Skip to main content

Property Importer

Property importers are used to augment existing assets with additional data from another source.

Introduction​

Oftentimes it is the case that several data sources have information on the same assets (e.g. a Hypervisor and a CMDB). In such a case a property importer can be used to augment data from another source to previously imported assets. This allows you to enrich assets with additional properties without creating duplicates.

Asset matching​

Property importers require an Asset Matching configuration to identify which existing assets should receive the additional properties. You need to define how Txture can identify the assets for which properties should be added.

For property importers, only one asset needs to be matched per row.

Match rules​

There are two types of match rules available:

Importer match rule​

The importer match rule matches assets based on their Asset ID from a previous import. You select an asset importer and specify which column in the current data source contains the Asset IDs. Assets imported via the selected importer with matching Asset IDs are selected.

Property match rule​

The property match rule matches assets based on a property value. You select a property and specify which column in the current data source contains the values to match against. Assets where the selected property equals the value in the specified column are selected.

Property mapping​

After matching assets, you define which columns from the data source should be mapped to which properties in Txture.

With a click on + Add mapping you can create a new property mapping. The Input drop-down menu lists all columns shown in the transformed preview and the Target property in Txture drop-down menu lists all properties available in Txture.

Priority​

Txture allows to set a priority for each property. The priority comes into play if several importers have information on the same property. Setting a higher priority will configure Txture to prefer input of this importer over values of other importers. If the higher-rated importers do not provide a value, the values of importers with lower priority will be considered one by one.

A particular case for the priority is the threshold above which importers overwrite manual changes (e.g. from the survey). The default priority for manual changes is 5, but this can be configured in the System Configuration (setting "Priority of Manual Changes").

Propose mapping​

The button Propose Mapping can be used to get suggestions for the mapping. This feature becomes more intelligent if the properties are tagged accordingly. This can be done in the Structure Editor. If no tags are available, a simple string matching is attempted.

Use case example​

Consider a scenario where you have:

  1. An asset importer that imports servers from VMware, including basic information like name and IP address.
  2. A CMDB that contains additional information about the same servers, such as business owner and criticality.

You can use a property importer to:

  1. Match the servers imported from VMware using an importer match rule or property match rule (e.g., matching by server name or IP address).
  2. Map the additional columns from the CMDB (business owner, criticality) to the corresponding properties in Txture.

This way, the server assets in Txture are enriched with information from both data sources.