Overview of the normalization features

The Normalization Engine is provided with various capabilities that enable you to define rules and actions to normalize CIs. These rules can be applied to individual datasets. 

This topic describes these normalization processes.

Default normalization features

The following two normalization features are applied by default, on all datasets and cannot be disabled for individual datasets.

• DML Based Instance Normalization
• Version Normalization 

DML Based Instance Normalization

Definitive Media Library (DML) is an ITIL tool that allows IT service providers store their definitive and approved versions of all software configuration items at a centralized location. 

In conjunction with the BMC Product Catalog application, DML Based Instance normalization normalizes the following attributes for hardware and software products:

• Product categorization attributes: Category, Type, and Item (CTI)
• ManufacturerName
• Model (the product name, applicable to software and hardware) 

Version Normalization 

BMC CMDB versions 7.6.03 and later include the MarketVersion attribute on the BMC_BaseElement class. By using this attribute you can set a common market version. The VersionNumber attribute stores a full version number, such as 5.0.1.12, which can change frequently with maintenance releases. To manage licenses more accurately, the MarketVersion attribute stores a simpler string version, such as 5.0 or 2007. You can then associate a license with the market version rather than with individual full version numbers. 

For example, Calbro Services has multiple service packs and versions for Microsoft Excel: 11.0.5614.0, 11.0.6355.0, 11.0.7969.0, and 11.0.8173.0. However, Calbro Services tracks all of these products with a MarketVersion of 2003. To do this, the Version Rollup tab in the Normalization Features includes the following rule:

Normalization features for specific datasets

The following normalization features are enabled for specific datasets and classes only.

• • Impact Normalization
  • Relation Name Normalization
  • Instance Level Permissions
  • Suite Rollup Normalization
  • Custom

Impact Normalization

The Impact Normalization feature is applied to relationship classes only. This feature sets the impact attributes based on the out-of-the-box or custom impact rules for the relationship class and the source and destination classes it relates to. With version 7.6.03 and later, impact is represented as attributes in a relationship class. The BMC_Impact class is deprecated.) For more information about the Impact Normalization feature, see Managing-service-impact.

Relation Name Normalization

The Relation Name Normalization feature is applicable to relationship classes only. This feature replaces the existing relationship names with the BMC recommended or custom names, based on the CI classes in the relationship. For more information about the Relation Name Normalization feature, see Normalization-Engine-plug-in

Instance Level Permissions

This feature enables you to set the row-level permissions on CIs as defined by the CI classes and additional qualifiers of the Instance attributes. For more information about the Instance Level Permissions normalization feature, see  Normalization-Engine-plug-in.

Suite Rollup Normalization

This feature enables you to define suites and their products and to identify an instance as a suite, a suite component, or a standalone application. Allows more accurate management of suite and individual licenses. For more information about the Suite Rollup Normalization feature, see Managing-software-licenses-in-your-organization-using-normalization.

Custom

This feature enables you to create custom rules when the out-of-the-box Normalization features do not meet your requirements for normalizing data. You can create a custom rule for CI and relationship classes to perform a required action. For more information about the Custom Normalization feature, see Creating-a-custom-rule.

Order of executing the normalization features

When you run a normalization job on a dataset, the normalization features that are enabled for that dataset are run in the following order for a given class:

• Version Normalization
• DML Based Instance Normalization
• Relation Name Normalization
• Impact Normalization
• Instance Level Permissions
• Suite Rollup Normalization
• Custom Normalization