Information Structure for Spreadsheet Inventory Imports

The following information is provided about the structure of spreadsheet (.xslx) and comma-separated value (.csv) template files that can be prepared as a data source for importing inventory. The items listed below appear only when relevant to the spreadsheet column, and are suppressed where they do not apply. Four of these items (shown bold) are columns in the following pages, and the remainder are displayed within the Details column.

Below this key is a mapping between:
  • The file name of the downloaded template
  • The prompt in the web interface of IT Asset Management for upload of the completed spreadsheet
  • The topic below that covers this data (topic names are driven by the underlying database schema).
Remember: The template files are fixed format. While adding data to each file, you may not change:
  • The file name
  • The names of columns
  • The number of columns
  • The order of columns.
Item Comment
Column
The name of the column in the spreadsheet template (and uploaded data file).
Important: Some column names are long, and must be wrapped over more than one line in this document. In all cases, the wrapped text should be continuous on a single line without white space in the template column names.
Example values Some sample data, or in some cases the list of supported values. When such a list is present, ensure that each row has a value that is an exact match for one of the available values (except that the validation is case insensitive).
Details

Describes the data required in the spreadsheet column, including many of the indicators described below.
Type

The data type of the contents of the spreadsheet column.
max

For types that have a maximum capacity, the upper limit is provided in parentheses.
Key

The word “Key” appears when a column is a unique key field for data matching between the row of the spreadsheet and the data in the central database table (the destination for the data). Keep in mind that a single spreadsheet may include data destined for multiple database tables; and even within a single database table, it is possible for several database columns to be part of the key. For these reasons, this indicator may appear in several rows in the documentation list.
Nullable

If this indicator is present, the spreadsheet column may be left blank (and the target database entity allows nulls). Be careful about spaces in a cell of your spreadsheet: white space is a valid value, and is not equivalent to a null.
Destination
Where the imported data is eventually saved in the central database for IT Asset Management. This is given with a dot separating the database table and the column name within the table, in the format tableName.columnName. For further details on these database tables and columns, see the other chapters in this volume.
Tip: A single value in the imported spreadsheet may update data in more than one database column. Where that happens, this Destination listing shows the multiple destinations for the individual row.

Mapping templates to topics

The following table relates the template names (and the related prompts in the web interface) to the topics in this section that describe the individual columns within the templates. Templates are listed alphabetically. The naming of the following topics is driven by the related table names in the underlying database schema, so this list helps map the real world presentation to the database.
Tip: Templates are provided in matching pairs of XLSX and CSV files. As these are structurally identical, only the base file name (without an extension) is listed here.
Template file name Web prompt See topic

Cluster

 Cluster evidence ConsolidatedCluster Template
ClusterGroup Cluster group data ConsolidatedClusterGroup Template
ClusterHostAffinityRule Cluster host affinity rule data ConsolidatedClusterHostAffinityRule Template
Computer Computers and VMs ConsolidatedComputer Template
FileEvidence File evidence ConsolidatedFileEvidence Template
InstallerEvidence Installation evidence ConsolidatedInstallerEvidence Template
OracleDatabaseUser Oracle Database user ConsolidatedOracleDatabaseUser Template
RemoteAccessFile Access shown by file evidence ConsolidatedRemoteAccessFile Template
RemoteAccessInstaller Access shown by installer evidence ConsolidatedRemoteAccessInstaller Template
VMPool Virtual machine pool data ConsolidatedVMPool Template
WMIEvidence WMI evidence ConsolidatedWMIEvidence Template