Data Manager - Data Manager object

The Data Manager object (also known as the Golden Record or Preferred Record) is created during the Import process from the Cleansed Data, where multiple records are reconciled into a single object.

These objects represent the most holistic information about a device or configuration item and contain specific information in the form of Attributes.

The name of the Data Manager object is created from the primary key of the highest-priority data source, while the attributes are created by merging information from all data sources, and selecting the preferred attributes of the object based upon the Data Source Priority and Attribute Priority.

Example:

Assume that there are 5 sources that Data Manager is analyzing: Discovery, AD, antivirus, CMDB, and Lease Asset Register. Each of these sources will contain some fields, attributes, and columns that are common among them, and some that are unique to that source:

• The hostname and the operating system fields can be found across all five of these sources.

• Warranty date is common only to the Lease Asset Register and CMDB sources.

• Installed status or operational status is a field found in CMDBs but not common across Discovery, AD, antivirus, and Lease Registers.

• The Depreciation field is common only to the Lease Register.

Data Manager will perform the following tasks when the Golden Record is created, proceeding from the data source with the highest priority to the one with the lowest priority:

• Verify the priority assigned to the Data Source.

• Pull together all the fields that are mapped.

• Step through the values of each of the mapped fields:

  • If the field value exists on the data source that is assigned with the highest priority, this value will be used for the field in the preferred record.

  • If the field value does not exist or the value is NULL for the data source assigned with the highest priority, Data Manager will use the next populated field value from the data source that has the next highest assigned priority, and so on.

• Move onto the next field in the five data sources that it analyses as it builds the preferred record.

In the example above, the Data Manager object would ultimately have the following preferred attributes and values:

• The hostname and operating system values will be derived from Discovery;

• The warranty date value will be derived from CMDB (as CMDB has a higher priority than Lease Register);

• The installed status value will be derived from CMDB.

• The depreciation value will be derived from the Lease Register.