and manufacturer normalization aliases. 
   For more information, see Mapping discovery categorization to product categorization.
   
   
4. Create product categorization aliases for the following reasons:
   • If the combination of the values of Category, Type, Item, Model, and ManufacturerName is not in the Product Catalog data. Or, if these values are in the Product Catalog but are not related to the company for whom the CI is being submitted.
   • If a CI's Model or ManufacturerName attribute has no value. For more information about null values and normalization, see Normalization and NULL values for Model (Product Name) and ManufacturerName.
   • If the Allow New Product Catalog Entry option is disabled in the Normalization Engine. For more information, see Using product categorization aliases for discovered CIs.