Creating a new data source

The first stage is to set up a new data source. In this stage, you name and define the type of data source you are creating, and decide how you want License Optimizer to handle records that are imported.

To set up a new inventory data source:

1.Click Data Import under Data Management on the menu bar.
The Data Import page appears.

2.Under Import Types, click Inventory.
The Inventory Sources data grid appears.

3.Click + New Inventory.
The Create New Inventory Import page appears, displaying the Data Source section.

4.Enter the Import Name for your new data source.
This is the name that you use to identify it within License Optimizer.

5.In the Inventory Type list, select the audit tool that is the source for the data source.
This sets the default mappings that you configure later in the procedure. A Select your sources section appears.

The Select your sources section includes a Lookup Values column. Some columns in your data import correspond to lookup values that accept only specific values, otherwise the associated record is not imported. For this reason, it is very important that you take care when entering values into these lookup columns. To help with this, the Data Import page enables you to copy the accepted lookup values for a data source to your computer's clipboard, so that you can paste these values into your source file. For more information, see Data Import lookup values.

6.Select the check boxes alongside the file types you want to use.
Depending on which check boxes you select, an Options section may appear that enables you to set further values.

•If you select Hardware File, specify how you want to identify hardware records by selecting the appropriate value in the Identify Hardware by drop-down. Usually, you identify hardware records using a unique ID. However, if a unique ID is not available, License Optimizer can take the name of the OSI and combine it with the Business Unit to identify each item. This prevents License Optimizer from importing duplicate hardware records multiple times.

•If you select Software File, you can use the Parent Hardware Data Source drop-down to specify which data sources you want License Optimizer to use to search for the parent hardware record. Leave this field blank if you want to search all hardware data sources.
Also, select the Create hardware record for software installs with no matching hardware check box if you want to create hardware records for any software records that have no matching hardware record. Software records in License Optimizer must have a related hardware record, so select this option if you want License Optimizer to create a hardware record and link the software record to it. If you do not select this option, License Optimizer ignores software records that it cannot match to a hardware record. Records that have been ignored in this way by the import are reported in the log file.

Select the Import virtual machines when parent is not included in import check box if you want to import virtual machines even if their hosts are not included in the same import.
Take great care when selecting this check box. Licensing metrics often depend on the hardware that the software is installed on (Per Core, Per CPU, and so on), so if this information is missing, your reconciliation for software on these devices could be inaccurate.

7.Click Save.
The data source is saved, and the Select File page appears.

If you want to return to the Data Source page, click Data Source Details.

You can automatically match licenses to contracts during license import by mapping the Contract field on the license record to the Contract Number field on the contract.

Each contract must have a unique Contract Number.

To automatically match licenses to contracts during license import, use the Contract Number and Contract Description columns in the import template that you can download from License Optimizer to specify the contract that a license is linked to.

When you are importing an MLS Transaction Data spreadsheet, the Authorization / Agreement Number column on the Transaction Data worksheet is mapped to the Contract Number, and the Customer Name on Agreement column on the Transaction Data worksheet is mapped to the Contract Description.

When you import a General license spreadsheet, if a license record has:

•no Contract Number specified, it is imported and not linked to a contract

•a Contract Number specified that exists in your system, it is imported and matched to that contract

•a Contract Number specified that does not exist in your system, a new contract is created using the Contract Number and Contract Description and the license is imported and linked to this new contract

When you import an MLS Transaction Data license spreadsheet, if a license record has:

•no Authorization / Agreement Number specified, it is imported and not linked to a contract

•an Authorization / Agreement Number specified that exists in your system, it is imported and matched to that contract

•an Authorization / Agreement Number specified that does not exist in your system, a new contract is created using the Authorization / Agreement Number and Customer Name on Agreement and the license is imported and linked to this new contract

Microsoft provides information about your Microsoft licenses in a spreadsheet called a Microsoft License Statement, or MLS. This spreadsheet includes a number of worksheets, two of which you can use to import your Microsoft licenses from: Transaction Data and License Summary.

Which of these two options you choose to use depends on what you are trying to achieve:

If you import using the MLS Transaction Data License Type, the data is taken from the Transaction Data worksheet in your MLS. This worksheet includes a lot of information, but also includes an entry for each purchase you made. This means that if you bought 50 licenses for Office 2013, then later bought an additional 25 licenses for Office 2013, and then later still bought an upgrade for all 75 Office 2013 licenses to Office 2016, there would be three sets of license data for you to match and work with going forward.

If you import using the MLS License Summary License Type, the data is taken from the License Summary worksheet in your MLS. This worksheet includes much less information, but consolidates all of your license purchases into a single row. This means that for the example given above, instead of there being three sets of license data for you to work with, there is just a single set of 75 Office 2016 licenses. Moreover, this set of 75 Office 2016 licenses definitely correspond to the licenses that Microsoft expects you to have – there is no chance of ambiguity.

The decision you need to make is whether you need all of that additional information from the Transaction Data worksheet and the complexity that goes with it, or whether the much simpler License Summary worksheet, which contains all of the information you need to complete your Microsoft Effective License Position, is sufficient.

The Organisational Data tile on the Data Import page enables you to import business units or locations from a spreadsheet. For more information about business units, see Business units, for more information about locations, see Locations.

Your business units spreadsheet can include the parent business unit for each business unit that you import, so that you can build a business unit structure. You can also specify a Business Unit Code, and a Business Unit Type. Available Business Unit Types are limited to Company, Region, Country, Site, Department, Domain, Room, and Other.

For example, this spreadsheet:

Business Unit Name	Parent Business Unit	Business Unit Type
UK		Country
Bracknell	UK	Site
Daresbury	UK	Site
USA		Country
SLC	USA	Site
New Brighton	USA	Site
Milpitas	USA	Site
Engineering_BRK	Bracknell	Department
Engineering_DRS	Daresbury	Department
Team1	Engineering_BRK	Other

gives the following:

Business Unit and Location imports have to use the Merge import method, which means that you can maintain a spreadsheet of your business units or locations and when you re-import it, changes are merged into the values stored in License Optimizer. If a row in the data source has no parent, it is added at the top level of the business units hierarchy.
In your data import file use Site to indicate business units that you want to appear with the Business Unit Type set to Office/Site on the Business Units page.

Watch a related video (6:08)

The Batch Processing tile on the Data Import page enables you to import a spreadsheet that maps your OSIs to specific business units. The mapping uses the Business Unit Code and the OSI Name, so you can use this method to map your OSIs to business units only if you have specified unique business unit codes for your business units. On the Data Source page, select Business Unit to OSI Mapping in the Batch Processing Type drop-down.

When you have set a business unit to OSI mapping, re-importing the original inventory data source with blank business unit mappings does not reset the existing business unit to OSI mappings, but leaves the mappings that you have previously set.

Watch a related video (6:25)

After you have set up the data source, you need to upload and select the files containing the data that you want to import. You can import either from a single file, or from multiple files. Importing from multiple files is useful when your import data is provided as multiple files. For example, software data may be provided for different business units (Sales, Marketing, Accounting, and so on) or environments (Production, Development, Testing, and so on).

If you chose Ivanti Data Services in the Inventory Type field (or Ivanti Discovery User in the User List Type field for User Lists) on the Data Source page, you do not need to upload a file. Instead, choose Ivanti Discovery API in the Select the file to import from uploaded files drop-down.
For information about setting up connectors in Ivanti Neurons so that you can use Ivanti Data Services or Ivanti Discovery User, see Setting up connectors in the Ivanti Neurons help.

To select a single file to import:

1.On the Choose data sources page, click Select.
The Open dialog appears.

2.Select the data file that you want to import.
The file appears in the Select file box. Click Remove if you selected the wrong file.

3.Click Upload.
The file is uploaded and appears in the Select the file to import from uploaded files drop-down.

4.Click Next.
The Mapping Data page appears.

Importing multiple files

If the data you want to import has been provided in several files, for example from different business units or environments, you can import them together effectively as a single file.

To select multiple files to import:

1.Select and upload in turn each of the files that you want to include in the import.
The files appear in the Select the file to import from uploaded files drop-down.

2.Select the Merge multiple files check box.
The Manage multiple file merge section appears.

3.In the Select the file to import from uploaded files drop-down, select the first file you want to include, then click Select file.
The Preview Data dialog appears for the file, which enables you to preview the data in the selected import file. Arrow buttons at the top of the page enable you to preview additional rows.

4.If your spreadsheet contains multiple worksheets, select the required one in the Select Worksheet drop-down.

5.Set the Start Header Row and Start Data Row, then click Add File.
The file appears in the Manage multiple file merge list.

6.Repeat this for the other files you want to include.

7.Select the Primary check box in the Manage multiple file merge list for the file that is the Primary file.
This file is used as the template for column mapping.

You can create column mappings for secondary files by clicking the associated Create Mapping link in the list to display the Mapping pane where you can create the column mapping for the selected secondary file.

8.Click Next.
The Mapping Data page appears.

After you have uploaded the files that contain your data, you can map the columns in the uploaded files to columns in the License Optimizer database. If your data file was created from a download of the appropriate Inventory Type, the mappings are correctly created for you. You cannot change the mappings for the Ivanti Data Services import type, so the Map File page does not appear for this import type.

The Map File page displays a list showing how each Input File Column from the import files is mapped to a Target Match Column. Select the required value in the drop-down list in the Input File Column to map input data to target fields in License Optimizer. Fields in the Target Match Column column with a red asterisk are mandatory and you must select a Input File Column to map to these columns.

You can leave Target Match Column fields blank if they do not have a suitable match in the Input File data and are not mandatory by selecting Do Not Map Any Input to…).

Above the mapping list are several other fields:

•Select Worksheet – enables you to select the required worksheet if your spreadsheet contains more than one,

•Start Header Row – the header row in the spreadsheet.

•Start Data Row – the first row of the spreadsheet that contains data to import.

•Add/Edit Calculated Columns – displays the Calculated Columns Editor dialog, where you can edit any calculated columns. For more information on Calculated Columns, see Calculated Columns.

•Row – displays the data from subsequent rows of the import file, which can help you to decide on mappings.

•Preview Data – displays the Preview Data page enabling you to see the data in the selected import file using the specified mappings. Select the Ignore Row check box for rows you do not want to import.

•Reset Mappings – discards any mappings you previously set.

When you are happy with the mappings, click Next to display the Settings page.

The Settings page enables you to configure additional settings for the data import.

To configure the settings:

1.In the Import Method drop-down, select how you want the new data to be imported into License Optimizer. You can choose:

•Merge – imports the differences between the current data from the selected data source and the import data sets. Data is inserted, updated, and deleted where needed. If software is manually assigned to an OSI when that OSI record is imported through a merge, the manually assigned software remains unless the OSI itself is deleted. Any manually adjusted fields are deleted unless the Lock To Audit Tool option is cleared (for information on this, see the Main tab section of Editing an OSI).

If you want to overwrite the data in an inventory data source, you need to delete it and then re-create it.

2.Select the Run recognition after import check box if you want recognition to run automatically after an import completes for the data source. If you clear the check box, you must run recognition manually from the Software Teaching page when an import completes. For more information about recognition, see Software Teaching.

3.Select the Run reconciliation after recognition check box if you want to run reconciliation automatically after an import completes for the data source. If you clear the check box, you must run reconciliation manually from the when an import completes. For more information about reconciliation, see Reconciling liabilities with entitlements.

4.If required, in the Email address for notification after import box, type the e-mail address that you want License Optimizer to send a notification e-mail to after an import has completed against the data source.

5.If you want to schedule the import, select the Recurrence Schedule check box.
Schedule controls appear.

6.Configure the schedule as required.

7.Click Save & Test Import.
The data import definition is saved and the import files are validated. The Test Import page appears.

From the Test Import page, you can test the data import that you have configured, commit the test imports, and queue a data import. The test mode completes all the operations of the real import apart from the actual import into the database.

To test the import:

1.From the drop-down list at the top of the page, you can choose to display the data file, the import log file, or the data to be imported.
The data grid updates accordingly.

2.In the Row Limit box, specify the number of rows you want to display in the data grid.

3.Select the Show IDs check box to display the unique identifier values.

4.Select the Include Blank Headers check box if you want to include any blank header columns.
A flag indicates any rows that were ignored in the test import.

5.In the Run box, specify the number of rows you want to use in the test.

6.Select the Commit check box to save the records to the database after the test import process has completed.

7.Click Run Test.
The test runs.

After you have run a test import and reviewed the test import dataset log files, you can queue the import.

To queue the import:

1.Click Queue Import.
Either:

•If you have not set up import scheduling, the import runs immediately.

•If you have set up import scheduling and specified a future start date, License Optimizer schedules the first import to run according to the schedule.

2.Click Cancel Import to abandon the import, or Close to return to the import list.

When an import is running, a message appears in the title bar at the top of the page. Hold your mouse over this message to see more details about the import that is in progress.

The process for importing inventory from the Ivanti Neurons platform has fewer steps.

To import inventory from the Ivanti Neurons platform:

1.On the Data Import page, under Import Types, click Inventory.
The Inventory Sources data grid appears.

2.Click + New Inventory.

The Create New Inventory Import page appears, displaying the Data Source section.

3.Enter the Import Name for your new data source..

4.In the Inventory Type list, select Ivanti Data Services.
A Select your sources section appears.

5.Select Hardware File, Software File, or both, then click Save.
The data source is saved, and the Settings page appears.

6.Select the Run recognition after import and Run reconciliation after recognition check boxes if you want recognition and reconciliation to run automatically after an import completes for the data source. If you clear these check boxes, you must run them manually from the Software Teaching page or Reconciliation page respectively when an import completes. For more information, see Software Teaching and Reconciling liabilities with entitlements.

7.If required, specify an Email address for notification after import, and use the Recurrence Schedule check box to set a schedule.

8.Click Queue Import.
The data import is queued.