Data load into an asset management system

• US 8,397,128 B1
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Issued: 03/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Alonzo, Jason Aron, Yee, John Leong, Apte, Umesh Madhav
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US12/432,163
• Time in Patent Office: 1,413 Days
• Field of Search: 714/759, 714/760, 714/755, 714/758, 718/100, 718/101, 718/105, 709/223
• US Class Current: 714/759
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

Asset data is loaded or entered into an asset management system using a Web service or a manual load, or both. The asset data may be discovered using a third-party asset discovery application. As a first loading option, an inbound asynchronous Web service is used to process the discovered data. As a second loading option, exposed tables are used for loading discovered data and processing through a run control. These entry points provide for additional data validation and error handling of invalid data. They provide ways for data to enter the asset management system and can also streamline the data integration, the reconciliation processes, and additionally automatically address or fix specific exceptions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in an asset management system, receiving at a Web service a message to populate a prestaging table;

executing the Web service to load from a discovery database a first asset entry in a first format;

executing the Web service to translate the first asset entry from the first format to a second format;

executing the Web service to store the first asset entry in the second format in the prestaging table; and

comparing data comprising the first asset entry to asset data in a repository, via a reconciliation process to identify exceptions based on one or more business rules;

wherein in response to finding exceptions, the reconciliation process outputs a manage exceptions page to allow user action thereon.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the message has a parent element comprising hardware data.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising:

performing data validation on the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising:

performing data transformation on the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format.

5. The method of claim 1 comprising:

performing error validation on entries of the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format;

for an entry of the prestaging table determined to comprise an error, storing the entry in an error table; and

for an entry of the prestaging table determined not to comprise an error, storing the entry in a staging table.

6. The method of claim 5 comprising:

displaying to a user entries in the error table;

permitting the user to make edits to correct entries in the error table; and

submitting the error table with the corrected entries to the Web service.

7. The method of claim 6 comprising:

executing the Web service on the error table with the corrected entries; and

storing the corrected entries in the staging table.

8. The method of claim 1 comprising:

in the asset management system, permitting interfacing of a custom program between the discovery database and the prestaging table;

executing the custom program to load from the discovery database a second asset entry in the first format;

executing the custom program to translate the second asset entry from the first format to the second format; and

executing the custom program to store the second asset entry in the second format in the prestaging table.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein after executing the Web service, without user intervention, performing error validation on entries of the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format, and

wherein after executing the custom program, only after user intervention, performing error validation on entries of the prestaging table including the second asset entry in the second format.

10. The method of claim 1 comprising:

upon request to the Web service, publishing to a requester a specification comprising services provided by the Web service.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the Web service is executing on a server machine, coupled to a network, and the inboard message is communicated to the Web service over the network using an HTTP protocol.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the Web service is executing on a server machine, coupled to a network, and the inboard message is communicated to the Web service over the network using a SOAP protocol.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the Web service is executing on a server machine, coupled to a network, and the inboard message is communicated to the Web service in a XML format.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing error validation on entries of the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format;

for an entry of the prestaging table determined not to comprise an error, storing the entry in a staging table;

performing at least data validation on data stored in the staging table; and

after the data has been validated, loading the data from the staging table into an application table.

15. An asset management system comprising:

a prestaging data table, residing on a disk of the system, to store first information in a first format;

a Web service interface to the prestaging data table, executing on a server of the system, to accept second information in a second format, different from the first format,

wherein upon a request from a requestor to the Web service over a network connection, the Web service makes available the second format to the requestor over the network connection,

wherein upon receiving second information in the second format, the Web service creates first row-sets compatible with the first format, the row-sets comprising the second information and stores the row-sets in the prestaging data table;

a user-custom program interface to the prestaging data table, through which the prestaging data table accepts and stores third information, initially provided to the user-custom program interface in a third format different from the first format and subsequently converted into second row-sets compatible with the first format;

a load process to perform error validation on entries of the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format;

wherein for an entry of the prestaging table determined not to comprise an error, the load process stores the entry in a staging table;

wherein the load process performs at least data validation on data stored in the staging table and after the data has been validated, loads the data from the staging table into an application table; and

a reconciliation process comparing data in the application table to asset data in a repository, to identify exceptions based on one or more business rules;

wherein in response to finding exceptions, the reconciliation process outputs a manage exceptions page to allow user action thereon.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the Web service does not make available the first format to the requestor.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the second information comprises information technology assets gathered by automated network discovery, each of the information technology assets being physically connected to a data network.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the second format is the same as the third format.

19. The system of claim 15 comprising:

a run control page interface, wherein upon storing of a plurality of the first row-sets in the prestaging data table, via the run control page interface, initiating an error checking process on the first row-sets without user intervention, and upon storing of a plurality of the second row-sets in the prestaging data table, not initiating the error checking process on the second row-sets until initiated by a user.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the run control page interface is accessible by the user from a terminal, remote from a machine comprising the disk where the prestaging data table resides, and a first graphical user interface screen provided by run control page interface comprises:

a run button through which the user can select to indicate starting of the error checking process;

a text box through which the user can input a batch identifier representative of the second row-set; and

a streamline batch process option which when not selected, upon detecting errors during the error check process, allowing the user to correct each error, and when selected, upon detecting errors during the error check process, automatically correcting at least one of the errors without user intervention.

21. The system of claim 15 wherein the second format is an XML format.

22. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising software stored in memory, the software comprising instructions to one or more processors for execution, the instructions comprising:

instructions to receive at a Web service a message to populate a prestaging table;

instructions to execute the Web service to load from a discovery database a first asset entry in a first format;

instructions to execute the Web service to translate the first asset entry from the first format to a second format;

instructions to execute the Web service to store the first asset entry in the second format in the prestaging table; and

instructions to compare data comprising the first asset entry to asset data in a repository, via a reconciliation process to identify exceptions based on one or more business rules;

instructions responsive to finding exceptions, to the reconciliation process to output a manage exceptions page to allow user action thereon.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22 wherein the software comprises additional instructions to:

perform error validation on entries of the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format;

for an entry of the prestaging table determined not to comprise an error, store the entry in a staging table;

perform at least data validation on data stored in the staging table; and

after the data has been validated, load the data from the staging table into an application table.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22 wherein the software comprises additional instructions to:

perform error validation on entries of the prestaging table including the first asset entry in the second format;

for an entry of the prestaging table determined to comprise an error, store the entry in an error table; and

for an entry of the prestaging table determined not to comprise an error, store the entry in a staging table.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22 wherein the prestaging data table is a first prestaging data table comprising hardware information technology assets and wherein the software comprises additional instructions to use:

a second prestaging data table, comprising software information technology assets, wherein the second prestaging data table resides on a disk.