Maintaining Hierarchies


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Hierarchies

Hierarchies are arrangements of records in a tree-like structure. Hierarchies create ordered relationships between records and make it easier to locate specific information. For example, a disk-based filing system composed of folders or subdirectories is a hierarchy.

Hierarchies include one or more root nodes and branches. A root node is the base level of a hierarchy. Branches are subsets of root nodes or other branches.

You use hierarchies in Tivoli Service Desk to maintain locations, organizations, asset categories, and connections. For information on maintaining a specific type of hierarchy, see one of the following:

Standard hierarchy maintenance

You may need to change a hierarchy to reflect changes that occur within your company. You can perform the maintenance functions described in this help topic in any hierarchy.

Asset maintenance in hierarchies

In some hierarchy windows, you can maintain the assets associated with items in the hierarchy. See Maintaining Assets in Hierarchies.

Find Item dialog box

You use the Find Item dialog box to locate an item that is present in the database but does not appear in a hierarchy. You can then paste this item into the appropriate place in the hierarchy. For more information, see Finding and pasting an item in a hierarchy.

Tasks

Navigating a hierarchy

You navigate a hierarchy to locate specific information. Start at the root level and select branches of the hierarchy until you locate the information you want.

To locate specific information:

  1. In a hierarchy window, select an item at the root level.
    Result: This exposes the branches (subsets) of the root level item.
  2. Select branches one at a time until you find the required information.
    Tip: Branches that contain other branches are indicated by a plus sign.

Selecting an item in a hierarchy

Selecting an item in a hierarchy means to locate the item and click on it. If you want to edit or view the information for the item, double-click on it.
  1. In a hierarchy window, in the Hierarchy section, locate the item you want to select.
    Tip: See Navigating a hierarchy.
  2. Select the item by clicking on it.

Viewing an item in a hierarchy

View detailed information about a selected item in a hierarchy by selecting it.

To view an item in a hierarchy:

Cutting and pasting an item in a hierarchy

Move items within a hierarchy by cutting an item and pasting it under a different parent item or at the root level of the hierarchy. Cut removes an item and its children from the hierarchy. Paste restores the item and its children in a different location in the hierarchy.

For example, if a company reorganization means that offices in part of the Northern region are now under the supervision of the Central region, you can reflect this change by cutting the appropriate offices from the Northern region and pasting them under the Central region in the hierarchy.

To cut and paste an item:

  1. In a hierarchy window, in the Hierarchy section, select the item you want to cut.
    Tip: See Selecting an item in a hierarchy.
  2. From the Edit menu on the hierarchy window, choose Cut.
    Note: All of the children of the selected item are also cut.
  3. In the Caution dialog box, choose Yes to confirm removing the selected item from the hierarchy.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • To move the selected item under an existing parent, select a parent item and from the Edit menu on the dialog box, choose Paste.
      Result: The selected item appears under the selected parent item in the hierarchy. Click on the pasted item to display its children.
    • To create a new root-level item, from the dialog box Edit menu, choose Paste to Root.
      Result: The selected item appears as a new root-level item. All of its children appear under it.

Copying an item in a hierarchy

When you add items to a hierarchy, there may be times when you realize that the items you are adding are identical, or very similar, to items that already exist in the hierarchy under a different parent.

Copying an item enables you to create a duplicate of a selected item and to paste it to another place in the hierarchy. When you copy an item, all the values associated with that item are copied. Then you need only to modify the values for the new item to reflect any differences between the two items.

Note: A copied item is not linked to the item from which it is copied. Changes you make to a copied item do not affect the original item. To create linked items, see Linking items in a hierarchy.

To copy an item:

  1. In a hierarchy window, in the Hierarchy section, select the item you want to copy.
    Tip: See Selecting an item in a hierarchy.
  2. From the Edit menu on the hierarchy window, choose Copy.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • To place the selected item under an existing parent, select a parent item and then, from the hierarchy window Edit menu, choose Paste.
      Note: You cannot paste a copied item as a child of one of its children.
      Result: The selected item appears under the selected parent item in the hierarchy.
    • To create a new root-level item, from the hierarchy window Edit menu, choose Paste to Root.
      Result: The selected item appears as a new root-level item.
  4. In the hierarchy window, choose Edit.
  5. On the right side of the hierarchy window, make any necessary changes to the copied item.
  6. Choose Save.

Linking items in a hierarchy

Linking creates an item that has more than one parent. When you link an item you create a virtual copy and paste the copy under a different parent or at the root level, creating a link between the parents. Linking an item affects both the item and its children.

For example, suppose you have an asset category called Monitor that you want to use as a child under both the Workstation and Server categories. You can add Monitor under the Workstation category, then link Monitor to the Server category. Monitor would then appear under both Workstation and Server in the category hierarchy.

Note: Linked items appear separately in the hierarchy, but any change you make to a linked item is reflected in all the items to which it is linked.

To link an item:

  1. In a hierarchy window, in the Hierarchy section, select the item you want to link.
    Tip: See Selecting an item in a hierarchy.
  2. From the Edit menu on the hierarchy window, choose Link.
  3. Select an item.
  4. Choose Paste.
    Result: The selected item appears under the selected parent item in the hierarchy. Click on the pasted item to display its children.

Deleting an item in a hierarchy

Deleting an item removes the selected item and its children from the database and the hierarchy.

For example, if a company closes a branch office, you can delete the branch office from the location hierarchy. If there are any child locations, such as departments or rooms, associated with this branch office, you delete them too when you delete the parent location.

Note: Referential integrity constraints prevent you from deleting items associated with assets.

Caution: A deleted item cannot be pasted back into the hierarchy. For information on cutting and pasting, see Cutting and pasting an item in a hierarchy.

  1. In a hierarchy window, in the Hierarchy section, select the item you want to delete.
    Tip: See Selecting an item in a hierarchy.
  2. From the hierarchy window Edit menu, choose Delete.
    Note: All of the children of the selected item are also deleted.
  3. In the Delete Record? dialog box, choose OK to confirm that you want to delete the selected item.
    Result: The selected item and all of its children are removed from the hierarchy and the database.

Finding and pasting an item in a hierarchy

Your database can contain items that were previously cut from a hierarchy, but not deleted from the database. It might also contain items that were added through the Batch Update utility or the CSV File Migration utility. Although these items do not appear in the hierarchy, you can paste them into their appropriate position in a hierarchy. For more information about these utilities, see the Tivoli Asset Management Utilities Guide.

For example, if you use the Batch Update utility to import your organizations from a phone list, database, or spreadsheet, the organizations exist in the database, but are not visible in the hierarchy in the Organizations dialog box. You can paste these organizations into Organization Hierarchy.

To find and paste an item into a hierarchy:

  1. In a hierarchy window, in the Hierarchy section, from the Edit menu, choose Find.
    Result: The Find Item dialog box appears.
  2. In the box to the left of the Find button, type the name of the item or leave it blank to find all items.
    Note: You can use the * (asterisk) and ? (question mark) wildcards. Names are always case-sensitive.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • To include all items, clear the Only items not in hierarchy check box.
    • To include only the items not already in the hierarchy, select the Only items not in hierarchy check box.
  4. Choose Find.
    Result: Items that match your criteria appear in the list in the Find Item dialog box.
  5. Select an item and do one of the following:
    • To verify that this is the correct item, choose View.
      Result: The details of the selected item appear in a View dialog box. Review the information and choose Close.
    • Go to the next step.
  6. Do one of the following:
    • To place the item at the root level, go to the next step.
    • To place the item as a child-level item, in the hierarchical view, select the parent item.
  7. Do one of the following:
    • To place the item at the root level, choose Paste to Root.
    • To place the item as a child-level item under the parent selected in the preceding step, choose Paste.
  8. Do one of the following:
    • To continue to paste items from the list into the hierarchy, start over at step 5.
    • To stop, in the Find Item dialog box, choose Close.

Finding and viewing an item in a hierarchy

Use the Find command to search for an item in a hierarchy or to display a list of items with similar names. Once you have found the item, you can view information about it.

To find and view an item in a hierarchy:

  1. In a hierarchy window, in the Hierarchy section, from the Edit menu, choose Find.
    Result: The Find Item dialog box appears.
  2. In the box to the left of the Find button, type the name of the item or leave it blank to find all items.
    Note: You can use the * (asterisk) and ? (question mark) wildcards. Names are always case-sensitive.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • To include all items, clear the Only items not in hierarchy check box.
    • To include only the items not already in the hierarchy, select the Only items not in hierarchy check box.
  4. Choose Find.
    Result: Items that match your criteria appear in the list in the Find Item dialog box.
  5. Select an item and choose View.
    Result: The details of the selected item appear in a View dialog box. Review the information and choose Close.
  6. Do one of the following:
    • To view another item, repeat step 5.
    • To stop, in the Find Item dialog box, choose Close.

Printing hierarchy information

You print hierarchical views or details of a selected branch in the hierarchy.

To print hierarchy information:

  1. In a hierarchy window, do one of the following:
    • Select a root level item
    • Select a branch of the hierarchy.
  2. Choose Print.
  3. In the Print Choice dialog box, do one of the following:
    • To print a hierarchical view that shows the relationship of the branches of the hierarchy, select View of Hierarchy.
      Note: The listing includes:
      • the selected branch
      • any branches immediately below the selected branch
      • all branches at the same level and above.
    • To print information on only the selected branch, select Details of selected node.
      Note: This prints details about the selected item, such as name, ID, and telephone number.
  4. Choose OK.
  5. In the Report Output Attributes dialog box, select the destination for the output and adjust other parameters. See Choosing report output attributes.
  6. Choose Accept.
    Result: A listing containing information on the hierarchy or selected branch is printed.