Hierarchical area lists do not update after pdm_userload in CA Service Desk Manager

Products

CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager CA Service Desk Manager ServiceDesk

Issue/Introduction

After running the pdm_userload utility with the "-m" option in CA Service Desk Manager to import hierarchical area records, the new entries fail to appear in the application web interface. Updating the static list fails to reflect the newly loaded data.

Steps to reproduce:

In the Administrator tab, navigate to Service Desk -> Areas and add a new area for "Email1"
In the Service Desk tab, select File -> New Incident. Click on the Incident Area link to view the Areas list and see that both Email and Email1 are there.

In a command prompt window execute this command

pdm_extract -f "select * from Prob_Category where sym like 'Email%'" > Email.txt

Edit the resulting Email.txt with Notepad. 2 records are returned. For both records, change the id to a a new number, change the pcat to the same number, change description, ss_sym, and sym to a new value. Save and close the file.
In the command prompt window execute this command:
```
pdm_userload -m -v -f Email.txt
```
Back in the Service Desk UI, in the Service Desk tab, select File -> New Incident. Click on the Incident Area link to view the Areas list and see that the new areas created by editing the file in notepad are not there.
Edit the Email.txt again with Notepad. For both records, change the id to a a new number, change the pcat to the same number, change description, ss_sym, and sym to a new value. Save and close the file.
In the command prompt window execute this command:
```
pdm_userload -v -f Email.txt
```
Back in the Service Desk UI, in the Service Desk tab, select File -> New Incident. Click on the Incident Area link to view the Areas list and see that the new areas created by editing the file in notepad have now been added.

Environment

Service Desk v17.x and higher

Resolution

The pdm_userload utility writes directly to the database via the Database Agent, bypassing the domsrvr (Object Manager). To optimize performance, domsrvr maintains a static cache for reference data, such as categories, priorities, and areas.

When the -m switch is used with pdm_userload, the application suppresses cache update notifications. Consequently, domsrvr does not refresh the static cache for these lookup lists.

To resolve this behavior, choose one of the following methods:

Restart Service Desk Manager Services: Restarting the services forces domsrvr to reload the static cache, making the new records visible in the web interface.
Manual Entry: For smaller updates, add new areas directly through the web interface. This ensures immediate availability without requiring a service restart.
Omit the -m switch: If service restarts are not feasible and bulk loading is required, omitting the -m switch triggers individual update notifications to domsrvr. Note that this approach is less efficient for large data volumes.

Note: For any use of pdm_load or pdm_userload, it is always wise to backup the database, or at a minimum backup the table being updated. This way if a problem was encountered, the change can be rolled back.

Additional Information

This behavior is expected system architecture for handling static (reference) data versus dynamic (transactional) data.