Priority

Priority is an important concept in Data Manager. It occurs in the following locations in the feature:

Data source priority

Data source priority is the relative priority of a data source.

When data sources are reconciled during merging to create Data Manager objects, the data from a high-priority source is selected over the data from a lower-priority source.

Because human error is the cause of most errors in data, data sources that function without human intervention should be prioritized above source data that must be created or maintained manually. After each data source is added, the data source priorities should be reviewed and adjusted according to the following data source priority groups.

Each data source can be categorized into one of four data source priority groups that help to determine the priority assigned to that data source.

Data source priority groups

A data source priority group is a broad category that is used to assess the “trustworthiness” of data sources. There are four suggested groups:

• Dynamic (priority 1) – Data is accurate, timely, and reliable. It is constantly updated through discovery. An example would be SCCM or BigFix.

• Supplementary dynamic (priority 2) – Data on these sources is updated regularly and used to supplement information from dynamic sources. Data sources categorized in this group include Active Directory, antivirus, and inventory sources for mid-range devices.

• Secondary source (priority 3) – Data from these sources is updated dynamically, at times via agents. It is used to augment the existing data in Data Manager, and these sources include virtual devices, configuration management databases (CMDB), and asset management tools.

• Manual (priority 4) – Data is entered manually on a spreadsheet, such as fixed and lease asset registers.

The data source priority is combined with the attribute priority to create the preferred value.

Attribute priority

Attribute priority is the relative priority of an attribute from a particular data source.

As a best practice, attribute priority is only used when known issues from a source require an exception to the existing data source priorities.

For example, if there are known issues with a highly ranked data source that provides poor information for an operating system, you can add an attribute priority and direct the system to use an alternate priority order for this field alone. The attribute priority is combined with the data source priority to create the preferred value.

Preferred value

The preferred value is a single value from a specific data source and attribute that represents the most trustworthy data available.

The preferred value is calculated using the attribute priority, followed by the data source priority.

When an object is created during merging, the preferred values for each attribute become the attributes of that new object.