Snow Inventory Server: Consolidate data from different sources

Title

Starting with version 6.6.0, Snow Inventory Server implements a simplified and cleaned-up logic for merging data from different sources when processing incoming inventory files.

The new logic has been implemented to ensure that the computer data resulting from processing files from different sources remains consistent, regardless of the order in which the files are processed.

Each inventory file contains data for one (and only one) computer, and one computer will be described by data received - over time - from many files.

For the sake of this document, Snow Inventory Server classifies incoming inventory files into two types:

Inventory files generated by Snow Inventory Agent and referred to as Agent-files
Inventory files generated by Snow Integration Manager (SIM) from data received by an external source and referred to as SIM-files

After an inventory file has been processed, the computer data is saved in the Snow Inventory database, and the information about the file type that contributed to the data set is also saved. Therefore, for the sake of this document, the existing computer records in the database are also classified into two types:

Agent-records, when the computer record contains data collected by a Snow Inventory Agent (via an Agent-file)
SIM-records, when the computer record only contains data collected from external data sources (via SIM-files)

Regardless of the record type when it was generated, it is changed to an Agent-record type when an Agent-file is processed and contributes to the computer data.

Processing an inventory file:

When an inventory file is processed, as the first thing the required details for identity resolution are used to find a matching identity in the database. If no identity is found, a new one is created.
The file is processed using the Standard processing logic (described below), except in the case where the incoming inventory file is a SIM-file and a matching identity has been found in the database with an associated computer SIM-record: in this scenario, the Consolidate-data processing logic (described below) is applied.

The processing logic choices, based on the file types and the record types, are summarized in the following table:

	Incoming file type
Existing record type	Agent-file	SIM-file
No record	Standard	Standard
Agent-record	Standard	Consolidate-data
SIM-record	Standard	Standard

Standard processing logic:

When processing an inventory file using the Standard logic, its content is extracted, separated into content groups according to the type of data, and for each content group, a checksum is calculated.
Each content group is processed independently and compared to the one already present in the database for the same computer (if it exists).
If the following criteria are fulfilled, the content group data from the inventory file replaces the one in the database:

The date and time when inventory data in the file was collected is more recent than the date and time when the data in the database was collected
- AND
The checksum calculated for the content group is different than the one stored in the database

The Client content group is treated differently, and the data from the file - if more recent - integrates the data in the database, maintaining the individual data points from the database which are missing in the file.

Consolidate-data processing logic:

When processing an inventory SIM-file using the Consolidate-data logic, the data from the Agent-file already stored in the inventory database is privileged, regardless of when it has been collected.
The data from the incoming inventory SIM-file will only add data or replace existing data that cannot be delivered by an Agent-file. This data is referred to as additional data and is defined in the following content groups:

Pre-recognized Software
- <Software ... IsRecognized="1"... />
- <SoftwareProduct ... />
- <SoftwareProductPvu ... />
Oracle Data
- <OracleDbTechnology ... />
- <OracleFeatureUsageStatistics ... />
- <OracleDbInstances ... />
- <OracleDbPacks ... />
- <OracleDbPacksSummary ... />
- <OracleDbOptions ... />
- <OracleDbOptionsExt ... />
- <OracleDbSessions ... />
- <OracleDbNamedUsers ... />
Datacenter Data
- <DataCenter ... />
- <DataCenterFeature ... />
Virtual Machines
- <VirtualMachines ... />
IBM Data
- <Ibm ... />
- <LparInfo ... />

The other content groups in the SIM-file are ignored.
The processing logic used for the additional data content groups listed above is the same as the Standard processing logic.

The Client content group is treated differently, and the data from the file integrates the data already present in the database, limited to those individual data points which are missing in the database.

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Processing an inventory file:

Standard processing logic:

Consolidate-data processing logic:

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Case id: 00001065