Working with assets in IBM Support Insights

IBM Support Insights is a single source of information for your client's inventory and its diverse components. Using the application, you are able to get information regarding different types of hardware assets ranging from Power machines to VMware devices. You can choose whether to see insights covering all of these or only some of them using the application's various filtering capabilities.

Additionally, you can also see virtual assets and their associated details alongside the hardware ones. By default, the virtual assets are included in your client's inventory's overview display, but you can use the toggle in the beginning of the Inventory management page to switch to viewing only physical machines instead. However, if your client's inventory has been loaded from a contract, as opposed to from a collector (or using a combination of contract and another method) - the default state of the toggle will be off.

Virtual assets are those that are hosted on a physical device, but are set up to run on a separate operating system and function as a separate entity. They have a parent-child association with the machine that they are running on. However, they do not have a coverage of their one, nor do they have associated support cases to them. And while your physical devices generally various related information associated with them - such as coverage, firmware, etc. - virtual machines normally inherit most, but not all, of their characteristics from the physical asset they are set up to run on. In other words, your virtual assets will not impact the views in the application's Case metrics page, nor any other specifically hardware-related insights (such as Inventory management's Coverage and Coverage changes sections, or Call home data).

The assets table only shows the most important properties of all assets. To see details of a specific asset, click on its name in the assets table in order to navigate to its Asset details page.

At the start of the page, you can see the asset's name and any tags that you might have previously applied to the asset. Using the pencil icon, you can add, edit and remove tags. Asset tagging can be used to give user-defined labels to an asset, or to group assets by giving them identical tags and then using the application's filtering options to view all identically tagged assets. Note that tags are individually set per user, therefore however you wish to tag an asset, or a group of assets, will only be visible to you and not other users with access to the same client profile.

On the right-hand side of the start of the page is a button labelled as Request changes. It allows users to submit change requests concerning the specific asset. For details on the available functionalities within that dropdown button, please navigate to the Requesting changes page.

Immediately afterwards is the Edit button which when clicked, opens the edit dialog window outlined in the bulk changing asset properties section. Using the Edit button on the selected asset's page allows you to edit only the specific asset, whereas using the Edit button on the main assets table allows you to simultaneously edit several assets.

Note, editing using the Edit button is only available to users assigned an administrator or updater role for the specific client account. Users assigned a viewer role for the specific client account may only edit the tags of the asset and the Edit button is not accessible to them. Users assigned a viewer role may edit the asset's tags by clicking on the pencil icon next to the asset's name, which then displays the tags edit dialog window outlined in the bulk changing asset properties section.

Overall, the Asset details page shows 4 sections with asset properties:

• The Asset Details section shows the core properties to identify and categorize the asset.
• The Support Status section provides an at-a-glance overview of the support status of an asset, including the number of open support cases, security level, support coverage status, as well as hardware support information and software and firmware levels - all paired with corresponding interface icons allowing for a quicker conclusion for each asset's general status.
• The Asset Properties section contains two tabs and shows custom properties defined by the user, as well as vendor-specific properties - each in their own respective tab.
• Finally, the Customer Information section contains available location data for the specific asset as well as customer-related details regarding the asset.
  • The Custom tab contains the asset's location information.
  • The Installed at tab contains information about which customer (name and number) the asset is installed at and the specific location.
  • The Sold to tab contains information about which customer (name and number) the asset was purchased by.
  • The Bill to tab contains information about which specific customer (name and number) is billed for the asset.

At the end of the page, three tabs are displayed that provide additional details about the asset - Cases, Coverage and Change requests.

The Cases tab is available at the end of the Asset details page. Click on it to show all cases for the specific asset. If there are no cases associated with the asset, a No data available message will be displayed. Optionally, closed cases can be hidden from the view by clicking on the Hide closed cases button in the table's header. You can also export the cases data by clicking on the Export all button or drill into one of the cases by clicking on the Case id in the table. Additionally, you can rearrange the visible columns in the table and you can perform searches within the table.

Note, the Cases table can display only service requests within the time-frame of the selected client's case metrics subscription. If the client is utilizing the Standard case metrics tier - the Cases table on the asset details page will display only support requests from the last 3 months. If the client is utilizing the Premium case metrics tier - the Cases table on the asset details page will display all available support cases.

The Coverage tab is available at the end of the Asset details page. Select it to show available coverage information for an asset. Coverage information consists of the warranty and maintenance status of an asset, as well as the status of all service line items for the support contracts that cover the asset.

For a list of the various available coverage statuses, please refer to the Glossary.

At the beginning of the tab, you can see the Warranty section and whether the asset is under a valid warranty contract, along with the contract's status, start date and end date. If no valid warranty contract is available - no data will be displayed in the section.

Following is the Service line items section of the tab, which displays in a table view all the service items and contracts associated with the specific asset. The view includes both active and future contracts.

Please note, warranty items may have n/a populated in the Contract number column, because warranties are separate coverage entities not necessarily included in a separate contract.

The contract number in the table view is a clickable field. When clicked - it expands the Contracts section located immediately after the Service line items section. In the Contracts section you can find details of the selected contract. If more than one contracts is available - you can view the details of each one separately, by clicking on its number.

Note, IBM Support Insights treats add-on contracts as separate contracts, whereas other systems might display them as part of the contract known as a parent contract. Therefore, if your asset is part of a parent contract, but has recently been made part of an add-on or extension contract as well - the application will only show the most recent contract association of the device, which will be the add-on/extension. Each asset's current and previous contract can be viewed in the application's Changes page, where the asset table contains both the current contract and the previous contract data for the assets, wherever it is available.

The Alerts tab is available at the end of the Asset details page. Select it to show the different alerts associated with the particular asset.

At the beginning of the tab you will see the 4 different alert categories - the Security category is the one selected by default. You can choose a different alert category by clicking on it.

In each of the 4 alert categories you will see only alerts relating to the specific asset in question - in table view. If there are no alerts for the asset in the selected alert category - there will be a no data message in the table. The table itself contains columns pertaining to the alert's priority, risk impact score, name, summary, and the number of assets it affects. The alert's name is a clickable link which will take you to the specific alert in the Risks and recommendations page where you can view further details and all affected assets.

By default, the table is sorted per the values in the risk impact score column - that can be changed by clicking on the header row of a different column per which you wish to sort the table. You can also search within the table using the magnifying glass in its header.

The Change requests tab is available at the end of the Asset details page. Select it to show the change requests associated with the particular asset.

In the tab you can see the total number of change requests submitted against the asset. You can view and manage those change requests within the user permissions you have been granted for the client in question. The change requests tab view matches the Change requests page of the application, and the available actions in the tab are identical to the available actions in the page. The tab view allows you to focus only on the change requests for the particular asset, whereas on the Change requests page you can, depending on your user permissions, see all change requests in the client account.

Go to the Change requests page for details on processing existing change requests, or the Requesting changes page for details on how to submit change requests.

Changing certain asset properties is made possible in order to aid you in better organizing your inventory. To modify the properties of many assets simultaneously, you first need to select the assets that need to be edited. This can be done while you are viewing any of the asset tables in the application's Inventory management section. When you have made your selection using the checkboxes on the left-hand side of the respective table, a toolbar appears, replacing the asset table's header, and the toolbar contains an Edit button.

Note, editing asset properties is only available to users assigned an administrator or updater role for the specific client account. Users assigned a viewer role for the specific client account may only edit the tags of assets. For further details on the available user roles, see the roles section.

Clicking the Edit button opens the property change dialog window. Note that the changes made are only visible within IBM Support Insights - updating assets' properties in the application does not impact the assets' properties elsewhere. The property change dialog window for users assigned an administrator or updater role consists of 3 tabs: Categorization, Geo location and Custom properties.

Note that users assigned a viewer role to the specific client account have access to an edit dialog window consisting only of a Editing asset tags field, and the aforementioned tabs are not displayed to such users.

Note that the Custom properties tab will not be displayed if no custom properties are set for the client account in question. For more details on the custom properties, see the Configurations page. By default, the Categorization tab is displayed in the properties change dialog window.

In all 3 tabs, you can restore the available properties back to their default values using the Restore all defaults button located at the end of the Edit dialog window. If you wish to restore only a particular property back to its default value - you may do so using the reset icon located at the right-hand side of that property's row in the dialog window. Alternatively, if you wish to restore your last saved custom value instead of the default one - you can do so using the X icon which now replaces the restoration icon on the property's row. If no edits have been made to the default value - there will be no icon at the end of the property's row in the dialog.

• On the Categorization tab, you can view and change the Category, Product family, Product id and Vendor of all selected assets simultaneously. You may also assign them a new Priority or modify their Tags. For individual assets, you may also edit the specific item's Asset name.

• The Geo location tab allows you to specify Geography, Country, City and Street address for a set of assets, as well as provides a customer-oriented Location text field (free form text) which may be used to describe specifically where the assets can be found in the respective data center. The Geo location details of an asset are used to place it on the map of the Inventory page.

  Please note, making changes to any values in the Geo location tab is not possible for all and any contract-loaded assets. If you are editing multiple assets simultaneously and one or more of them is contract-sourced - the tab will be disabled.

Please note, for some geographies the City field of the Geo location tab may contain the name of the city as well as a unique identifier, which ties the city to its region/municipality. This allows you to select the correct location for your device in case there are several cities with identical names in the country where the asset it based. The numerical identifier itself does not correspond to a particular administrative code (e.g. zip code), but is in place solely as an ease for matching city-municipality.

• On the Custom properties tab you can edit properties previously defined on the Configurations page.

The Edit dialog window can be closed while being on any of its tabs by either clicking the Save button to apply the changes, or by clicking the Cancel button to discard them.

Another way of simultaneously editing multiple assets does exist within IBM SI. In the application's interface, you will find it as the Bulk update button located in the header of the asset details table on the main Inventory page.

The primary difference between this bulk update method and the multiple assets selection and update method is that the bulk update allows users to input unique values for each of the assets' properties. In other words, assets can be assigned different properties during the update process. Whereas in the aforementioned method - using table selection - all selected assets are assigned the same property values once user changes have been saved.

When you click on the Bulk update button in the Inventory asset details table, the following dialog will be opened:

Here you will find brief instructions on populating the file, as well as the Download template button. Additionally, some field constraints apply to the downloadable file, you may find them below:

• One row of property values corresponds to one asset.
• All property value fields have a limit of maximum 200 character per field, with the following exceptions:
  • Location - 100 characters maximum
  • Machine type - 50 characters maximum
• The Priority field input must contain either a number between 1 and 3 or Unknown.
• The Serial number, Machine type and Model fields are used for identifying the asset - if you try to change them using the template file, the application will recognize the asset as not existing in your inventory and, hence, not apply the requested changes.
• Only the Serial number field is mandatory, but if all other fields are empty - the application will recognize this as an error in the template file (because if you wish to make updates to an asset, they ought to be present in the file).
• If all template fields have been populated, except the Serial number - the system will recognize this as an error in the template file (as the application cannot match the specific asset without a serial number).

Once you have clicked on the download button, the process for saving the template file on your device will be triggered. Once you have downloaded the template, you can familiarize yourself with the instructions to fill it and proceed to do so.

When you have populated the template with the updates you wish to make to your client's inventory - proceed with clicking the Next button located at the end of the bulk update dialog window. You will then be taken to the next page of the dialog, where you can upload your ready template file. You may do so either using the drag-and-drop method or by clicking on the designated area, which will open a pop-up prompting you to locate the file on your device and select it to have it uploaded.

If the template file has been filled in accordance with the instructions - you will then be able to see its name on your screen and the Next button will become active at the end of the dialog window.

However, if there are any issues with how the template file is populated - the application will prompt you which fields are causing the error, after which you need to address and correct the fields in question and re-upload the file.

Only when the template file is filled without errors will the Next button become active. The process of bulk updating assets cannot be completed if the template file is not in the accepted format.

After the template file has been uploaded, you can click on the Next button at the end of the dialog window. This will take to the last step of the process, where the assets from the template are verified.

If the assets update can be completed successfully, you will get a confirmation banner message that the assets can be updated, along with their number. You will also be able to copy the serial numbers of all the assets that can be successfully edited. The Submit button will become active - the dialog window will close once you click on the button, and you will get a brief pop-up banner notifying you that the assets have been successfully updated.

If the assets update cannot be completed successfully, you will get a banner message stating the reason why the action cannot be completed, and the number of assets that cannot be edited. You will also be able to copy the serial numbers of all the assets that can not be edited with the current template. The submission button will be inactive if the template file contains an error.