How to create dynamically dataminer elements?

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Hello

What is the best way to create automatically an element in Dataminer that is first introduced in an inventory system?

Load by .csv..?

Thank you.

BR

Bruno Sousa

Marieke Goethals [SLC] [DevOps Catalyst] Selected answer as best 13th July 2023

4 Answers

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Hi Bruno,

If you are looking into managing your inventory in DataMiner you can indeed go with the csv route but if you expect to have an inventory that has changes every so often then you could look into IDP to automate this procedure.

This way if you connect your inventory system we can then detect changes and automatically perform the necessary updates.

See DataMiner Infrastructure Discovery and Provisioning app (IDP) - DataMiner Dojo for more information regarding IDP

Marieke Goethals [SLC] [DevOps Catalyst] Selected answer as best 13th July 2023
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Hi Bruno,

It will be interesting to know how you envision the interaction between DataMiner and your inventory system:

  • Should DataMiner will request data from your inventory system to know what elements should be created? If this is the case:
    • Will DataMiner request information by querying directly a DB?
    • Or your inventory will expose a API that DataMiner can use to request information?
  • Should DataMiner connect to a webhook to receive notifications from the inventory system whenever there is an action to perform on DataMiner (e.g. create an element)?

For these use cases, we will need to build a connector that will interface with your inventory system. For the provisioning, we could have a look at IDP and use the provisioning module to provision/update/remove elements.

If it is not required that DataMiner interacts with your inventory system, I could think of two possible approaches:

  • As Toon suggested, your platform (that interacts with the inventory system) should generate a CSV file with the columns required by DataMiner to successfully provision elements. Keep in mind that CSV file provisioning does not support element removal, i.e. if you remove a row (that represents a provisioned element) from the CSV file, the corresponding element in DataMiner will not be removed.
  • Another option is to use the DataMiner web API. You can enhance your platform (that interact with the inventory system) by using the web API to create/delete elements.
Miguel Obregon [SLC] [DevOps Catalyst] Answered question 29th June 2022
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Hi Bruno,

I wonder if it would be not an option for you to use our IDP APP so that you can discover and create automatically elements in DataMiner. Or do you have an external inventory system that should be used by DataMiner?

Koen Cools [SLC] [DevOps Advocate] Answered question 29th June 2022
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6.25K 3 Comments

If you are starting from a csv, your best bet will probably be to import elements from a csv file.

Likely the help page and Rui's rapid recap (also linked there) will give you the info you need, but I believe the most important thing for importing elements will be to leave the element ID empty, as that is how the import determines it needs to create NEW elements.

Hope that helps.

Bruno Sousa [DevOps Advocate] Posted new comment 29th June 2022
Bruno Sousa [DevOps Advocate] commented

Tom,

Is it possible to have an automation script to automate the csv import?

If so, function should I use?

Thank you.
Toon Casteele [SLC] [DevOps Enabler] commented

I’ve found an example on our internal repository, but I’m not sure how to get it to you as I couldn’t find it immediately on catalog.dataminer.services. Could you reach out to your skyline contact and get him in touch with me? I’ll get a script to you that way.
Bruno Sousa [DevOps Advocate] commented

Toon,

Thank you!

I asked my Skyline support contact to get in touch with you.

BR
Bruno Sousa