Bulk Deleting Assets

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

There are two ways to mark assets for bulk deletion:

• From the All Assets page
• Using the Business Adapter

Note: The maximum number of objects you can delete in one operation is 1,000.

To perform bulk deletion, a new toggle setting called SoftDeleteEnabled must be enabled. This setting allows soft delete (bulk deletion). Currently, Flexera enables this setting on behalf of customers. Another setting, SoftDeleteRecordThreshold, controls when soft delete is triggered. Its default value is 50.

How deletion works in the UI

On the All Assets page, two delete options exist:

- Original Delete button

- Soft delete (bulk deletion)

If the number of selected rows meets or exceeds the threshold (50), the system performs a soft delete. If fewer rows are selected, the system performs the original delete.

For small deletions (for example, 1–2 rows), use the original delete button. Soft delete is intended for customers deleting large numbers of records.

Deletion occurs as part of the reconciliation process. At the start of reconciliation, bulk deletion runs first. Records marked for deletion are processed in batches of 100 from the BulkDeletionData table. If bulk deletion cannot finish within the reconciliation window, any remaining records are skipped and processed during the next reconciliation. This ensures reconciliation time is not negatively impacted. Errors during bulk deletion do not affect reconciliation; the process skips bulk deletion and completes normally.

Logs and monitoring

Bulk deletion details are recorded in the reconciliation log, located at C:/ProgramData/Flexera Software/Compliance/Logging/BatchProcessTask. Business Adapter imports create a BatchProcessTask folder within the same directory.

Additional logs, such as AssetLog and PurchaseOrderLog, indicate when items were marked for deletion and provide the count of items affected.

BulkDeletionData table

This table contains all records marked for deletion and stores the following information:

• ObjectTypeID (foreign key referencing BulkDeletionObjectType):
  • 1 = Asset
  • 2 = PurchaseOrderDetail
• ObjectToBeDeletedIDID of the actual object (for example, AssetID or PurchaseOrderDetailID)
• MarkedBy: User who marked the item for deletion
• DateAdded: When the object was marked for bulk deletion
• DateDeleted: When the object was deleted during reconciliation

Note: Records remain in BulkDeletionData even after deletion.

Bulk deleting from the All Assets page

To perform bulk deletion:

1. Select records meeting or exceeding the threshold (default: 50).
2. Click the Delete button, confirm with OK.
3. Selected records are added to BulkDeletionData.

After performing these steps, a UI notification displays stating: “The selected assets met or exceeded the soft delete threshold; hence, a soft delete was performed.”

Records selected for bulk deletion remain visible in the UI with the label “Marked for Deletion” until reconciliation deletes them.

Bulk Deleting Using the Business Adapter

You can also mark records for deletion using the Business Adapter. To do this, include the ismarkedfordeletion column in your Asset CSV. This column accepts values in the form of TRUE or FALSE, Yes or No, or 1 or 0, and these values are stored in the BulkDeletionData table when marked as TRUE, Yes or 1. The data you want to mark for deletion must already exist in IT Asset Management.

Similar to bulk deletion in the UI, you will still see all records marked for deletion displayed in the interface, appended with the text “Marked for Deletion”. The actual deletion of these records occurs during reconciliation. For more information on how to use the Business Adapter, see Using FlexNet Business Adapters.