Performing bulk updates

In the classic Smart IT interface, after the administrator configures asset actions, as an Asset Manager, you can run actions on selected assets in Asset Console.

For example, your company has purchased 25 assets: 5 laptops, 10 UPS, and 10 processors. These assets have been added to the inventory and are now with the Procurement team. You must assign these assets to the manager of the IT Services team, change their location, and relate them to Email Business Service. Instead of manually filling in the details of each asset, you configure an asset action to create the people relationship, update the asset's location, and relate the asset with other assets. In Asset Console, you then select all 25 assets and run the asset action. In a few simple steps, you can assign the assets to the correct person and specify the people role, enter the location details, and relate them with specific assets.

On mobile devices, tap Actions on Asset Console window to run asset actions. These actions are available in classic Smart IT.

Depending on the type of asset action specified when configuring asset actions, you can run actions on the assets selected in Asset Console. When you open an asset, asset actions configured for that asset are included in the More list. By default, all assets have a predefined action in the More list:Put into Inventory.

Before you begin

Before you run an asset action, you must consider the following points about assets on which you want to run the asset action.

• To run asset actions, you must have the Asset user permission.
• You can run asset actions only on the asset types you specified when you configured the asset actions.

To run asset action

1. In classic Smart IT, on Asset Console, specify filters to search for assets that you want to update. You can specify multiple search options when searching for related assets.
2. Select check boxes for assets in the search result.
   You can select a single or multiple assets of the specified asset type and run the action.

3. From the Asset Actions list, select an asset action to run.
   The Asset Actions list with the configured action in it becomes visible only when you select the check box corresponding to the asset on Asset Console. 
   The Update Assignment pane is displayed.

   Important

   You cannot run multiple actions on an asset action type. For example:

   • You can relate selected assets with only one people type and one role at a time. For example, out of 10 processors, if you want to assign 8 processors to George and 2 processors to Nancy, and specify different roles, you must run the same asset action twice to relate the 2 sets of processors to different people.
   • You can relate assets selected in Asset Console with assets you have selected in a search result, and specify only one asset-to-asset relationship type. For example, if you have five laptops and you want to relate two of them to a color printer, two to a black-and-white printer, and one to a color printer and a remote file system asset, you must run the same asset action three times to relate all five laptops to their specific assets and specify the necessary asset relationships.
4. To update the profile of the selected assets, enter details in the appropriate fields.
5. To create a relationship between the selected assets and other assets, click Create Asset Relationships. Alternatively, you can also click the Next Step button.
6. To search for assets to relate, use the basic or advanced search.
7. From the search result, select the check boxes for assets, and then select the relationship type and subtype.
8. To create a relationship between the selected assets and a person, click the Create People Relationships tab, and select a people type from the list.
9. Search for the person, and select the person's name from the search result, and then select the person's role from the role list.
10. Click Save.
    A message confirming the successful running of the asset action is displayed.

Scenario for running an asset action

Mary is in Allen's team, and she has the Asset User permission. Allen has assigned her the task of transferring the received servers, rack, and chassis to the R&D Cloud Management team. She must run the asset action R&D Cloud Setup and perform the following updates:

• Relate the assets to the following items:
  • Asset-Perforce Business Service
  • Relationship type-Impact
  • Relationship subtype-Starting asset is child
• Transfer the ownership of assets to Bob Baxter, the manager of the R&D Cloud Management team, and specify the Managed by role.
• Update the asset profile with the following details:
  • Company - Petramco
  • Site - R&D Cloud Data Center
  • Room - 701 Server room
  • Floor - 7
  • Status - Deployed

To run the asset action, Mary performs the following steps:

1. In classic Smart IT, Mary opens Asset Console, and applies the Computer System, Chassis, and Rack filters to search for specific assets.
2. From the list of the displayed assets, Mary selects the check boxes for the newly received three servers, one rack, and one chassis.
   After selecting the check boxes, the Asset Actions list is displayed.
3. From the Asset Actions list, Mary selects the R&D Cloud Setup action.
   The Update Assignment pane is displayed.
4. To update the record of the selected assets with the new location and asset status, Mary enters the company, site, room, floor, and status details in specified fields.
5. To create a relationship between the selected assets and the Perforce Business Service assets, Mary clicks Create Asset Relationships. Alternatively, she can also click Next Step.
6. Mary uses the basic search to search for Perforce business service assets.
7. From the search result, she selects the check boxes of the necessary Perforce business service assets, and selects Impact as the relationship type, and Starting asset is child as the relationship subtype.
8. To create a relationship between the selected assets and the Manager of the R&D Cloud Management team, Mary clicks Create People Relationships.
   In the People Type list, by default Person is selected. 
9. She searches for Bob Baxter, selects his name from the search result, and selects Managed by from the role list.
10. Mary clicks Save. A message confirming the successful running of the asset action is displayed.

To verify the result of the asset action that Mary ran, she opens one of the selected assets and finds the added fields and values in the asset profile. In the Assets and People tabs, she finds the related assets and person.

You can use the bulk update feature to modify CIs that require many concurrent changes. You can perform many-to-one or one-to-many bulk updates. You cannot perform many-to-many bulk updates.

Before you begin

For software license management, ensure that you enter the required value in the Company field for the CI of type System Software. If you are managing site licenses, ensure that you enter the required value in the Site field for the CI of type Computer System. Discovery products update the values of these fields. In case the field values are not updated, you can use the bulk update feature to update the information.

To update CI locations in bulk

1. In the navigation pane of Asset Management Console, select Functions > Manage Bulk Updates.
2. In the CI Search Criteria area, specify your search criteria, and click Search.
3. From the table, select all the CIs for which you want to change the location, and click Update CI Location.
4. In the Relocate CIs dialog box, from the Company, Region, Site Group, and Site lists, select the required values, and click Save.
5. In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes.
6. Run the Normalization engine.
   In a multi-tenancy environment, to ensure that the product categorizations are applied to the new company, you must run the Normalization engine. In a multi-tenancy environment, when you update CIs by using bulk update, and change the company, the product categorizations might not be applied to the company. For more information about running Normalization engine, see  Configuring the Normalization Engine.

To relate people through a bulk update

1. In the navigation pane of Asset Management Console, select Functions > Manage Bulk Updates.
2. In the Manage Bulk Updates dialog box, in the CI Search Criteria area, specify your search criteria, and click Search.
3. In the People Search Criteria area, specify your search criteria, and click Search.
4. From the CI Search Results table, select the CIs you want to relate to a person, or select a CI to be related to several people.
5. From the People Search Results table, select the people records that you want to relate to a CI, or select one person to relate to several CIs.
6. From the Role list, select the role you want the person or people who are assigned to this CI to perform.
7. Click Relate.
8. In the confirmation message, click OK.