Adding and managing Entity catalogs

Some environments are configured following the master lookup table configuration paradigm. In those environments, a single ETL was used to share lookup table with all the other ETLs. Now, the product administrator can merge the newly created entity catalog with the Default Entity Catalog, thus continuing to provide a single entity catalog in the environment. Entity catalog will be automatically created for each ETL that was previously being used to share lookup. It allows the user to distinguish between which ETL created an entity and which ETL added additional metrics to it afterward.

For more information, refer to the following sections:

Adding an Entity catalog

1. Log in to the Helix Capacity Optimization Console.
2. Click Administration > ETL & System Tasks > Entity catalogs.
3. Click Add new entity catalog. 

4. Enter a unique name for the entity catalog.

5. Enter a description for the entity catalog that can be used to identify the relation between shares.
   

6. Click Save.

Click on the newly created entity catalog to Merge, Edit, Delete, Reconcile, or Split entities.

Working with Entity catalogs

Click Entity catalog in the ETL Task details page to view information about its lookup tables. You can view the list of systems, business drivers, and domains imported by the ETL, including data sources and the name they will have in BMC Helix Capacity Optimization.

Deleting an Entity catalog

Each row displays the mapping between the data sources and BMC Helix Capacity Optimization name. You can delete the selected lookup entries or all lookups for the ETLs.

Click to get the delete options: Delete selected lookup entries of ETL <ETL_name>, Delete selected lookup entries of all ETLs, Deleted selected lookup entries of all ETLs and dismiss systems, Delete all lookup entries of all ETLs, and Delete all lookup entries of all ETLs and dismiss Systems.

A confirmation pop-up prompts you to choose one of the following actions:

• Remove the lookup reference for the selected resources.
• Remove the lookup reference and delete the selected resources; if the selected resources are not shared with other ETL tasks, this operation will change their status to "dismissed". For more information, see Life cycle and status of entities and domains.

When an ETL task encounters an entity (or domain) in the data source, it checks its own lookup tables to find a configured target. If no target is found, the object is treated as a new object and the ETL task performs the following actions:

1. Creates a new entity (or domain) with a name identical to the one found in the data source.

2. Adds an entry into the ETL task lookup tables to track the new association.

   New entities appear in the lookup tables and in the All Systems and Business Drivers > Newly discovered page of the Workspace section. For details, see Life cycle and status of entities and domains.

Merging Entity catalog

You can also configure a ETL task to share the lookup tables of another ETL task, to save time and keep information consistent. If the two ETL tasks will run in parallel, all the entities listed in the lookup table of the older ETL task will also be updated by the new one. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click Merge entity catalog on the top left corner of the ETL task lookup tables page.
2. In the dialog box that appears, select the Entity catalog whose lookup table you want to share with the current ETL task.
   A confirmation message is displayed. 

3. Click Proceed.

Lookup reconciliation and splitting

If a lookup duplication problem occurred, you can recover it by performing the following task. To identify and reconcile duplicate entities of vCenter systems, see Reconciling and managing duplicate entities of a vCenter host or VM.

To reconcile entities

1. Navigate to Administration > ETL & SYSTEM TASKS > Entity catalogs and locate the entity catalog that contains entity to reconcile.
2. Click the entity catalog name to access its detail page.
3. Click Reconcile entities. The Entity Reconciliation page is displayed.

4. Specify the following details:
   
   

   Field	Description
   Reconcile criteria
   Datasource filter	Select the datasource filter. You can select all the datasource for this catalog or a specific one. For a specific datasource, Datasource: Select the datasource from Available and click >> to move it to Selected.
   Entity types	Select the entity type from the list.
   Compare entities by	You can compare the entities by entity name, entity name and type, entity and parent entity name and types, or lookup fields.
   Show criteria	Select any one: Show all entities Show only entities that have at least one nonmaching lookup field

5. Click Search. The search list is displayed with Name, Type, All lookups created by all associated ETLs in a catalog, and number of matching entities information.
   You can view the details for an entry using .
6. From the search list (Entities to reconcile), select the appropriate entity.
7. Click Reconcile lookup of selected entities.

The reconciliation request is submitted and executed immediately.

Split entities

1. Navigate to Administration > ETL & System Tasks > Entity catalogs and locate the entity catalog that contains entities to split.
2. Click the entity catalog name to access its detail page.
3. Click Split entities. 

4. Specify the following details:
   
   

   Field	Description
   Split criteria
   Datasource filter	Select the datasource filter. You can select all the datasource for this catalog or a specific one.
   Entity types	Select the entity type from the list.
   Show criteria	Select any one: Show all entities Show only entities that have no matching lookup fields

5. Click Search. The search list is displayed with Name, Id, Type, All entities in a catalog, Matching fields, and Nonmatching fields information.
   You can view the details for an entry using .
6. From the search list (Entities to split), select the appropriate entity.
7. Click Split lookup of selected entities.

The reconciliation request is submitted and executed immediately.

Preventing duplication issues

To avoid these problems, the correct procedure for creating a new ETL task is:

1. Create the new ETL task with simulation mode turned on and the maximum log level (10).
2. Manually run the ETL task and check its execution log to find out if it created any new entities. You can use this information to understand if the automatic lookup process is safe and if you need to use shared lookup from another ETL.
3. If you notice an issue, you can also manually add a line in the lookup table.
4. Toggle simulation mode off.
5. Run the ETL task to import new data.