Name generation profiles

A name generation profile defines the rules by which the asset tag or device name is formed automatically (Picture 1). Each name generation profile has also a scope to determine the target devices for which the naming profile should be applied to. The idea is to automatically produce asset tags or device names that are based on the properties of an asset. Once created, the generated value is saved to asset configuration item attributes. Naming profiles are listed on 'Administration >System settings > Asset management > Name generation profiles'.

Asset tag generation

Picture 1: In the picture, asset tag is formed from three sections that are hardware category of asset (characters 1-2), location to which the asset has been assigned to (characters 3-4), and asset tag (characters 5-10).

The generated name for asset is based on a name generation profile whose scope matches with the asset. Each profile is given a scope to which the assets are matched. After a matching profile has been found, the sections defined for the profile are interpreted and the value for each section is generated. The section value depends on the rules defined in the section. After each section value has been successfully generated, the asset tag is formed by joining the sections together.

Prioritization of profiles

The used name generation profile for the given asset is determined by the priority and scope of the profile. In the System settings, the profiles are ordered by their priority (1 being the highest). First profile with a matching scope is used for generating the asset tag or device name. Do note that an asset can match multiple profiles. The one with the highest priority is always used.

The scope of the profile can be defined using the attribute classes defined on the profile scope. Each one of the attribute classes can be given multiple values and the assets that match at least one value in each of the defined categories are accepted by the scope. When a location or an organisation is defined in the scope, any child nodes they might have are also included. In addition to defining single items to match, the value of the scope can be a wildcard (*), which matches any value. If no scope attribute classes are defined, the scope matches every single asset.

When Miradore is installed, a default profile is defined. This profile can’t be deleted and it matches all the assets. The priority of this profile will always be the lowest possible.

Sections

The sections are building blocks of asset tag or device name. The value generated by the section is based on the rules of the section. Section is also given a length. Length of a section can be either dynamic or a static value. Dynamic value accepts all generated values with at least one character, while a static value requires exactly the right amount of characters to be generated. Numbering ranges are an exception to this rule. For device name generation profile you can also set a maximum value of section length. For example, if you set 4 as a maximum length of a section, the section length must be 1-4. If the section value exceeds the defined length, the exceeding part of the value is cut out.

Rules

Rules define the value generated by a section. Each rule is given asset properties to match and a value to generate. Like the profile scopes, the rules are matched based on their priorities. The first matching rule generates the value for the section. If no (matching) rules are defined, the section will never generate a value and the whole profile will always generate an error.

Generated values

The section can be one of following value types:

Free text is simply user defined text. When using free texts with static lengths, one has to make sure that the free texts are of correct length. Otherwise the section will generate an error.
Inherited value which is inherited from the asset properties. The inherited value can be one of the following: location short name, organisation short name, hardware category short name or asset serial number. An error is generated when no value is found, or static length is defined and the generated value has incorrect length.
Sequential number is simply a user defined running number. The range is given a starting value, ending value and a value by which to increase the number, length for the range, filler character with which to fill the characters needed to achieve the length. The next assigned number can also be defined. Sequential numbering ranges can be defined for the whole instance, a single profile or it can be defined in MSP console. Sequential numbers will ignore the section length value and always use their defined lengths.

Finally, the asset tag is generated by joining the sections together.

About profiles

Asset tag generation profiles are used to generate new asset tags for assets, whereas the device name generation profiles are used to create new device names for assets. In both cases the generated value is formed based on the properties of an asset.

The scope of an asset tag generation profile can be defined using following attribute classes: Location, Organization and Hardware category, while scope of the device name generation profile can also use "Operating system" and "Device role" attribute classes in order to define the profile scope. An other difference between the profile type is that, you can define a maximum length for a section of device name.

Permissions

Miradore administrators are able to manage existing naming profiles through the system settings and also to create new naming profiles. However, Miradore built-in profiles cannot be modified, because they are used as fallback profiles if any other profile doesn't match to an asset when generating a name.

Errors

An error is created if the name cannot for some reason be generated. The following table describes the errors and reasons for generating that error. Errors and error details can be viewed from the asset form.

Error	Reason
Could not be generated automatically.	The length of the generated value was incorrect. Check that the inherited values exist and that free texts have correct length.
Numbering range full.	The numbering range used is full and no value can be generated.
Duplicate asset tag.	The asset tag generated already exists in the system. Check the naming profile and make sure it can generate unique values. Profiles with sequential numbers defined will always try to create unique tags.
No matching rules.	The asset matched a scope of a profile, but none of the rules in one of the sections match. Check the naming profile and make sure that all assets matching the scope can generate a valid value.
Asset name contains spaces	The generated asset tag contained white spaces. This can be due to for example invalid free texts.
Asset name too long.	The generated asset name cannot be more than 100 characters.