implementing Hardware Asset Management - role allocation

[sbh]

How have you set up Hardware Asset Management? I can't seem to find the documentation I need, which tells me we may be taking the wrong approach. 

To start with, I've granted the following roles to our Helpdesk Manager, who will be managing Asset Management, and to a contractor who will be setting up our current inventory:

• asset
• ham_admin
• inventory_admin

Two questions have come up:

1. They can't add manufacturers. Neither can I, and I have the admin role. Are manufacturers only added through normalization?
2. This one's a larger question, and where we may be making some incorrect assumptions. They want to import a template and a large number of assets and don't have import permissions. And our Helpdesk Manager will want to import multiple spreadsheets when large orders come in. After some discussion (about the broader implications of giving them the ability to import files, and about license limitations on tables - though I think we'd be OK if they keep reusing the same import table with different data sources), we granted them the import_admin role in dev only. They still can't import files. Is there a better way to handle this? Should large orders be processed using grouped bar-code scanning, rather than importing spreadsheets? Do they have to have some version of the admin role in order to import files? Should I create a custom role that allows them to import files only to the Asset Management application (and/or maybe limit them to specific import row sets)?

Adding manufacturers and inputting/importing new hardware assets must be common processes used in Hardware Asset Management. So I figure there must be some basic, widely-used solutions.

Thank you in advance for any help!

[Muralidharan BS]

Hi @sbh ,

I checked this table sn_hamp_hw_manufacturer, this is referenced in the custom hardware product table and it is synced with the core_company field in the same table. Also, there is an ACL where you can enable admin override which will allow creating a new entries. I am not sure why this table is used may be for content service. 

[sbh]

Hi @Muralidharan BS ,

I'm OK with only being able to update the company field of the sn_hamp_hw_manufacturer table; it seems it's supposed to work that way. But one ACL says people with the sn_vlm.vendor_admin role should be able to create records on core_company, and the consultant has that role, yet can't create companies. I can, but I'm not giving the consultant the admin role just for that. And, according to the ACL, I shouldn't have to.

It may be just because I'm new to HAM but the documentation on it does not address my questions. I'm very glad you're willing to - thank you very much!

[sbh]

Well, this is embarrassing. The consultant only had the sn_vlm.vendor_manager role and the sn_vlm.vendor_admin (or user_admin) role is required to create records on core company. I've corrected that and he can create company records now.

[sbh]

Hi @Muralidharan BS ,

It's just as you said for the hardware manufacturers. After trying all kinds of things to make it work, I finally checked the ACLs. No one, not even admins, can create records on the Hardware Manufacturers table [sn_hamp_hw_manufacturer] - except that those with the ham_admin role can 'create' the company field on that table, which is a reference to the core_company table you mentioned. And, just as you said, those with a user_admin or sn_vlm.vendor_manager are supposed to be able to create records on the core_company table. But I still can't get that to work. Is it possible that hardware manufacturers are created when the daily normalization scheduled job runs? If so, does that job need the company name or can it create the manufacturer from the model number?

There's a ton of documentation available on HAM; I just can't find what I need yet. I really appreciate what you've told me - it gives me a great head start. Thank you!!