Overview of the data wizard

Some data, such as company name and site name, cannot be modified on the foundation configuration forms, because this data is used in records throughout the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite of applications and in BMC Atrium CMDB. For example, the site name is created on the SIT:Site form, but it can also be used on records on the CTM:People form, HPD:Help Desk form, and on CIs in BMC Atrium CMDB.

You can use the data wizard to:

• Modify the data such as company name and site name, as the data wizard modifies the data in all applicable BMC Remedy ITSM forms and, where appropriate, in CI records in BMC Atrium 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.

The following table indicates where the data wizard modifies data:

You can use the data wizard to modify or count only data that has a status of Enabled. 

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:

• 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 Remedy ITSM application forms and, where applicable, on CI forms in BMC Atrium CMDB. For example, if you change a product categorization value, this value is changed in the product catalog, on BMC Remedy 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 "Calbro," 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.

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 Remedy ITSM application 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 Remedy ITSM application 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.

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 which categorization records are updated:

• 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 (for example, 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 would also specify to change 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.