Is there anyway to automate the of changing Device status from Ignored to Active

[bmaudlin]

Hey Guys,

In IT Asset Management, is there any simple way of automating the change of status for a device? Via a Business Adapter for example?

The scenario is when devices go back into stock for leavers/hot swaps etc, we ignore this device and then manual activate when the device appears back online. 

Ideally looking to automate this process...any thoughts?

Ben 

[ChrisG]

Yes, business adapters can certainly be used to change the status on inventory device records. Business adapters can import and make changes to data from a range of data sources that provide structured data, such as databases, spreadsheets or CSV files.

To help people in this forum to provide a more specific description of how that might best be done in your scenario, could you describe the workflow you have in mind for driving status changes a little more? For example - is there some other system that contains details of devices going in and out of stock? Or maybe technicians have a list of devices that go in & out of stock recorded in a file or back of a napkin? How many records would you be looking at updating in one hit?

[bmaudlin]

Hi @ChrisG  👋,

We would be retrieving the device status from the CMDB, which will be in the form of a .csv file.

Ben

[ChrisG]

Perfect. So a typical flow here would look like:

1. Some process extracts data from the CMDB into a CSV file on a regular basis. This file should contain (at a minimum) something to identify each device to be updated (e.g. a name or serial number, assuming those data elements are unique enough for your data set), and details sufficient to be able to determine the status that the device record in FlexNet Manager Suite should have.
2. A business adapter is configured to read data from the CSV file, and use those details to update records in FlexNet Manager Suite.
3. Schedule the business adapter to run on a regular basis, suitably coordinated with the when process to extract CMDB data runs.

[bmaudlin]

Hi @ChrisG ‌‌,👋

Okay understood - I had a feeling that's pretty much how it would work, and we can validate on device name and/or serial number. 

Would we be able to push up the status data from the CMDB via a business adapter and a custom field in IT Asset also?

Ben

[ChrisG]

Yes, a business adapter can be used to set custom property values on asset records too.

The Using FlexNet Business Adapters guide available from docs.flexera.com is a useful reference for learning more about business adapters.