bmc remedy it service management 7.0 data management administrator's guide

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www.bmc.com

BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0

Data ManagementAdministrator’s Guide

June 2008


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If you have comments or suggestions about this documentation, contact Information Design and Development by email at

[email protected] .

Contacting BMC Software

You can access the BMC Software website at http://www.bmc.com . From this website, you can obtain informationabout the company, its products, corporate offices, special events, and career opportunities.

United States and Canada

Address BMC SOFTWARE INC2101 CITYWEST BLVDHOUSTON TX 77042-2827USA

Telephone 713 918 8800 or800 841 2031

Fax 713 918 8000

Outside United States and Canada

Telephone (01) 713 918 8800 Fax (01) 713 918 8000

© Copyright 2007-2008 BMC Software, Inc.

BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patentand Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, andlogos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are theproperty of their respective owners.

AIX and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

IT Infrastructure Library® is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce and is used here by BMC Software, Inc.,under license from and with the permission of OGC.

ITIL® is a registered trademark, and a registered community trademark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is registered in theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is used here by BMC Software, Inc., under license from and with the permission of OGC.

UNIX is the registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and other countries.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.

Java, Java runtime environment, JRE, Solaris, and Sun are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries.

BMC Software considers information included in this documentation to be proprietary and confidential. Your use of this information issubject to the terms and conditions of the applicable End User License Agreement for the product and the proprietary and restrictedrights notices included in this documentation.

Restricted rights legendU.S. Government Restricted Rights to Computer Software. UNPUBLISHED -- RIGHTS RESERVED UNDER THE COPYRIGHT LAWS OFTHE UNITED STATES. Use, duplication, or disclosure of any data and computer software by the U.S. Government is subject torestrictions, as applicable, set forth in FAR Section 52.227-14, DFARS 252.227-7013, DFARS 252.227-7014, DFARS 252.227-7015, andDFARS 252.227-7025, as amended from time to time. Contractor/Manufacturer is BMC Software, Inc., 2101 CityWest Blvd., Houston, TX77042-2827, USA. Any contract notices should be sent to this address.

mailto:[email protected]://www.bmc.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.bmc.com/


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License key and password information

If you have a question about your license key or password, contact Customer Support through one of the followingmethods:

E-mail [email protected] . (In the Subject line, enter SupID: ,such as SupID:12345 .)

In the United States and Canada, call 800 537 1813. Outside the United States and Canada, contact your local supportcenter for assistance.

Submit a new issue at http://www.bmc.com/support_home .

mailto:[email protected]://www.bmc.com/support_homehttp://www.bmc.com/support_homemailto:[email protected]


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Contents 5

Contents

Preface 9

About the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9BMC Atrium CMDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9BMC Remedy Asset Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10BMC Remedy Change Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10BMC Remedy Incident Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10BMC Remedy Problem Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11BMC Service Request Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11BMC Service Level Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Related documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter 1 Introduction 15

When to use the Data Management tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Using the Data Management tool for migration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Overview of the bulk load process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Components of the tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Hardware and software prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Performance benchmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Performance benchmarks for loading foundation data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Performance benchmarks for loading incident records. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Performance benchmarks for modifying records with the data wizard. . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 2 Installing and configuring the tool 27

Turning on Development Cache Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Running the Data Management tool installer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Turning off Development Cache Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Installing the NextID library file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Configuring performance enhancements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Setting the Next Request ID Block Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Configuring the BMC Remedy AR System server for multi-threading . . . . . . . . 34Configuring the CAI:Plugin Registry form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Setting the plugin filter threads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Upgrading from a previous version of the Data Management tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36


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6 Data Management Administrator ’s Guide

Chapter 3 Completing the spreadsheets 37

Understanding the spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Populating data in the spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Chapter 4 Importing data 43

Overview of the Data Load Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Loading data from spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Validating and promoting the data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Validating imported data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Fixing validation errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Promoting validated data into the BMC Remedy ITSM forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Troubleshooting validation and promotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Deleting data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Chapter 5 Using the data wizard to modify data 57

Overview of the data wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Counting records that use the target value in specified fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Prerequisites to updating target values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Coordinating the update of product categorization with BMC discoveryproducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Updating target values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Post-update requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Troubleshooting data wizard counts and updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Monitoring the data wizard for a halted count or update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Rerunning the count or update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 6 Managing customizations 71

Identifying customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Analyzing your customizations for impact on data load functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Making data load work with your customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Understanding the staging forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Adding custom fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Making the data wizard work with your customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Data wizard architecture overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Modifying the data wizard to work with new forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Modifying the data wizard to work with new fields on BMC Remedy ITSM

forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Appendix A Exclusions from the BMC Remedy ITSM Data Management tool 99

Exclusions from bulk load. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Exclusions from the data wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Appendix B Error messages 103

Errors for invalid data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Errors for required fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Errors for duplicate data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120


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Contents 7

Appendix C Data values 123

Configuration Item types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Locales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Notification events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126People, permission groups, and license types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Relationship types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Request types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Status reasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Time zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Appendix D How tabs map from spreadsheet to target form 137

Foundation data mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138Process setup data mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Transactional data mapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Appendix E Modifying foundation data in related applications 143Foundation data modified by the data wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144Manually updating BMC SLM terms and conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Globally replacing data in BMC Remedy Knowledge Management by using

the RKMConvert utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146Preparing your system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147Updating the RKMConvert configuration file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Running the RKMConvert utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Building the Hummingbird SearchServer tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Index 153


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Preface 9

Preface

The BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Data Management Administrator’s Guidedescribes how to install and use the Data Management tool that is part of BMCRemedy IT Service Management (BMC Remedy ITSM).

BMC Remedy ITSM includes the following applications and solutions:

The BMC Remedy Asset Management application The BMC Remedy Change Management application The BMC Remedy Service Desk solution (which includes the BMC Remedy

Incident Management application and the BMC Remedy Problem Managementapplication)

BMC Remedy ITSM can be integrated with the following applications: The BMC Service Request Management application The BMC Service Level Management application

The applications run in conjunction with the BMC Remedy Action Request Systemplatform (AR System) and share a common database. All five of the applicationsconsume data from the BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (BMCAtrium CMDB) application.

About the BMC Remedy ITSM SuiteThe following sections provide an overview of BMC Remedy ITSM products.

BMC Atrium CMDBBMC Atrium CMDB is installed prior to any of the BMC Remedy ITSMapplications. It stores information about configuration items (CIs) and theirrelationships in an inheritance-based data model, and has the ability to reconciledata from different sources. BMC Atrium CMDB provides a “single source oftruth” about your IT environment, enabling other BMC applications to manageCIs, predict the impact of configuration changes, and perform other BusinessService Management (BSM) functions.

For more information, see the BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0.1 User’s Guide.


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BMC Remedy Asset ManagementThe BMC Remedy Asset Management application lets IT professionals track andmanage enterprise configuration items (CIs)—and their changing relationships—throughout the entire asset life cycle. As part of the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite,

Asset Management is integrated with BMC Remedy Service Desk (which containsthe BMC Remedy Incident Management and BMC Remedy Problem Managementapplications), BMC Remedy Change Management, and BMC Service LevelManagement, and offers flexibility to support customized business processes.

For more information, see the BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 User’s Guide.

BMC Remedy Change ManagementUsing best practices that are compatible with the IT Infrastructure Library ® (ITIL®), BMC Remedy Change Management provides IT organizations with theability to manage changes by enabling them to assess impact, risk, and resourcerequirements, and then create plans and automate approval functions forimplementing changes. It provides scheduling and task assignment functionality,and reporting capabilities for reviewing performance and improving processes.Because BMC Remedy Change Management is integrated with the BMC AtriumCMDB, BMC Remedy Change Management lets you relate changes to otherrecords, such as CIs (including services) and incidents.

For more information, see the BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 User’s Guide.

BMC Remedy Incident Management

BMC Remedy Incident Management is used to manage incidents. Incidentmanagement is reactive, and is typically initiated in response to a customer call orautomated event. An example of an automated event might be an alert from amonitoring system, such as BMC Service Impact Management (BMC SIM). Theprimary goal of the incident management process, according to ITIL standards, is“to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible with minimumdisruption to the business, thus ensuring that the best achievable levels ofavailability and service are maintained.”

An incident is any event that is not part of the standard operation of a service andthat causes an interruption to or a reduction in the quality of that service. Normalservice operation is the operation of services within the limits specified by BMCService Level Management (SLM).

For more information, see the BMC Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 User’sGuide.


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Preface 11

About the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite

BMC Remedy Problem ManagementBMC Remedy Problem Management is used to manage problem investigations,known errors, and solution database entries. Problem management canproactively prevent the occurrence of incidents, errors, and additional problems.

A problem investigation helps an IT organization get to the root cause of incidents.It initiates actions that help to improve or correct the situation, preventing theincident from recurring.

After a problem investigation identifies the cause, this information can result ineither a known error or a solution database entry. A known error is a problem thathas been successfully diagnosed and for which a temporary workaround orpermanent solution has been identified. A solution database entry containsinformation that might be required to provide or restore a service.

For more information, see the BMC Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 User’sGuide.

BMC Service Request ManagementBMC Service Request Management (BMC SRM) allows IT to define offeredservices, publish those services in a service catalog, and automate the fulfillmentof those services for their users. With SRM, users have the ability to helpthemselves, which reduces the requests coming into the service desk. This enablesIT to focus on more mission-critical activities, such as resolving incidents relatedto service failures and restoring critical services. BMC SRM also provides theability to automate workflow for each service, enforcing consistency of process andfaster fulfillment of the request.

For more information, see the BMC Service Request Management 2.0 Administrator’sand User's Guide .

BMC Service Level ManagementBMC Service Level Management enables a service provider, such as an ITorganization, a customer support group, or an external service provider, toformally document the needs of its customers or lines of business using servicelevel agreements, and provide the correct level of service to meet those needs.

BMC Service Level Management also provides a means to review, enforce, and

report on the level of service provided. It streamlines the most important task ofall, which is the communication between a service provider and its customers.Multiple service targets can be defined and monitored, acting as a bridge betweenIT service support and IT operations. This enables costs to be controlled and helpsto provide a consistent level of service in support of key business services.

For more information, see the BMC Service Level Management 7.0 User’s Guide.


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AudienceThis document is intended for the following IT professionals:

Application administrators BMC Remedy AR System administrators

Related documentationThe table that follows lists the available documentation for BMC Remedy ITSM. Italso lists other documents referenced within the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Data Management Administrator’s Guide and within the instructionsin the spreadsheets.

Unless otherwise noted, online documentation in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format isavailable on the product installation distribution media, on the Customer Supportwebsite ( http://www.bmc.com/support_home ), or both. You can order printeddocumentation from the Customer Support website. A complete list of documentsavailable for the BMC Remedy ITSM 7.0 applications is available from theCustomer Support website.

NOTE To access the support website, you must have a support contract.

Title Description Audience Format

BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0.1 User’sGuide

Information about using the BMCAtrium CMDB, including searching forCIs and relationships, launchingfederated data, reporting, and runningreconciliation jobs.

Users Print andPDF

BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0User’s Guide

Procedures for using the BMC RemedyAsset Management application; includesnew features and overview.

Everyone Print andPDF

BMC Remedy Change Management7.0 User’s Guide

Procedures for using the BMC RemedyChange Management application;includes new features and overview.


BMC Remedy Import Help Procedures for using BMC RemedyImport.

Administrators Help file

BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide

Procedures for configuring the BMCRemedy ITSM applications.

Administrators Print andPDF

BMC Remedy ITSM 7.0 Data Management Release Notes

Information about known issues in theBMC Remedy ITSM DataManagement tool .

Administrators PDF

http://www.bmc.com/support_homehttp://www.bmc.com/support_home


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Preface 13

Related documentation

BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 User’s Guide.

Procedures for using the BMC RemedyService Desk: Incident Managementapplication; includes new features andoverview.


BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 User’s Guide

Procedures for using the BMC RemedyService Desk: Problem Managementapplication; includes new features andoverview.


BMC Service Level Management 7.0User’s Guide

Procedures for using the BMC ServiceLevel Management application; includesnew features and overview.


BMC Service Request Management2.0 Administrator’s and User's Guide

Procedures for administrating and usingthe BMC Service Request Managementapplication.

Administratorsand users

PDF

Title Description Audience Format


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Chapter

1 IntroductionYou can use the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Data Management tool toimport data into BMC Remedy IT Service Management (BMC Remedy ITSM) 7.0

and to modify existing data.The following topics are provided :

When to use the Data Management tool (page 16) Overview of the bulk load process (page 19) Components of the tool (page 20) Hardware and software prerequisites (page 22) Performance benchmarks (page 23)


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Overview of the bulk load process

Overview of the bulk load processThis section provides an overview of the bulk load process. The following chaptersprovide detailed instructions.

Figure 1-2: Overview of the bulk load process

1

2

5

4

3

Service Desk

Add data tospreadsheets

Convertspreadsheets to CSV

Load data

Promote datato ITSM

Validate data

Asset Management

Change Management

A B C 111 xxx yyy 222 xxx yyy 333 xxx yyy 444 xxx yyy


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The bulk load process consists of the following steps:

Step 1 Add data to spreadsheets.

The Data Management tool includes Microsoft Excel workbook files. Each tab in aworkbook file corresponds to a form in BMC Remedy ITSM 7.0, as described inAppendix D, “How tabs map from spreadsheet to target form.”

For instructions, see Chapter 3, “Completing the spreadsheets.”

Step 2 Convert data in spreadsheets to CSV files.

The tool converts the spreadsheet data to the appropriate CSV files, as describedin “Loading data from spreadsheets” on page 44 .

Step 3 Load the data.

You must perform steps to load the data. For instructions, see “Loading data from

spreadsheets” on page 44 .Step 4 Validate the data.

Step 5 Promote the data into BMC Remedy ITSM.

For instructions, see “Validating and promoting the data” on page 48.

NOTE If you have customized BMC Remedy ITSM, see Chapter 6, “Managingcustomizations.”

Components of the toolThe Data Management tool includes the following components:

Excel workbook files for loading data —Each of these workbook files hasindividual tabs that correspond to the different data structures that can beimported. The following workbook files are included:

Company.xls Financials.xls GenericCatalog.xls Geography.xls Location.xls OperationalCatalog.xls People.xls PeopleOrg.xls ProcessSetup-Change.xls ProcessSetup-Foundation.xls ProcessSetup-Incident.xls


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Components of the tool

ProcessSetup-Task.xls ProductCatalog.xls SupportGroup.xls SystemSetup.xls

Transactional-Incident.xls Transactional-Problem.xls

Transactional-Problem.xls

Transactional-SharedComponents.xls

Transactional-Task.xls

Conversion files —Each data load workbook has a corresponding conversionfile. Each conversion file contains a macro to convert the individual tabs in thedata load workbook into separate files in CSV format.

Definition files —The DEF files contain the necessary BMC Remedy AR System

staging forms and BMC Remedy AR System workflow to manage, validate, andpromote the data that you are importing into the appropriate BMC RemedyITSM forms.

Data load batch files —Batch files run on your workstation when you convertspreadsheets to CSV format and when you import CSV files. The following dataload batch files are included:

Check.bat Convert.bat Import.bat

ARX files —These files contain back-end data required by the Data Managementtool.

Import mapping files —Files with the extension .arm (AR Mapping) are importmapping files used by the Data Management tool for data loads.

Additional files for use with BMC Remedy Knowledge Management —Thedata wizard does not modify data in BMC Remedy Knowledge Managementsolutions. However, you can follow the instructions in Appendix E, “Modifyingfoundation data in related applications” to modify data in BMC RemedyKnowledge Management. These instructions require the following files:

7xGlobalReplace.xsl

RKMConvert.jar


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Performance benchmarks

Performance benchmarksBMC measured performance benchmarks for the following uses of the DataManagement tool:

Loading foundation data in bulk Loading transactional data in bulk Modifying records with the data wizard

Performance benchmarks for loading foundation dataTable 1-3 shows how many records per hour were processed by the DataManagement tool in the BMC Software performance lab.

The test data for these performance benchmarks consisted of 238,000 Peoplerecords, which included 1,200 support staff.

Hardwareenvironment

The performance benchmarks were performed on two Dell PowerEdge 1850servers connected to a LAN with 100 MBps network interface card. Each server hastwo 3.8 Ghz Intel Xenon processors, 4 GB RAM and two local hard drives (10 KBrpm).

Softwareenvironment

Table 1-4 indicates the software environment for the two servers.

The BMC Remedy AR System server was configured for multi-threading, asdescribed in “Configuring performance enhancements” on page 33 .

Table 1-3: Performance benchmarks for foundation data

Task Throughput (records per hour)

Load people data from the CSV file to stagingforms

225,000

Validate people data in staging forms 1,000,000Promote people data into BMC Remedy ITSMforms

220,000

Table 1-4: Software environment for performance benchmark lab during foundation data load testing

Server Component Version Running on

A Windows 2003 server Enterprise Edition SP1 Dell PowerEdge 1850A BMC Remedy AR System server 7.0.1 patch 004 Windows 2003 ServerA BMC Remedy ITSM applications 7.0.2 patch 005 Not applicableB Red Hat Enterprise Linux ® 2.6.9-55.ELsmp Dell PowerEdge 1850B Oracle ® 10 g R2 10.2.0.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux


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For Oracle configuration, the initialization parameters were set as follows: cursor_share=force optimizer_index_cost_adj=25 optimizer_index_caching=90 sga_target=800M pga_aggregate_target=200M open_cursors=300

Data files were on one hard drive, while all the online redo log files were onanother dedicated hard drive.

Performance benchmarks for loading incident recordsTable 1-5 shows how many records per hour were processed by the DataManagement tool in the BMC Software performance lab.

The test data for these performance benchmarks consisted of the following records: 320,000 incident tickets

140,000 people records 10,000 service catalog entries 3,000 sites 462 companies

Hardwareenvironment

The performance benchmarks were performed on two Dell PowerEdge 1850servers connected to a LAN with 10 MBps network interface card. Each server hastwo 3.8 Ghz Intel Xenon processors, 4 GB RAM and two local hard drives(10 KB rpm).

Table 1-5: Performance benchmarks for transactional data

Task Throughput (records per hour) Tips to enhance throughput

Load incident records from the CSV file tostaging forms

181,000 None

Validate incident data in staging forms 186,000 Use a BMC RemedyAR System server with a morepowerful CPU. Throughput islimited by the CPU capacity ofthe BMC Remedy AR Systemserver.

Promote people data into BMC Remedy ITSMforms

92,000 Improve the I/O subsystemon the database server.Throughput is limited by thedisk I/O capacity on thedatabase server.


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Performance benchmarks

Softwareenvironment

Table 1-6 indicates the software environment for the two servers.

The BMC Remedy AR System server was configured for multi-threading, asdescribed in “Configuring performance enhancements” on page 33 .

For Oracle configuration, the initialization parameters were set as follows: cursor_share=force optimizer_index_cost_adj=25 optimizer_index_caching=90 sga_target=800M pga_aggregate_target=200M open_cursors=300

Data files were on one hard drive, while all the online redo log files were onanother dedicated hard drive.

Performance benchmarks for modifying records with the data wizardTable 1-7 shows the length of time to process specified data by the DataManagement tool in the BMC Software performance lab.

Hardwareenvironment

The performance benchmarks were performed on one Dell PowerEdge 2950 serverconnected to a LAN. The server has one 1.86 Ghz Intel E5320 processor (4 cores),8 GB RAM, and two local hard drives.

Table 1-6: Software environment for performance benchmark lab during transactional data load testing

Server Component Version Running on

A Windows 2003 server Enterprise Edition SP1 Dell PowerEdge 1850A BMC Remedy AR System server 7.0.1 patch 004 Windows 2003 ServerA BMC Remedy ITSM applications 7.0.3 patch 006 Not applicableB Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.6.9-55.ELsmp Dell PowerEdge 1850B Oracle 10 g R2 10.2.0.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Table 1-7: Performance benchmarks for updating company fields on the Incident form(HPD:Help Desk form)

Total number of records Number of affected records Time to complete updates

500,000 250,000 41 seconds

500,000 0 17.6 seconds1,000,000 500,000 2 minutes, 27 seconds1,000,000 250,000 1 minute, 31 seconds1,000,000 0 1 minute, 10 seconds


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Turning on Development Cache ModeTo install the Data Management tool, you must first turn on Development CacheMode.

If you are running the installer on your BMC Remedy ITSM Windows server, youcan skip this procedure because the installer runs this procedure automatically.You can also skip this procedure if you are installing the data load spreadsheetsonly. If you skip this procedure, continue with “Running the Data Managementtool installer” on page 28 .

NOTE After you turn on Development Cache Mode in the following procedure, you mustrestart the BMC Remedy AR System server.

To turn on Development Cache Mode1 Using BMC Remedy User tool, log in to the BMC Remedy AR System server to

which you are importing data.

2 Open the AR System Administration Console.

3 Choose System > General > Server Information.

The Server Information window appears.

4 Click the Configuration tab.

5 Select Development Cache Mode.

6 Click OK.The Server information window closes and the system prompts you to restart theBMC Remedy AR System server.

7 Close BMC Remedy User tool, and then restart the BMC Remedy AR Systemserver.

You can now run the Data Management tool installer.

Running the Data Management tool installerFollow this procedure to install the Data Management tool.

The installer runs only on Windows computers. It can install server components(data load and data wizard), workstation components (data load spreadsheets), or both.

If BMC Remedy ITSM is running on a Windows server, you can run the installeron the server. This means that Developer Cache Mode is turned on and offautomatically.


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Running the Data Management tool installer

If BMC Remedy ITSM is running on a UNIX server, run the installer on a Windowsworkstation. The installer installs components, such as the Data Load Console, toyour BMC Remedy AR System server. It installs other components, such as thedata load spreadsheets, to your workstation.

To install the data load spreadsheets on a Windows workstation, BMCrecommends that you run the installer on your workstation.

NOTE BMC recommends that you back up the database before installing the servercomponents.

To install the Data Management tool1 Run setup.exe .

After the installer loads, the BMC Remedy ITSM Data Management Installer

appears the Welcome screen.NOTE

Depending on your Windows security settings, you might see a Windows SecurityAlert.

2 Click Next.

The End User License Agreement appears.

3 Agree to the terms of the license agreement, and click Next to continue.

4 Accept the default installation location ( C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BMCRemedy ITSM Data Management Tool ) or specify another location. Then, clickNext.

After the tool is configured for your environment, you are prompted to enter BMCRemedy AR System server user inputs. The installer requires this information sothat it can connect to the server and install the necessary DEF and ARX files.

5 Complete the AR System Server User Inputs screen as described in Table 2-1 .Then, click Next.

You are prompted to select the components of BMC Remedy ITSM DataManagement to install.

Table 2-1: BMC Remedy AR System server user inputs

Field Description

UserName Login name of an BMC Remedy AR System administratorPassword Password for the BMC Remedy AR System administrator accountPort Port number, if a port other than the default is requiredServer Name of the server to which you are installing the tool


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Turning off Development Cache Mode

Turning off Development Cache ModeAfter you install the tool, turn off Development Cache Mode.

If you ran the installer on your BMC Remedy ITSM Windows server, you can skipthis procedure because the installer runs this procedure automatically. You canalso skip this procedure if you are installing the data load spreadsheets only.

NOTE After you turn off Development Cache Mode, you must restart the BMC RemedyAR System server.

To turn off Development Cache Mode

1 Using BMC Remedy User tool, log in to the AR System server to which you areimporting data.





5 Clear Development Cache Mode.

6 Click OK.

The Server Information window closes and the system prompts you to restart theBMC Remedy AR System server.

7 Close BMC Remedy User tool, and then restart the BMC Remedy AR Systemserver.

Installing the NextID library fileThe NextID library files are used when you load incidents, problem investigations,known errors, and solutions.

NOTE Skip this procedure if you ran the installer on your Windows server. The installerinstalled the appropriate library file.

Different library files are provided for each operating system, as indicated inTable 2-2 .

Table 2-2: NextID library files

Operating system Library files

IBM® AIX® libNextId.a

HP-UX libNextId.sl


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Configuring performance enhancements

Configuring performance enhancementsIf you are loading over 1,000 records to a form, you will see performanceimprovements by:

Setting the Next Request ID Block Size to 40.

This setting enhances performance when data is imported from the CSV filesinto the staging forms.

Using multi-threading.

Multi-threading allows multiple chunks of data to be processed at the sametime. You can configure multiple threads to be run simultaneously, dependingon how powerful your server is.

Multi-threading is available for the following forms:

People form and the child forms (Work Info, Notification Preferences, CostCenters, People Attributes) Transaction forms (incident and the related forms: incident work info,

reminders, broadcasts, incident financial information, and associations)

IMPORTANT If you configure these performance enhancements, when the Data Managementtool is running validation or promotion, the BMC Remedy AR System serverutilizes 100 percent CPU capacity to achieve maximum throughput. As a result,during validation and promotion the BMC Remedy AR System server is not responsive to other requests.

To configure the tool to use multi-threading, you must perform the followingtasks:

Step 1 Configure the BMC Remedy AR System server information for multi-threading.

Step 2 Configure the CAI:Plugin Registry form.

Step 3 Set the plugin filter API threads.

Setting the Next Request ID Block SizeYou can set this performance enhancement regardless of whether you configuremulti-threading.

To set the Next ID Block Size

1 Using BMC Remedy User tool, log in to the BMC Remedy AR System server towhich you are importing data.





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5 Set the Next Request ID Block Size to 40.

6 If you are configuring the BMC Remedy AR System server for multi-threading,continue with the next procedure, which is on this screen. Otherwise, click OK to

save your settings.

Configuring the BMC Remedy AR System server for multi-threadingTo see performance improvements from multi-threading, you must configureseveral settings for BMC Remedy AR System server information.

To configure the BMC Remedy AR System server for multi-threading

1 If it is not already open, open the Server Information window.

2 Click the Ports and Queues tab.

Figure 2-1: Server Information window— Ports and Queues tab

3 If no private server queue exists, create one by performing the following steps:

a In the Server Queue box, click in the Type column after the last type listed.

b Click in the RPC Prog Number column, and enter a number in the valid rangesfor private serve queues, such as 390626.

The valid ranges are listed in BMC Remedy Administrator help.


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Setting the plugin filter threadsTo see performance improvements from multi-threading, you set the plugin filterthreads.

To set the plugin filter threads1 On the server, open the BMC Remedy AR System configuration file in a text editor.

On a Windows server, the configuration file is ar.cfg . On a UNIX server, the fileis ar.conf.

2 Add the following line to the end:Plugin-Filter-API-Threads: 8 40

3 Save your changes.

4 Restart the AR System server.

Upgrading from a previous version of the DataManagement tool

If you are upgrading to a newer version of the Data Management tool: You can install a newer version of the Data Management tool on the same server

without affecting any customizations you might have made to your forms. Any data will also remain intact. However, if you have customized the Data Management tool workflow, these

customizations will be lost.


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Chapter

3 Completing the spreadsheetsBefore you can import data, you must complete the appropriate data loadspreadsheets.

The following topics are provided : Understanding the spreadsheets (page 38) Populating data in the spreadsheets (page 39)


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Understanding the spreadsheetsThis section provides an overview of the data load spreadsheets. Additionalinstructions are provided within the spreadsheets.

Each workbook contains related spreadsheets. The first tab provides instructionsfor using the spreadsheet. Each of the subsequent tabs corresponds to the form intowhich the data is populated.

Figure 3-1: Example spreadsheet

Column headings provide instructions for completing that column of thespreadsheets according to the following standards:

A green column heading indicates a required field. An orange column heading indicates a field that might be required, depending

on a value set in another column. Text in the first row provides instructions for entering data in the column.


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Populating data in the spreadsheets

The number above each column heading is the database length of the field. Thisnumber corresponds to the number of bytes in the field. For English and othersingle-byte languages, the number of bytes is the same as the number of characters.Double-byte languages use two characters per byte.

Validation on each column indicates if you entered data longer than this maximumallowed length.

NOTE This validation occurs only when you type in the spreadsheet cells. If you bring indata by copying and pasting from another source or by importing data into thespreadsheet, you bypass the validation.

Populating data in the spreadsheetsThis section provides general instructions for populating data in the data loadspreadsheets. To make it easier for you to distribute the spreadsheets to others tocomplete, each spreadsheet includes instructions specific to the spreadsheet.

Are allspreadsheets

required?

If you are updating an existing BMC Remedy IT Service Management (BMCRemedy ITSM) system, for example, loading data for a new department orlocation, some data already exists on your BMC Remedy ITSM system. Do not re-enter data that is already loaded on your system. You must complete spreadsheetsonly for the new data that you are loading.

If you are loading data for a new BMC Remedy ITSM 7.0 system, you might chooseto configure all foundation data through the spreadsheets. To load only theminimum standard configuration, you must complete the required tabs within therequired spreadsheets, which are listed in Table 3-1 .

Table 3-1: Spreadsheets and tabs required to load minimum standard configuration

Requiredspreadsheets

Required tabs Description

Company.xls 01 COM-Company Use this tab to specify companies.Location.xls 01 SIT-Site Use this tab to specify sites.

5 SIT-SiteCompanyAssociation Use this tab to associate each site to a company.Sites are physical locations.

Supportgroup.xls 01 CTM-SupportGroup Use this tab to specify support groups.


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Where do youstart?

Start with spreadsheets that are self-contained and do not have dependencies ondata in other spreadsheets. BMC suggests that you start with Company.xls .

What are thedependencies?

When entering data, be aware that data in one spreadsheet can be dependent upondata that is either entered on another spreadsheet or already loaded in the system.For example, the company field, which is entered on most spreadsheets, mustmatch a company either created in Company.xls or already loaded on the system.These dependencies are noted as instructions in the spreadsheets. Table 3-2 listsdependencies among spreadsheets.

The spreadsheets are listed in the order that the corresponding data is validatedand promoted in the Data Load Console. You might choose to completespreadsheets in this sequence.

People.xls 01 CTM-PeopleTemplate To load support staff, you must use peopletemplates. On this tab you specify the TemplateNames that are referenced on the other tabs.Use other tabs to set the permission groups,support groups, and support group functionalroles for each people template.People templates make it easier to load peoplewho fulfill the same role within a given supportgroup.Even support staff who fulfill a unique rolewithin their support group, however, must berelated to a people template.When you load people, the purpose of this tab isonly to specify the Template Names. The otherfields, such as Company Name, are loaded fromthe 02 CTM-People tab. These other fields,however, are stored in the People Template, andare used when creating individual peoplerecords through the Application Administrationconsole.

02 CTM-People Use this tab to load people.

Note: Do not use data load to load Demo andAppadmin users, because these are existingadministrator accounts.

03 CTM-PeoplePermissionGroups Use this tab to specify the BMC Remedy ITSMapplication permission groups for each peopletemplate.

04 CTM-SupportGroupAssociation Use this tab to specify the support groups foreach people template.

05 CTM-SupportGrpFunctionalRole

Use this tab to specify the support groupfunctional roles for each people template.

Table 3-1: Spreadsheets and tabs required to load minimum standard configuration (Continued)

Requiredspreadsheets

Required tabs Description


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Populating data in the spreadsheets

Foundation data, loaded by the foundation data load spreadsheets, forms thefoundation for all other data in BMC Remedy ITSM. Dependencies amongfoundation data load spreadsheets are shown in Table 3-2 .

Process setup data, loaded by the process setup data load spreadsheets, dependson foundation data.

Transaction data, loaded by the transaction setup data load spreadsheets, dependson foundation data. If you are loading transaction data, make sure that youconsider information in the Transactional-SharedComponents.xls file. Thisspreadsheet includes tabs for shared child forms.

If you are loading task information for change requests, keep in mind the followingpoints:

You can load both task groups and tasks. You can load only one level of task group. This means that a task group can

contain tasks, but cannot contain other task groups. Unless you are loading ad hoc tasks, you must specify the Task Template ID.

Table 3-2: Dependencies among foundation data load spreadsheets

Data entered in thisspreadsheet

Depends on data entered in these spreadsheetsCompany Geography System

SetupPeopleOrg

Location Financials SupportGroup

Catalogs

Company

Geography

Location Yes YesSystemSetup

PeopleOrg YesSupportGroup Yes Yes

Financials YesPeople Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes YesProductCatalog YesOperationalCatalog

Yes

GenericCatalog Yes Yes


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To populate data in the spreadsheet1 Complete the spreadsheets according to the instructions on the Instructions tab

and in the column headings.

All leading and trailing spaces and tab characters are stripped when the data is

imported into staging forms.2 Save the file to the BMC Remedy ITSM Data Management tool directory.

IMPORTANT Leave the tabs in their original order. Deleting, inserting, or changing the order oftabs causes errors when you perform the steps to convert the spreadsheets to CSV(comma-separated value) files.


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Chapter

4 Importing dataAfter the spreadsheet is complete, you must complete the following steps toimport the data. These steps must be performed from the Data Load Console.

Detailed instructions for each step are provided in this chapter.Step 1 Load data from spreadsheets.

Step 2 Validate and promote the data.

When appropriate, you can delete the data from the staging forms.

The following topics are provided : Overview of the Data Load Console (page 44) Loading data from spreadsheets (page 44) Validating and promoting the data (page 48) Deleting data (page 55)


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Overview of the Data Load ConsoleThis section provides an overview of the Data Load Console. Instructions for usingthe console are provided in the following sections.

Use the Data Load Console to load data into BMC Remedy ITSM.

Figure 4-1: Data Load Console

A table lists the staging forms. The default order of these forms in the tablecorresponds to the sequence in which they are processed.

For each form, the table indicates the staging status, whether errors were detected,and the number of records to be promoted. The table refreshes every 10 minutes.During validation and promotion, you can monitor progress by checking whichforms have been validated or promoted.

Loading data from spreadsheetsAfter you populate the data load spreadsheets, you must load the data into dataload staging forms. You must perform this procedure from a computer with thedata load spreadsheets installed.

During this procedure, you convert the spreadsheets into CSV files, and thenimport the CSV files into staging forms.

The table lists stagingforms. The sequencenumber indicates theorder in which formsare validated andpromoted.

Functions providerelated functions.


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Loading data from spreadsheets

To load data from spreadsheets1 Make sure that the following files and directories are all located in the same

directory: Check.bat file Convert.bat file Import.bat file CSVs directory Mappings directory Logs directory

2 Access the Data Load Console.

a Using BMC Remedy User, log in to the BMC Remedy AR System server towhich you are importing data.

b From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configurationtab.

c From the Application Setting list, choose Foundation > Data Management Tool> Data Load Console.

TIP If you are using the Data Load Console in languages other than English, the DataManagement Tool selection does not appear. To change your environment so youcan select it, do one of the following in Remedy User:

Change your locale to use English by selecting Tools > Options and then the Localestab.

Open data load or data wizard console forms directly by selecting File > Open > ObjectList and searching for Data Load Console or Data Wizard Console.

3 For the category, select from Foundation, Process Setup, or Transactional.

The table lists all the staging forms for the category. The staging status is No Datafor all forms that do not yet have data loaded.

4 Click Convert CSV Files.

The Input Parameters window appears.


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5 Enter the parameters, as described in Table 4-1 .

TIP You cannot browse to the path from within the Input Parameters window.However, you can use Microsoft Windows Explorer to browse to the path, andthen cut and paste the path into the Input Parameters window.

6 To start the conversion, click Start.

For each tab in the corresponding data load workbook (such as Company.xls ), theapplication creates a CSV file in the \CSVs directory.

NOTE If the conversion terminates before completing, you might have a blank cell in thefinal column. The final row is required in all spreadsheets.

7 Click Import CSV Files.

The Import Parameters window appears.

8 Enter the parameters, as described in Table 4-2 .

Table 4-1: Input parameters for converting spreadsheets to CSV files

Input parameter Description

MS Excel Path The tool uses Microsoft Excel to convert thespreadsheets. You must specify the path to MicrosoftExcel on your computer.The default path for Microsoft Excel 2003 isC:\Program Files\MicrosoftOffice\OFFICE11 .

Data Management Install Path The tool must be able to find the spreadsheets andsupporting files on your computer. You must specifythe path to which the Data Management tool wasinstalled.The default path is C:\Program Files\BMCSoftware\BMC Remedy ITSM Data Management

Tool .

Table 4-2: Input parameters for importing CSV files

Input parameter Descriptionarimportcmd.exe Path The tool uses AR Import to import the CSV files.

You must specify the path to this executable.The default path is C:\ProgramFiles\AR System\Admin .

Data Management Install Path The value that you entered in step 5 on page 46 .User Password To run the AR Import command, the tool uses the

User ID by which you are currently logged in.Enter the corresponding password.


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Loading data from spreadsheets

9 To import the CSV files, click Start.

Data is imported into staging forms.

NOTE This import process strips all leading and trailing spaces, and all tab charactersfrom the data.

The import process creates a log file in the \Logs directoryfor each CSV file that was imported. The name of the import log corresponds to theCSV file that is imported. For example, for COM-Company.csv , the import log isCOM-Company.log . If a CSV file is missing or has no data, an error message isgenerated in the log file, but the data load utility continues, and loads data for CSVfiles that do exist and have valid data.

10 Examine the log files for error messages.

Error messages indicated in Table 4-3 are benign and can be ignored.

11 If you are using an Oracle database, after loading large amounts of data, run thefollowing SQL command to re-gather Oracle Optimizer Statistics:begindbms_stats.gather_schema_stats(ownname=> '"ARADMIN"' ,cascade=> TRUE,estimate_percent=> null,degree=> null,no_invalidate=> FALSE,granularity=> 'AUTO',method_opt=> 'FOR ALL COLUMNS SIZE AUTO',options=> 'GATHER');end;

External Authentication String If required by the BMC Remedy AR System server,enter the External authentication.

RPC Number If required by the BMC Remedy AR System server,enter the RPC number.

Table 4-2: Input parameters for importing CSV files (Continued)

Input parameter Description

Table 4-3: Benign error messages

Error message Explanation

The Datafile option given does not exist.Cannot import.

The CSV file did not exist. If you did not intendto load data from the corresponding Excelworkbook tab, you can ignore this errormessage.

The Datafile type is not supported.Cannot import.

AR Import generates this error message inresponse to files with a CSV extension. The fileis successfully imported, however.


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Validating and promoting the dataData is initially loaded into staging forms. To validate and promote the data, youmust use the Data Load Console to perform the following tasks:

Step 1 Validate the imported data.

Step 2 Fix errors.

If there are licensing warnings, you must also fix those warnings.

Step 3 Promote validated data from the staging forms into the appropriate BMC RemedyITSM forms.

TIP If you are loading large amounts of data, BMC recommends that you close the Data

Load Console after you start validation or promotion. The table refresh affectsperformance. To check the progress, you can either reopen the Data Load Consoleor run the following SQL query:select DL_STATUS,count(*) rowcnt from CTM_loadpeople group byDL_STATUS

Validating imported dataBefore you can promote the data, you must validate it.

NOTE When you proceed with validation, the max filter setting is temporarily changedto 999999999. The max filters setting is increased to allow for the large number offilters required to process large volumes of data.

This setting is changed back to its original value when validation is complete. BMCrecommends that you note the current value of max filters before proceeding; if theprocedure is halted before it completes, you might need to manually reset thisvalue.

TIP

If you want to run validation again after all data is validated, you get an errormessage stating that there are no records to be validated. If you make a change ona staging form, however, the data can be revalidated.

This situation might occur if you successfully complete validation, but thenrecords are changed on the system that might affect the data being loaded, such asa company being deleted.


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Validating and promoting the data

To validate imported data1 Access the Data Load Console.



c From the Application Setting list, choose Foundation > Data Management Tool> Data Load Console.

2 For the category, select from Foundation, Process Setup, or Transactional.

The table lists all the staging forms for the category. Forms with data that youloaded from the spreadsheets are currently listed with a staging status ofUnvalidated. A staging status of No Data indicates a form that does not have dataloaded from a spreadsheet

3 Click Validate.After you confirm that you want to proceed, validation is performed on allunvalidated data in staging forms. Validated data is revalidated if it appears on thelist below unvalidated data.

When you proceed with validation, the Data Load Status window appears, listingall forms with records to be validated. As the validation proceeds, the statuschanges from Pending to In Progress to Complete.

If you close the Data Load Status window, you can open it by clicking View Status.When the validation is complete, however, this window closes and cannot bereopened.

After validation is completed for a form, its staging status displayed on the DataLoad Console changes to Validated. Validated forms might have errors.

If you validate new people records, the tool validates whether sufficient licensesare available. If the number of licenses available is insufficient, an error messageappears, and the data remains unvalidated. To view details of the licensecompliance check, choose Functions > License Compliance Check.

Fixing validation errors

This section describes how to check and fix errors that are specific to validation.Additional information that is applicable to both validation and promotion isprovided in “Troubleshooting validation and promotion” on page 53 .


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Checking license complianceYou can load people into the system only if you have sufficient licenses. If you donot have enough licenses, an error message is displayed during validation. Toview details of the license compliance check, choose Functions > License

Compliance Check.Figure 4-2: License Compliance Check window

To fix the license compliance, you must either: Add the required licenses. Load people only for whom you have sufficient licenses.


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3 Fix the errors.

You can fix errors directly on the form, or you can fix it in the spreadsheet.

The last column in the spreadsheet is required. If you leave a cell blank in the lastcolumn, a row might be duplicated or missing in the CSV and corresponding

staging form. You must fix this error on the spreadsheet.TIP

Because an error in a form can result in errors in dependent forms, you cansometimes save time by validating the data after fixing errors in one or two forms.

To fix the error on the form

a Make the correction in the form.

b Save the form.

The staging status for the form is reset to Unvalidated. Error_Flag remains set toYes until after you validate the data.

To fix the error in the spreadsheet

a Delete the data.

b Fix the spreadsheet.

c Reconvert the spreadsheet to CSV.

d Reimport the CSV files.

4 Click Validate.

Validation starts with the first staging form marked as Unvalidated or as Validated but with the error flag set to Yes. It continues with the remaining forms insequence. If errors are still detected, you must repeat this procedure until all theerrors are corrected. You cannot promote data while errors remain.

Promoting validated data into the BMC Remedy ITSM formsWhen all the staging forms are validated with no errors detected, you can promotethe data into the BMC Remedy ITSM forms.

To promote validated data

1 Click Promote.

NOTE When you proceed with promotion, the max filter setting is temporarily changedto 999999999. It is changed back to its original value when promotion is complete.

2 Confirm that you want to proceed.

When you proceed, the Data Load Status window appears, listing all forms to bepromoted. As the promotion proceeds, the status changes from Pending to InProgress to Complete.


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Validating and promoting the data

If you close the Data Load Status window, you can open it by clicking View Status.When the promotion is complete, however, this window closes and cannot bereopened.

After data is promoted from a staging form into the BMC Remedy ITSM form, thestaging status displayed on the Data Load Console changes to All Data Promotedand the number of records to promote is reset to 0.

3 If you are using an Oracle database, after promoting large amounts of data, run thefollowing SQL command to regather Oracle Optimizer Statistics:begindbms_stats.gather_schema_stats(ownname=> '"ARADMIN"' ,cascade=> TRUE,estimate_percent=> null,degree=> null,no_invalidate=> FALSE,granularity=> 'AUTO',method_opt=> 'FOR ALL COLUMNS SIZE AUTO',options=> 'GATHER');end;

Troubleshooting validation and promotionTo troubleshoot possible errors in validation and promotion, you can performtasks described in the following sections:

“Monitoring the thread manager for a halted validation or promotion” “Recovering from halted validation or promotion” on page 54 “Checking for errors in validation and promotion” on page 54

Monitoring the thread manager for a halted validation orpromotionWhen you start a validation or promotion, records are added to theDLD:ThreadManager form. At the end of the process, the records are removed.

You can search for records in the DLD:ThreadManager form. If the records are not being added, modified, or removed, the process has halted. Follow the instructions

in “Recovering from halted validation or promotion” on page 54 .NOTE

If you restart the BMC Remedy AR System server before recovering from a haltedvalidation, you see the following error message:Another validate of Promote process is running ... - AL -DLD:DLC:FoundationValidate_102_ValidateOnly.


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Recovering from halted validation or promotionIf either validation or promotion is halted before the operation is complete, anadministrator must:

Reset the maximum number of filters for an operation to the original value. Delete the DLD:ThreadManager records.

To recover from halted validation or promotion1 Reset the maximum number of filters for an operation to the original value.


b Open the AR System Administration Console.

c Choose System > General > Server Information.

The Server Information window appears.d Click the Advanced tab.

e Change the value in the Maximum Filters for an Operation field to the originalvalue, and then click OK.

BMC Remedy AR System is installed with this value set to 200000.

2 Delete the DLD:ThreadManager records.

a Open DLD:ThreadManager.

b Search for all records.

To do this, put % in the RequestID field and click Search.c Select all the records.

d Choose Actions > Delete.

A message asks you to confirm whether to delete the records.

e Click OK.

You can now rerun validation or promotion.

Checking for errors in validation and promotionCheck for errors in validation and promotion in the following places:

The Data Load Console —Errors found on staging forms are flagged. For detailsabout fixing errors, see “Fixing errors on staging forms” on page 51 .s

ARerror.log —This log file lists errors in running validation and promotion. CAI Events form —Search for records with Return Code set to Error. The

comments in Return Message indicate which error occurred.


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Deleting data

Deleting dataAt any point you can delete data from staging forms.

The navigation pane on the left of the Data Load Console provides two functions: Delete Promoted Staging Data —Deletes only promoted data from all staging

forms. Delete All Staging Data —Deletes all data from all staging forms, regardless of

the current status.

You can delete individual records from staging forms, using the same method thatlets you delete individual records in any BMC Remedy AR System form. If youdelete any records from a staging form that has been validated, you must rerun thevalidation before you promote data.

IMPORTANT If you delete all records from a validated staging form, the other forms are listed

as validated on the Data Load Console. You must rerun validation, however, tomake sure that other records on other forms are not dependent on the deletedrecords. If you do not rerun validation, you might receive an error message duringpromotion.


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Chapter

5 Using the data wizard tomodify dataYou can use the data wizard to modify foundation data throughout all applicableBMC Remedy IT Service Management (BMC Remedy ITSM) forms and in

configuration item (CI) records in BMC Atrium Configuration ManagementDatabase (BMC Atrium CMDB).

IMPORTANT Only a user with AR System Administrator permission can use the data wizard.

The following topics are provided : Overview of the data wizard (page 58) Counting records that use the target value in specified fields (page 58) Prerequisites to updating target values (page 61)

Updating target values (page 63) Post-update requirements (page 68) Troubleshooting data wizard counts and updates (page 69)


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Overview of the data wizardSome data, such as company name and site name, cannot be modified on thefoundation configuration forms, because this data is used in records throughout

the BMC Remedy ITSM applications and in BMC Atrium CMDB. For example, thesite name is created on the SIT:Site form, but it can also be used on records on theCTM:People form, HPD:Help Desk form, and on CIs in BMC Atrium CMDB.

You can use the data wizard to modify this data, as it modifies the data in allapplicable BMC Remedy ITSM forms and, where appropriate, in CI records inBMC Atrium CMDB.

Table 5-1 indicates where the data wizard modifies data.

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

If you have records that are not modified by the data wizard, you can modify themin the applicable application. For more information about modifying data fromother applications, see Appendix E, “Modifying foundation data in relatedapplications” .

Counting records that use the target value inspecified fields

Before you modify data, you can use the data wizard to count records that use thetarget value. For example, if you plan to change a site name from “Canada” to“Canadian HQ,” the data wizard can tell you:

All forms that reference the Site Name field How many records on each form contain the target value (“Canada” in the

example)

You can use this information for planning the change.

Table 5-1: Which records are affected by the data wizard

Records modified by data wizard Records not modified by data wizard BMC Remedy ITSM—all forms,

except where noted in “Exclusionsfrom the data wizard” on page 100

BMC Atrium CMDB—CI records inall datasets

Local databases for discovery products thatare stored outside BMC Atrium CMDB

BMC Service Level Management records BMC Service Request Management records BMC Remedy Knowledge Management

records


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Counting records that use the target value in specified fields

To count records that use the target value in specified fields1 Access the data wizard.

a Log in to the BMC Remedy AR System server as an administrator.


c From the Application Setting list, choose Foundation > Data Management Tool> Data Wizard Console.

TIP If you are using the Data Load Console in languages other than English, the DataManagement Tool selection does not appear. To change your environment so youcan select it, do one of the following in Remedy User:

Change your locale to use English by selecting Tools > Options and then the Locales

tab)Open data load or data wizard console forms directly by selecting File > Open > Object

List and searching for “Data Load Console” or “Data Wizard Console .”

The Data Wizard Console is displayed as shown in Figure 5-1 .

Figure 5-1: Data Wizard Console

1 Select the Count target values action.

2 Select the data that you are counting.

You can select any of the following types of data:

Company Name Person Name Login ID Generic Categorization Operational Categorization Product Categorization Product Model / Version Site Name


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Site Information Support Group

When you select the type of data, a window appears, prompting you for the targetvalue.

3 Enter or select the target value.For some types of data, you might specify values for multiple fields. For example,for Product Categorization, you can specify multiple tiers of categorization.

For some types of data, you can specify search criteria to locate the appropriateoriginal value. For example, for Person Name, you can specify the CompanyName.

Figure 5-2: Example of the Data Wizard Console ready to count records for a person name

4 Click Go.

You are prompted to confirm whether to proceed.

When you proceed, the Data Wizard Status window appears, listing forms to be

counted. As the count proceeds, the status changes from Pending to Complete.If you close the Data Wizard Status window, you can open it by clicking ViewStatus. When the count is complete, however, you cannot open this window.


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Prerequisites to updating target values

To view the audit log

The audit log appears all the forms that were checked for records to update.

1 Click View Audit Log.

2 Select the appropriate Count record.

You can also see the results of previous counts.

The Data Administration Action Results tab appears the results of the count in atable. The table lists all forms that reference the data administration type, and thenumber of records for each form that include the target value.

Prerequisites to updating target valuesTo maintain data integrity, you must perform the prerequisite actions described in

Table 5-2 before you use the data wizard to update target values.WARNING

You must perform all actions that apply to your environment. Failure to do so cancompromise data integrity.

To prevent loss of data or to aid in reverting your data back to its original state before using the data wizard, you should back up your database before beginning.

IMPORTANT Data Wizard updates should be run at times when the systems are unavailable forgeneral use, such as a scheduled change windows.

Table 5-2: Prerequisite actions to maintain data integrity

Area Actions to perform

Escalations Disable escalations by performing the following steps:1 Open the AR System Administration Console.2 Choose System > General > Server Information.3 Select Disable escalations.4 Click OK.

5 Close BMC Remedy User, and then restart the BMC RemedyAR System server.ReconciliationEngine

Make sure that reconciliation does not run by performing thefollowing steps:1 Open the BMC Atrium CMDB Console.2 Click the Reconciliation Manager tab.3 In the Job History area, look for active jobs.

If a reconciliation job is currently running, you must wait for it tocomplete before you run the data wizard.

4 If no jobs are active, inactivate currently scheduled jobs.5 Check again for active jobs, to make sure that none were started.


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Coordinating the update of product categorization with BMCdiscovery products

This section provides an example of coordinating updates to productcategorization with BMC discovery products.

You can perform this procedure if you have upgraded from BMC TopologyDiscovery version 1.4 to version 1.5 and want to change from defaultcategorization to best practice categorization. You can modify this procedure for

other updates to product categorization or for BMC Foundation Discovery or BMCConfiguration Discovery.

Discovery products If you have discovery products that populate BMC Atrium CMDB,such as BMC Topology Discovery or BMC ConfigurationDiscovery, you must perform the following steps:1 Stop the discovery products from populating BMC Atrium

CMDB.2 Update the company or other foundation data being changed in

the discovery products as applicable.

Note: The data wizard updates the discovery data sets in BMCAtrium CMDB.

Note: If you are updating product categorization, see the examplein the following section “Coordinating the update of productcategorization with BMC discovery products.”

Distributed ServerOption (DSO)

DSO keeps databases synchronized between two separate BMCRemedy AR System servers. Updates performed by the datawizard do not trigger DSO. Also, you must not allow DSO eventsto update the database while the data wizard is performing anupdate.If you are using DSO, you must perform the following steps:1 Turn off DSO on both servers.2 Run the same data wizard updates on both servers.

If you do not run exactly the same updates on both servers, thedatabases are no longer be synchronized, which results in failedDSO events.

3 Turn DSO back on.

Table 5-2: Prerequisite actions to maintain data integrity (Continued)

Area Actions to perform


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The data wizard updates historical records, such as closed incident and problemrecords. It does not, however, update audits on the form.

When you update records with the data wizard, the Last Modified By and LastModified Date fields are set on main ticketing forms only.

Limitations The data wizard updates records only if the status is Enabled.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 fieldswould not be updated. Only instances of “My Company” in the CompanyName field would be updated.

Qualifications on the Report Console or notification messages. For the BMCService Level Management (BMC SLM) qualification builder forms (such asHPD:HPDSLM:Qualbuilder and CHG:CHGSLM:Qualbuilder), however, allfields are updated except the Saved Qualification Text field.

Data wizard does not allow you to change your own Login ID.

Limitations ofauditing

The data wizard has the following audit limitations: 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 applicationforms.

The Last Modified By field on BMC Remedy ITSM forms is populated with theapplicable Login ID value.

When the data wizard makes updates, it sets the Last Modified By field on mainticketing forms to the Login ID of the person making the update. For otherforms, if the Last Modified By field is the target value, the data wizard sets thefield to the new value.

The log file is not updated when the data wizard is run. This means that the onlyclue available to track what changes the data wizard has made is the namecaptured in the Last Modified By field of a form. However, if a form is furtherupdated after it has been modified by the data wizard, the record of who ran thedata wizard on the particular form is lost.


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8/20/201

bmc remedy it service management 7.0 data management administrator's guide

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