Overview of the data wizard
The following tasks are performed by using the Data Wizard console:
- Modify the data such as company name and site name, as the data wizard modifies the data in all applicable BMC Helix ITSM forms and, where appropriate, in CI records in BMC Helix CMDB.
- Merge data such as foundation, process setup, and transactional between companies, support groups within a company, support groups across companies. Merging is useful in case of organizational restructuring or acquisitions. For details, see Merging-company-or-support-group-data.
Before you run the data wizard, you must follow the instructions in Prerequisites to updating target values using the data wizard.
Only one data wizard process can run at a time. A dataload job can start a data wizard process if it is required. You can go DMT:SYS:DataWizardQueue to see if any dataload processes are running the data wizard. If there is more than one dataload process in the queue, these processes will have to finish before you can start a new data wizard process.
You can use the data wizard to modify or count only data that has a status Enabled.
The following table indicates where the data wizard modifies data:
Application | Records modified by the data wizard |
|---|---|
BMC Helix CMDB | CI records in the BMC Asset dataset only. Note: Other datasets in BMC Helix CMDB, such as the sandbox dataset of the BMC Topology Discovery dataset are not supported. |
BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management | All forms, except where noted in Exclusions from Data Management. |
BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management | |
BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk | |
BMC Service Request Management | Adds support for all forms, except where noted in Exclusions from Data Management. |
BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management |
If you have records that are not modified by the data wizard, you must modify them in the relevant application. For more information about modifying data from other applications, see Modifying-Foundation-data-in-related-applications-after-an-update.
You can use the data wizard to modify the following fields:
- Company Name
- Person Name
- Login ID
- Generic Categorization
- Operational Categorization
- Product Categorization
- Product Model / Version
- Site Name
- Site Information
- Support Group
The data wizard updates the specified target value in the appropriate foundation configuration form and changes the specified target value in other BMC Helix ITSM application forms and, where applicable, on CI forms in BMC Helix ITSM. For example, if you change a product categorization value, this value is changed in the product catalog, on BMC Helix ITSM application forms that include product categorization, and for all applicable CIs.
The data wizard updates historical records, such as closed incident and problem records. It does not, however, update audits on the form.
When you update records with the data wizard, the Last Modified By and Last Modified Date fields are set for auditing purposes. For more information about how the Login ID is updated, see Data wizard limitations.
Data wizard limitations
The data wizard updates records only if the status of the parent record is set to Enabled. For example, you cannot update a company if the company is set to Offline on the Company form.
The data wizard does not update the following areas:
- Any character fields that contain the target value concatenated with other text. For example, if you are updating the Company Name from "My Company" to "Apex Global," instances of "My Company" in Work Info fields and Summary fields would not be updated. Only instances of "My Company" in the Company Name field would be updated.
- Qualifications on the Report Console or notification messages.
- Additionally, you cannot use the data wizard to change your own Login ID.
- You cannot use the data wizard to update service accounts. Only BMC administrators can update service accounts by using the data wizard.
Oracle database limitation
When the data wizard is used for an Oracle database, it cannot update data that has leading or trailing spaces.
Limitations of auditing
The audit log file is not updated when you run the data wizard. The only information available on a form to track what changes the data wizard has made is the name captured in the Last Modified By field and the date captured in the Last Modified Date field of a form. However, if a form is further updated after it has been modified by the data wizard, the record of who ran the data wizard on the particular form is lost.
Updating Login ID
The Submitter field on BMC Helix ITSMapplication forms and on CI forms is populated with the applicable Login ID value. When you change a Login ID, the Submitter field is updated on all applicable BMC Helix ITSMapplication forms.
If the Last Modified By field is the target value, the data wizard does not set the field to the new value. When the data wizard makes updates, it sets the Last Modified By field to the Login ID of the person making the update.
Updating categorization
The product catalog, operational catalog, and generic catalog include multiple levels of categorization. Catalog entries can be defined to multiple levels of categorization.
The following table defines the levels of categorization:
Categorization level | Example 1 | Example 2 | Example 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
Tier 1 | Hardware | Hardware | Hardware |
Tier 2 | Machine | Machine | Machine |
Tier 3 | Server | Server | |
Manufacturer | Hewlett Packard | ||
Product Name | Proliant |
Based on the information in the table, the following three scenarios illustrate how the levels of categorization that are present in your catalog and the levels of categorization that you specify in the data wizard affect the categorization records:
- Scenario 1—All three examples are present in your product catalog, and you want to change "Machine" to "Processing Unit." You could specify only the first two tiers to be updated. The remaining categorization levels are updated throughout the catalog.
- Scenario 2—All three examples are present in your product catalog, and you specify three tiers to be updated (for example, you change Hardware - Machine - Server to Hardware - Processing Unit - Server). Example 1 and Example 2 are both updated, but Example 3 is not updated.
- Scenario 3—Example 3 is not part of the product catalog, and you specify three tiers to be updated. Any forms outside the product catalog with only two tiers specified such as, an incident with product categorization of Hardware - Machine are updated, however, to keep categorization consistent. These additional forms that are updated are not included in the count. As a result, if you compare the audit for the count and the update, you might notice a discrepancy.
Updates to the product catalog, operational catalog, and generic catalog work the same way.
The data wizard has a limitation on updating categorization. For example, the product catalog could have two entries with the first entry containing the following tiers:
- Tier 1—Hardware
- Tier 2—Processing Unit
- Tier 3—Desktop
The second entry could contain the following tiers:
- Tier 1—Discovered
- Tier 2—Machine
- Tier 3—Server
If you specify in the data wizard to change Tier 1-Discovered to Tier 1-Hardware and to change Tier 2-Machine to Tier 2-Processing Unit, the update is not allowed because Tier 1 and Tier 2 already exist as Tier 1-Hardware and Tier 2-Processing Unit. Instead, you would specify additional tiers when you update categorization. In this example, you can specify a change from Tier 3-Server to Tier 3 -Server. Although the value remains the same for Tier 3, because the values change for Tier 1 and Tier 2, the updated product catalog entry is not the same as the original product catalog entry.