Atrium Integrator and Data Management jobs

There are two supported methods to load data into BMC Helix CMDB.

1. If you only want to load data into CMDB, and not into Asset forms, you can use the Atrium Integrator Interface.
2. If you have a use case to load CI data into both CMDB and asset forms, use the Data Management Console.

Loading data into CMDB by using Atrium Integrator Interface

Atrium Carte Server

Atrium Integrator Carte server is a simple web server that you can use to execute transformations and jobs remotely. All the jobs scheduled and run through Atrium Integrator console always run on the Carte server.

To learn more about Atrium Carte Server, see Atrium Integrator Carte server.

Atrium Integrator Spoon

In Action Request System, the Pentaho Spoon application is referred to as Atrium Integrator Spoon.

What is Spoon?

• Desktop Designer Tool
• Part of Pentaho
• AR Server client

Features

The Pentaho Spoon application has the following ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) Capabilities:

• Read input from a source (Extract)
• Apply transformations on data (Transform)
• Write to the target (Load)
• Used for special cases
• Custom transformation of data
• Qualifications
• Tuning

To learn more, see Atrium Integrator Spoon.

Atrium Integrator Interface

The Atrium Integrator Interface can perform the following functions. To learn more about Atrium Integrator Interface, see Atrium Integrator interface

• Allows data import to CMDB Classes
• Reads from certain databases as well as text files
• Enables:
  • Delta loads
  • Checksum
  • Response flags

The input data stores supported are:

• CSV data store
• DB data store
• XML data store

With the interface, you can perform the following tasks:

For more information about detailed steps for loading data into BMC Helix CMDB from an external source, see Transferring data from external data stores to BMC Helix CMDB .

Integration Job Builder wizard

The Integration Job Builder wizard offers the following benefits:

• Enables transfer of data to key CMDB classes
• Excludes jobs that transfer data to AR System forms
• Is the starting point for integration jobs. You can use Atrium Integrator Spoon on Windows for modifying any job created using the wizard.
• Provides a structure you can refine later using Atrium Integrator Spoon. However, it might require significant manual effort to modify in Spoon later.
• Allows defining of job schedule. The job schedule can be added or modified from Atrium Integrator interface at any time.

Best Practices

See the following links to learn about the best practices for Atrium Integrator:

• Improving the performance of Atrium Integrator

• Best practices for configuring load balancing for Atrium Integrator

• Best practices when configuring Atrium Integrator

• Best practices for specific implementation scenarios

• Configuring Atrium Integrator logs

Loading data into into ITSM applications by using Data Management console

Data Management console provides out-of-the-box jobs and spreadsheets to load data into your service management applications. It is also referred to as UDM (Unified Data Management) or DMT (Data Management Tool). It is not a data migration tool.

The Data Management tool provides you with a wizard for onboarding Foundation data. By using the Onboarding wizard, administrators can review and edit the Foundation data directly in the wizard. For more information, see Loading Foundation data by using Data Management.

The Data Management module has the following components:

• Spreadsheet Management
• Job Console
• Onboarding Wizard

Spreadsheet Management

• Spreadsheets are available to populate and load
  • Foundation data
  • Process or templates data
  • Transactional data

Job Console

• All jobs are to load and create new records.
• The People job supports updates.
• LDAP Job template is available to load non-support staff people data from Active Directory (AD) application.

Onboarding wizard

The Data Management tool provides you with a wizard for importing or onboarding Foundation data and Assignment data. Using the Onboarding wizard, you can review and edit the imported data directly in the wizard. You can also promote the data to your test or production database from the Onboarding wizard. You can use the Onboarding wizard when setting up new installations or any time that you need to add or update Foundation data.

See the following links for detailed information about Data Management:

For Foundation data, download and load data into the following spreadsheets:

• Company.xlsx
• PeopleOrg.xlsx
• Location.xlsx
• Operational Catalog.xlsx
• SupportGroup.xlsx
• People.xlsx

To load template or process data into the spreadsheets

To populate and load the Template or Process data by using Data Management Tool, download and populate the data in relevant spreadsheets from the Spreadsheet Manager section of Data Management Console.

Refer to Process setup data mapping section in Spreadsheets provided and target form mapping to understand the mapping of Template or Process data from spreadsheets to target forms.

For Process setup, download and load data into the following spreadsheets:

• Change_Process_Setup.xlsx
• Foundation_Process_Setup.xlsm
• Incident_Process_Setup.xlsm
• Request_Process_Setup.xlsm
• ProcessSetup-Knowledge.xlsm
• SLM_Agreement_Template.xlsx
• SLM_Service_Target_Template.xlsx
• SLM_Contract_Template.xlsx
• Task_Process_Setup.xlsm

Best practices to create and run data load jobs

1. Open the Data Management Console.
2. Create a new job.
3. Select the company.
4. Select the out-of-the-box templates.
5. In the Load step, attach the data load spreadsheets.
6. In the Validate step, enable the Create Only flag for all the Foundation, Template or Process, and CI data.
7. Save the job.

8. On the Promote step for data load job, enable the Enable Wait option.

   Important

   • After you load all the Foundation data into the target forms, you can not modify the data.
   • You must enable the Enable Wait option on the Promote step of the data load job. This option loads the data into the load forms and not directly to the target forms. You can review and validate the data by using this option. After you modify and confirm the data, disable the Enable Wait option to promote the data to the target forms.
   • If you want to modify the Foundation data and you have not enabled the Enable Wait option, and the data is pushed to target, and then you have to delete the data and run the data load job again.
   • You can modify the People data in the People spreadsheets. However, to modify the people record, create a new spreadsheet with new details, and run the data load job.
9. Repeat step 4 to step 8 for each data load spreadsheet.
10. Run the job.

Using the Enable Wait option

• We recommend that you run a job with Enable Wait set on the promote step and to validate the data in the load form. This option helps you review the data in the load form so you can determine the data you want to promote to the target form.
• If the data is not accurate, then you can simply fix the spreadsheets and run a new job to load data in the same way to the load form. In this process, the data is not duplicated as each data load has a job ID reference. Therefore, you can run multiple jobs to load corrected data to the same form multiple times without worrying about duplicate data and or or cleaning up the data. This option is only possible if you run the job with the Enable Wait set to Promote step.
• After you perform a few revisions as needed and the data for that form in your spreadsheet is accurate, the spreadsheet is considered as your Golden Spreadsheet for that form. You can now create a new job to load that data to the target form without setting Enable Wait on the Promote step.
• We recommend that you create a Golden Spreadsheet for all your forms.
• Use the Golden Spreadsheets to run jobs and load data to the QA and or or production environments as needed. This is also helpful if you revert your database to an earlier state.