Grloader model field not updating

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to create/update a CI via grloader, the specified model name is not matched as anticipated.  The load file mentions a model and manufacturer, and the expectation is that the model name should be ignored if there are no exact matches.  Behaviour is seen for certain CI entries

Environment

Release:  All releases
CA Service Desk Manager

Cause

By design of grloader, the model name match is not designed to perform an exact match.  It will always try for a near match.  This functionality applies regardless of the CI Asset Family defined.  Server based CI's will show the same behaviour as Workstation based CI's.

Resolution

Model matching relies also on the specified manufacturer.  

Example:  The load file contains an entry such as this:

Entry 1:
model: "Model1" 
Manufacturer:  "Company1"

Entry 2:
model: "Model1" 
Manufacturer:  "Company2"

Within the CMDB, there is a model "Model1 ABC" and manufacturer associated :Company1.

In this scenario, Entry 1 will match to the above model defined in CMDB as a close match.  There is no setting to adjust grloader to allow exact matching behaviour only.  However, Entry 2 will not be assigned the above model defined in CMDB due to the manufacturer not matching.

Additional Information

See also KB Article 14559 on how grloader handles model names.