Record adoption

The EPIC tool manages records that it has imported into xMatters differently than records that have been added to xMatters by another method, such as being created in the xMatters user interface or imported by the User Upload tool. Records that are created by the EPIC tool observe external ownership and field locking rules and are subject to being updated or deleted by mirror-mode sync jobs. For more information about field ownership and locking, see External ownership and locking.

Sometimes a record is added to xMatters before it is added to the source system. When EPIC synchronizes the data from the source system into xMatters it discovers that xMatters already contains a matching record. In this case, EPIC adopts the record and treats it as if it were created by the EPIC tool. The record then observes field ownership and locking rules and can be updated or deleted by subsequent mirror mode updates.

The following records are adopted by EPIC when a matching record is found in xMatters:

  • Users:  matched by user ID
  • Devices: matched by device name
  • Sites: matched by site name

Other records, including Groups and Team Memberships, are not adopted by EPIC.

Example - record adopted

Consider the case where a new employee, Mary McBride, joins the company. She is added to xMatters manually so she can start receiving notifications right away. She is also added to the company human resources (HR) database. When the EPIC process synchronizes the HR database into xMatters, it finds a matching record for Mary McBride and adopts it. The Mary McBride record now observes field ownership and locking rules. When Mary McBride leaves the company, she is deleted from the HR database and the next data synchronization deletes the record from xMatters.

Example - record not adopted

Consider the case where a user, Kelly Clark, is added to xMatters but is not added to the HR database. When the data synchronization is performed, EPIC does not find a matching record for Kelly Clark and does not adopt that record. Subsequent mirror-mode updates do not include a record for Kelly Clark, but the record is not deleted because it was never adopted by EPIC.

Record adoption occurs regardless of whether a field is externally owned. In other words, setting the EXTERNALLY_OWNED flag to N does not prevent EPIC from adopting a record. Once a record has been adopted, it observes field ownership and locking rules.