Skip to main content
Documentation - HPE Usage and Analytics

Working with lookups

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF

Lookups are tables of data that you add to HPE Consumption Analytics portal. They generally represent business data that is not part of your cloud usage and cost data. For example, you might add a lookup that maps organizational levels in your company, such as departments to business units.

You can then use SmartTags rules to translate values in your source data based on values in your lookups. For example, your collected usage and cost data might include a Department field, but not a Business Unit field. If you have a lookup that maps your departments to business units, you can create a SmartTags rule to create a Business Unit field and set it to a value based on its Department in the lookup.

When HPE Consumption Analytics portal scans a lookup column for a match, if it finds more than one match it randomly uses one of the matching rows.

For this reason, ensure that the column you search with a SmartTags rule has unique values.

For more information about SmartTags rules and the Set field from lookup action, see SmartTags.

Creating lookups

Lookups are created and managed from the Data page.

To navigate to the Lookups page

  1. Click Data in the left navigation.
    The Data page displays:
    CAP_data_collections_main.png
  2. Click the Lookups tab at the top left of the Data page.

The simplest way to create a lookup is to upload a CSV or Excel file from the customer's data. 

  • You can use tools like RVTools (and others) to create and export a CSV version of the customer's resources to enable mapping them to the business.
  • If you don't have that option available to you, you can export a CSV version of the customer's resources from a report in the HPE Consumption Analytics platform to Excel.

If you don't have an existing CSV file to upload, you can manually create a new lookup in HPE Consumption Analytics portal.  See Creating a lookup table.

Uploading a lookup

If you have an existing CSV file, you can upload that file to create a lookup in HPE Consumption Analytics portal.

Your CSV file can have no more than 20 columns, and can be no larger than 10 MB.

To upload a CSV file as a lookup

  1. On the Lookups page, click the upload icon at top right. 
    The Upload Lookup popup opens:
    CAP_data_collections_lookup_upload_popup.png

  2. Enter a Lookup Name and a Lookup Description.
  3. If the first row of your file should be used as column headers, check the First row contains column headers box.
  4. Click Upload File, and then browse to locate your CSV file:
    Upload CSV to Lookup.png

  5. Click Save.
  6. Your new lookup is added to the list of available lookups, and can now be used by SmartTags rules.

Creating a lookup table

If you don't have an existing CSV file to upload, you can manually create a new lookup in HPE Consumption Analytics portal.

To create a lookup

  1. On the Lookups page, click the + icon.
    A new table displays, with Source and Destination columns:
    CAP_data_collections_lookup_add.png
    • To add a new column, click Add Column.
    • To change the name of a column, click the column header and then enter a new name.
  2. Enter data in each cell by clicking into the cell and then entering a value.
    • If you need more rows, click Add Row to add a row to the bottom of the table.
    • If you want to delete a row, click the trash can icon to the right of the row. 
  3. Click the pencil icon next to the title and enter a title.
  4. Click Save.
    CAP_data_collections_lookup_complete.png
    Your new lookup is added to the list of available lookups, and can now be used by SmartTags rules. For more information about using the Set field from lookup action, see SmartTags rules.

Copying lookups

If you want to create a lookup based on an existing lookup, you can make a copy.

To copy a lookup

  1. On the Data page, click the ellipsis.
  2. In the menu, click the Copy option.
    A copy of the lookup opens in the lookup editor.
    CAP_data_collections_lookup_complete.png

  3. Modify the lookup as needed.
  4. Click the Save icon in the top right corner.
    The Save Lookup popup displays:
    CAP_data_collections_lookup_save.png

  5. Give the lookup a new name and description.
  6. Click Save.