Data Connector import rule fails to import associations such as Asset Owners, Cost Centers, Departments or Locations
Article ID: 159065
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
When running a Data Connector import rule, assets, such as Users or Computers, are imported. However, the import rule fails to have the asset's associations imported, such as Asset Owners, Cost Centers, Departments or Locations. In the import log, the following errors are seen:
Error: Row <row number> skipped for association <association name>. Lookup using resource key <resource key name> did not find a resource.
The association's column is flagged in red as to where the problem is coming from.
Environment
ITMS 8.x
Cause
The associated assets do not exist already in the database, which will prevents the import rule from making the association to the parent asset type.
Resolution
An import rule only imports one asset type. For example, if this is for Users, it only imports Users. If for Computers, it only imports Computers. Foreign keys and associations are different asset types, such as Asset Owners, Cost Centers, Departments or Locations. These must already exist in the database before they can be associated to other asset types. To spot check this, go to where the associations are located at in the Symantec Management Platform Console and verify that they exist as specified in the data that the customer is using. For example, Departments are located at Manage > Assets > Organizational Types > Department. If the Departments are not here, or they are not spelled exactly as they appear in the customer's data, this will need to be corrected before they can first be used as associations for another asset type in an import rule. Likewise, the parent asset can be edited to see if it actually has the expected association or not. If not, then this again confirms that the import's association failed because the association does not exist.
For example, if Departments are being associated to Users, a data file may look like the following example:
User, Given Name, Surname, Department
Joe Smith, Joe, Smith, Human Resources
In the import rule, the association Department tries to find the existing Department named "Human Resources". If this doesn't exist, whether it is simple not present or is named differently, such as "HR", the association is skipped, but the User is still created or updated. The customer would therefore need to either rename the existing Department in Altiris, or, rename it in the data, so that the association will match exactly what is present.
Depending on what association is needed, there are various ways to bring these in. For example, Departments can be imported from Active Directory or from their own import rule. But the bottom line, is that any association must already exist before the import occurs for their parent asset type.
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