Registering Configuration Items

There are three ways to get configuration items into the CMDB, in ascending order of scale. Which one you use depends on how many records you are registering and whether they arrive on an ongoing basis.

Manual

Use the + button on the Configuration Items tab to register a configuration item by hand. This is the right choice for one-offs, and for validating that your category and field design works before you load data in bulk. If a required field is missing or the wrong fields are showing, fix the Rule Sets design before going further.

Bulk import

Import configuration items from a CSV or Excel file using the Bulk API. This is the right choice for an initial load, for example a laptop fleet exported from your MDM. Map the file's columns to configuration item fields, and confirm the serial number column is mapped, since serial number is what lets reconciliation match records later.

API and discovery

For ongoing synchronization, use the REST and GraphQL interfaces, or a discovery integration app. Records that arrive this way, from discovery, an integration, an import, or the ingest API, flow through the Reconciliation Queue, which matches each incoming record against your existing configuration items before it lands. That is what keeps a second source from creating a duplicate of a device you already track.

Turn reconciliation on before you connect an ongoing source, so matching is in effect from the first sync. See Getting Started with Reconciliation, and The Reconciliation Queue for how records are matched and resolved.