If you want to set attributes or custom information for a larger number of agents or software products without having to do so by visiting each asset individually, and setting the desired attributes or custom information, Analytics has a functionality to assign attributes to a number of assets in one go.
Please note that all functionality described below necessitates that the user account has been granted permission to modify asset properties.
For software products
Attributes that can be assigned en masse are:
- Approval state
- Information on whether licensing is needed
- Information on whether software is required
- Lifecycle state
- Business owner
- Technical owner
- Classification
You can assign software attributes both at the general product level (e.g. all products having just the name "7-Zip"), or at the level of individual product version (e.g. all products having the name "7-Zip" and version "19.05"). Optionally, a product vendor name can be specified to narrow down potentially identical products.
For agent devices
Attributes that can be assigned en masse are:
- Asset tag
- Purchase date
Steps to assign attributes to multiple assets
You can access mass operations for attribute assignments from the Settings screen, under the individual environment's settings, by selecting Bulk operations:
Once in the bulk operations screen, follow the steps below for assigning multiple attributes for multiple software products:
- First, you have to create a CSV (comma-separated values) file to import to Analytics, which lists all eligible software products or agent devices to assign attributes to, and all the needed attributes specific to that asset type.
The CSV file must be saved in UTF8 format and contain columns separated by commas (,) or semicolons (;). You can double-quote ("") each column if it contains the separator character. Columns must appear in a specific order; please refer to the sample CSV files attached to this article for both software and device attributes.
CSV for software products
Up to 10 columns (four at minimum) that must be present in the CSV file for the software products are:
- software product's name, this is used for matching to existing software in your environment
- software product's version, this is used alongside with name for matching to existing software in your environment - this column is optional, leave empty to match all products having name defined in column 1
- software product's vendor, this is used alongside with name (and version) for matching to existing software in your environment - this column is optional, leave empty to match all products having name (and version) defined in columns 1 & 2
- approval status to set for matching software product, valid values are:
- Approved
- Unapproved
- Unknown
- (optional) is license needed -status to set for matching software product, valid values are:
- true
- false
- (optional) is required -status to set for matching software product, valid values are:
- true
- false
- (optional) lifecycle status to set for matching software product, valid values are:
- Discovered
- Testing
- Piloting
- In production
- Retired
- (optional) business owner to set for matching software product, this can be any arbitrary text string
- (optional) technical owner to set for matching software product, this can be any arbitrary text string
- (optional) classification to set for matching software product, this can be any arbitrary text string
Any attribute column left empty signifies that the attribute in question won't be modified.
An example would be: "Adobe Photoshop 2025";;Adobe;Approved;TRUE;FALSE;In production;John Doe;Jane Doe;Marketing tools
Please note that if the software product does not match any products currently in your Analytics environment, this attribute assignment will not be applied if such a matching software product happens to appear in the environment later on!
You can download an example CSV file for software attribute assignment as an attachment to this article, which contains the correct encoding and fields. Please note that this example file has a header row as a reference to the meaning of each field; you may omit the header row for your own import file.
CSV for agent devices
Up to three columns (two at minimum) that must be present in the CSV file for the agent devices are:
- device host name, this is used for matching to existing agent in your environment
- asset tag, this can be any arbitrary text string
- (optional) purchase date, valid values are date in the following format: year-month-day (e.g. 2025-01-01)
Any attribute column left empty signifies that the attribute in question won't be modified.
An example would be: "demo-123;XYZ-123;2020-12-24
Please note that if the device name does not match any agents currently in your Analytics environment, this attribute assignment will not be applied if such a matching agent device happens to appear in the environment later on!
You can download an example CSV file for device attribute assignment as an attachment to this article, which contains the correct encoding and fields. Please note that this example file has a header row as a reference to the meaning of each field; you may omit the header row for your own import file.
- Once you have a CSV file ready, you can import it for processing using the Upload software attributes import file or the Upload device attributes import file buttons on the Bulk Operations page, depending on which type of asset you are assigning attributes to.
If you have a large number of products or agents in your environment, processing and matching may take a while, please be patient.
No assignments of attributes will be done during this phase! Analytics will show you a preview of assignment operations to be performed and ask for confirmation before actually doing any mass operation.
Please note that any software products or devices for which a match could not be found are simply skipped.
- After you have reviewed that bulk assignment operation is what is intended, you can press Confirm -button to start import. Again, if there is a large number of assets to process, this may take a while to complete.
- After attribute assignment has been done, you will be notified of the bulk operation's result.
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