Importing assets

In the asset system, asset import involves the import of the following data:

Data for the asset-specific fields

Asset-specific fields are the fields that are specific to the asset type that you select to import.

See Predefined asset types.
Data for the common fields

Common fields are the fields that are common across all the asset types.

See Common fields for all asset types.

To import assets, you must select either a default data collector or a CSV data collector.

Table: How data collectors work in asset import

Selected data collector	How the data collector works
Default	Asset import from default data collector involves the import from the data collection components as well as the CSV data collector. The default data collector gathers the information about the asset-specific fields from the data collection components in the Control Compliance Suite. A data collection component is assigned to the import query internally, depending on the platform for which the asset import should be performed. A separate data collector is assigned to each platform for data collection. The data collection components are, the Windows data collector, the UNIX data collector, the SQL data collector, the Oracle data collector, or the ESM data collector. The default data collector gathers information about the common fields from the CSV. The data for the common fields is imported from the Common platform. You must configure the Common platform with a CSV share to import the data for the common fields of the assets. See Configuring Common platform through CSV settings.
CSV	The CSV data collector gathers the information about the asset-specific fields from a CSV file. The CSV data collector reads from the CSV files that are specific to platforms. You must create different CSV files for different platforms, if you want to import the asset-specific fields data from the CSV file. To know more about configuring the CSV data collector, click on the link: See Configuring the CSV data collector. In addition to the CSV file specific to the platform, you also need the CSV file that is configured for the Common platform to import the information about the common fields. See Configuring Common platform through CSV settings.

Selected data collector

How the data collector works

Default

Asset import from default data collector involves the import from the data collection components as well as the CSV data collector.

The default data collector gathers the information about the asset-specific fields from the data collection components in the Control Compliance Suite.
A data collection component is assigned to the import query internally, depending on the platform for which the asset import should be performed. A separate data collector is assigned to each platform for data collection.

The data collection components are, the Windows data collector, the UNIX data collector, the SQL data collector, the Oracle data collector, or the ESM data collector.
The default data collector gathers information about the common fields from the CSV.
The data for the common fields is imported from the Common platform. You must configure the Common platform with a CSV share to import the data for the common fields of the assets.

See Configuring Common platform through CSV settings.

CSV

The CSV data collector gathers the information about the asset-specific fields from a CSV file.
The CSV data collector reads from the CSV files that are specific to platforms. You must create different CSV files for different platforms, if you want to import the asset-specific fields data from the CSV file.

To know more about configuring the CSV data collector, click on the link:

See Configuring the CSV data collector.
In addition to the CSV file specific to the platform, you also need the CSV file that is configured for the Common platform to import the information about the common fields.

See Configuring Common platform through CSV settings.