Best practices when preparing to load data into BMC CMDB

As you prepare to migrate data from existing sources to BMC CMDB, consider these recommendations:

• Examine your data to make sure that data exists in each category of your current classification scheme that is being mapped to a class in BMC CMDB. Do not waste resources attempting to migrate something that does not exist.
• Freeze your current classification scheme a few weeks prior to the migration.
• Test the migration with a representative subset of all the classes you plan to use. For example, import 1,000 computer systems and 1,000 application systems.
• When testing, verify both that the contents of several configuration items (CIs) were migrated correctly and that the correct number of CIs were migrated for each class.
• For better performance, take advantage of the multithreaded nature of the Remedy AR System server when loading your initial data into BMC CMDB. Either use a multithreaded process on your loading application or split the data into pieces that can be loaded by separate instances of your application.
• Ensure that the database server is connected to Remedy AR System through a 100MB or 1GB network link.
• If your loading application will do any searching, create indexes on the fields it searches.
• An easy way to load data from many sources is to create Remedy AR System view forms or vendor forms that point to those sources. You can then use workflow, such as an escalation, to transfer the data from those forms to the BMC CMDB forms.
• When importing data from a source such as a spreadsheet or comma-separated value file, you can use a regular Remedy AR System form as an intermediate storage location. This enables you to use qualifications and workflow to verify that the data made it into the Remedy AR System, normalize the text in your data, and route it to the appropriate BMC CMDB class.
• If you add custom workflow to CMDB forms, test it with high data-load scenarios and confirm that you do not see time-outs.
• If your source data does not include relationships or includes them only as foreign keys on CI records, your loading application should analyze the data and create relationships between appropriate CIs in BMC CMDB.
• Your loading application is responsible for normalizing text in the data you bring into BMC CMDB, such as enforcing capitalization and delimiting rules. Data that has not been normalized is much harder to reconcile.