Planning to migrate data

You can use the Data Management tool to import data into your Remedy ITSM applications. This section provides you with reference and conceptual information to help you understand what the Data Management tool does and how it does it. Read this section if you are new to the Data Management tool, or are unclear about the way certain aspects of Data Management work.

Which data migration method should I use

You can use the BMC Atrium Integrator or data load spreadsheets to migrate data from an external source into BMC Remedy ITSM Suite applications. The recommended method of migrating data depends on the accessibility of the data.

When to use BMC Atrium Integrator

If you can access the data source in its original format by using BMC Atrium Integrator, create a data transfer that maps from the original source to the BMC Remedy AR System data load staging forms directly. The advantages to this method include:

• No data handling errors occur.
• The size of the operation does not affect attachment sizes.
• This method is faster than using the data load spreadsheets.
• Translating data into the spreadsheet format is not necessary.

You can, however, use the spreadsheets as documentation for destination schema (the spreadsheets include size, type, help text, and so on).

When to use data load spreadsheets

If the data is distributed in many, disparate formats or requires significant reconciliation, perform the following actions:

• Use the data load spreadsheets.
• Use alias replacement to help automate the process.

If you are using the data load spreadsheets, see Spreadsheet usage tips for information about using them.

Levels of BMC Remedy ITSM Suite data

BMC Remedy ITSM Suite contains the following levels of data:

• Foundation data— Configuration data that applies to all of the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite applications, such as companies, sites, people, and categorization 
• Process setup data— Configuration data that affects processes for a specific application (for example, decision trees can be used by BMC Service Desk) 
• Transactional data— Records created during day-to-day use of the product, such as incidents and change requests

CI data can be loaded even if BMC Asset Management is not installed.

Not all levels or types of data are supported by all products in Data Management. See the following diagram to understand which data is supported by which product.

Levels and types of data supported, by product, in Data Management 

Dataload components

As a part of data management, you can create and run your own data transformations. The BMC Remedy ITSM Suite of applications runs on the BMC Remedy AR System platform. The BMC Remedy Mid Tier serves as a client of the BMC Remedy AR System server and as a server to web browsers. BMC Remedy AR System provides an Atrium Integrator adapter plug-in that enables you to create and run your own data .transformations. The following diagram describes the main components that support the dataload process:

Dataload components 

Atrium Integrator adapter for BMC Remedy AR System

BMC Remedy AR System provides an Atrium Integrator adapter plug-in that enables you to create and run your own data transformations.

The adapter is used in transformations to import data into BMC Remedy AR System or to extract data from BMC Remedy AR System into other data sources.

For more information, see Importing, transforming, and migrating data by using BMC Atrium Integrator.

Atrium Integrator Spoon client

The Atrium Integrator Spoon client is a graphical transformation and job designer. For more information, see Atrium-Integrator-Spoon-client.

Data Management Job Console

The Data Management Job Console replaces the Data Load console that was used previously for dataloads. It enables you to create and manage dataload jobs. The Data Management Job Console is referred to as the Job Console in the the rest of the documentation. For information about navigating the Job Console, see Data-Management-consoles-and-windows.

Error management

The error management functionality enables you to handle validation errors for multiple jobs from one location in the Error Management console. For information about navigating the Error Management console, see Data-Management-consoles-and-windows.

Load template

The load template functionality enables you to select an out-of-the-box template or previously-saved custom template that you created for a job.

An out-of-the-box template already has a set of steps defined for it.

BMC CMDB

The BMC Remedy ITSM Suite of applications consumes data from the BMC Configuration Management Database (BMC CMDB) application. BMC CMDB stores information about the configuration items (CIs) in your environment and the relationships between them.

How to update existing data

If data is already present in your BMC Remedy ITSM system, you can create jobs to update specific fields (for example: First Name, Last Name, Login ID, and Site Address). For more information, see Creating-and-managing-data-load-jobs.

You can also use the data wizard to update foundation data (for example: Company Name and Site Name) that cannot be modified in foundation configuration forms. For more details about using the data wizard to modify data, see Using-the-data-wizard-to-modify-data.

Exclusions from Data Management

The following foundation forms are excluded from bulk load data management:

• CFG:Geography City
• CFG:Geography Country
• CFG:Geography Stat/Province

These foundation geography forms are excluded because BMC Remedy ITSM provides extensive data for all these forms with installation of the applications. To import additional data, import the records directly into these forms using BMC Remedy Data Import. For information about using BMC Remedy Data Import, see the BMC Remedy Data Import help.

Multi-tenancy and Data Management

When your Data Management system is set up for multi-tenancy, users can associate more than one company with their profiles. Users can create jobs and templates for these companies, and can use custom templates that have been created for the companies. Multiple companies can be added to custom templates so that the templates can be shared. For more information, see Creating customized job templates.

Exclusions from the data wizard

Some fields on specified forms are excluded from the data wizard for one of the following reasons:

• The field on the specified form is shorter than the field elsewhere in the application.
• The field on the form is not uniquely identified.

You can manually update any of these fields, as required. If the field is shorter than required, however, you must increase the field length.

The following table lists fields not updated by the data wizard, because the field on the form is shorter than required.

BMC Remedy ITSM fields not updated by the data wizard

The following table lists fields not updated by the data wizard, because the field on the form is not uniquely identified. For example, a person's name is listed on the form, but not the Person ID or Login ID.

Fields that are not uniquely identified