Improved performance, configurability when updating content libraries on-premises
Significant improvements in performance, reliability and resilience have been achieved by modifying the process which updates content libraries within FlexNet Manager Suite. These include the ARL, PURLs, SKU library, and EOSL downloads.
If you are using a Flexera cloud-based instance, this series of improvements behind the scenes means fewer delays in weekend processing around library updates.
If yours is an on-premises implementation, the overall time taken to complete the full update process (which includes file cleanup, download of the latest libraries, and import of those libraries) is reduced typically from around 3-10 hours to less than two hours.
The reliability of the process is also improved by cleaning up old files before downloading and importing the latest libraries. This eliminates errors caused when the task attempted to cleanup file(s) that were still in use.
In addition, all content libraries are now fully downloaded before any are imported into FlexNet Manager Suite. As well, for managed service providers, each Product Use Rights Library downloads once only. The resilience of this process is enhanced by performing up to five retries for any download failure caused by external factors such as transient network issues.
However, it is important to note that if any download fails (despite the retries), then the subsequent import also does not proceed on this occasion. To help with any required troubleshooting, new log files are available.
Content downloads are processed on the batch server (or your equivalent server hosting that functionality), and the path for staging locations for the downloads is now configurable through a registry entry on that server.
If your batch server (or equivalent) cannot access the Internet, so that you are downloading libraries manually, you can now use the batch scheduler commands to control imports of your downloaded libraries. The batch scheduler avoids conflicts and failures by making sure that the underlying executables run only when it is safe to do so.
All details of the configurability, the log files, the download destinations, and the changed calls to the batch scheduler are included in the FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R1 Installation Guide (and repeated in the Upgrade Guide), available through the title page of online help. Look for Populate the Downloadable Libraries for the process when your batch server has access to the Internet, or the following Manual Updates of Library Data topic when Internet access is not available.
FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)
2020 R1