Why can't I use the Asset Unique ID as a Primary Key for Asset Import?
I would have thought that using the Asset ID would be an ideal Primary Key to use when bulk updating/manipulating existing Device Asset records via Asset Import. I mean, isn't the Asset ID the actual primary Primary Key, after all? Am I missing something important here? I find myself faced with the task of having to bulk manipulate about 29,000 Device Asset records (cruft from previous decades) that are in quite a messy state.
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I find that really odd as well. Would be nice to know why we have it if it can't be used. - adunn@pcc.edu 3 years ago
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I think my question is related. Is it possible to do a bulk update of existing asset records (i.e. I want to set a certain field (s) to a new value ). I dont want to create new assets but update the ones that are already there. Is it possible - kiwiblue 3 years ago
Answers (2)
Thanks Hobbsy. Gave myself a swift upper cut and did the right thing so have it working now.
If you have the unique Asset ID in your CSV then you can certainly use it as the primary key, but you would need to create it as an editable field and setup a ticket rule to sync the data. Then at the 3rd stage of the import you get to tick the keys that you want to be primary and the “fake” ID key would be available.
However for most people managing assets using any decent system the Database assigned Asset ID is irrelevant and the key field that matters most is the asset number or serial number that can be scanned or seen, which is not possible with an ID number automatically assigned by a system whenever a new asset is created, if that makes any sense??
