.. _bulk_load_overview:

Bulk Load Overview
------------------

The bulk loader tools enable the quick and easy management of system data
using pre-populated MS Excel formatted spreadsheets. 

A spreadsheet template can be generated by the system for any of the
resources in the system - either from the Admin Portal or the API.

The data on the sheet includes column headers to indicate the hierarchy, 
action, search criteria and attribute names of the model to which the data 
applies. Rows include the data for model individual instances.

.. note::

   To carry out a bulk load, the selected model should allow add operations
   in the Access Profile for the user.

Use a single sheet in the file to manage multiple templates by adding
additional header rows and data under them. A file can include multiple sheets
with a single or multiple templates on each.

When the file is loaded, it can either be processed immediately or scheduled
for a date and time. A scheduled bulk load file is listed on the Schedule list
view as a Single Execution schedule type and with resource type of data/BulkLoad.  
Items on the Schedule list are deleted once the scheduled item has been executed. 
This means that after a scheduled bulk load has been executed, you will no longer 
see it in the list of schedules.

A single parent transaction is created for the entire bulk load. 
Unless a sheet is set to execute rows in parallel, each row in the bulk load sheet 
results in a separate sub-transaction that is executed sequentially and 
synchronously. If a single sub-transaction fails, the bulk load transaction 
continues and does not roll back the preceding sub-transactions.  
In the case where a bulk load sub-transaction has other sub-transactions - 
for example a provisioning workflow with multiple steps - failure in any of 
the steps will cause a roll back of all the steps in the bulk load sub-transaction.

If a sheet is set to process rows in parallel, then by default, 14 rows are 
processed in parallel. Refer to the topic on the bulk load sheet layout for 
more details.

If a file is processed and further files are loaded, they are processed 
in parallel. Thus, bulk load transactions are executed in parallel, as 
with all transactions. Bulk load transactions are executed immediately.

Transactions, once started, cannot be canceled.

.. |VOSS Automate| replace:: VOSS Automate
.. |Unified CM| replace:: Unified CM