FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 (On-Premises)
Registering the beacon sets up its communications to FlexNet Manager Suite.
Complete this process after installing the
inventory beacon software.
Note: If you are installing a hierarchy of
inventory beacons, so
that some 'child' beacons report to 'parent' beacons rather than to the central
application server(s), you must
register them top down through the hierarchy. Parent beacons must be registered
before their children.
As well, for
a parent
inventory beacon, you must choose between:
- Using an IIS web server, or the built-in simplified web server, to
manage communications with downstream devices (whether inventory devices
or child inventory beacons)
- Using Windows authentication, anonymous authentication, or a local
account on the parent inventory beacon to run the web service
managing those communications.
You may implement your choice of web server only after you have registered
this
inventory beacon.
To register an inventory beacon:
-
Run the inventory beacon interface (for example, ).
Tip: Remember that running the inventory beacon
requires an account with administrator privileges.
By default, the
interface should first display the
Parent
connection
page (linked from the
Beacon configuration
group in the navigation bar). Ensure that this page displays.
-
Ensure the Enable parent
connection check box is selected.
This enables the controls in this page.
-
Click Download configuration.
A new window opens in your web browser, pre-populated with the unique
identification (GUID) of this
inventory beacon in the
Unique ID field. (This means that each
inventory beacon must download its own configuration file, and you
cannot share configuration files between
inventory beacons.)
Tip: The URL used by the web browser is the one registered
as part of the installation of the inventory beacon.
-
Does this inventory beacon connect
directly to the central application server(s), or does it report to another inventory beacon in
your hierarchy?
- If this beacon reports to the central application server(s), skip the Parent beacon
field, ensuring that it is empty.
- If this beacon reports to another inventory beacon in
your hierarchy, identify that higher beacon in the Parent
beacon field:
-
If you already know its name, enter (part of) the name in the field;
but if you are not sure, leave the field blank.
-
Click Search.
A fly-down lists the available inventory beacons
(matching your text entry, if you used one).
-
Ensure that the appropriate parent beacon is selected (with the check
box on its left end), and click Select.
The beacon name appears in the Parent
beacon control.
-
In the Name field, add a friendly name by which you
would like to identify this new beacon in future lists in FlexNet Manager Suite.
-
Choose an Upgrade mode for this beacon. You can manage
the future upgrade behavior of each inventory beacon
individually by choosing from:
- Always use the latest version (currently
versionNumber) — Future upgrades (after 2014 R2) to the central
application server(s) also deliver updated inventory beacon software to match. With this option,
that updated FlexNet Beacon software is automatically deployed to
this beacon (wherever it may be in the hierarchy), and it will automatically
update itself at that time. (Notice that this setting overrides any global
limit, for which see the next option.)
- Always use the approved version (currently
versionNumber) — A global limit to
the version of the inventory beacons for production use can
be set in the web interface at , in the Beacon settings section,
by choosing an option for Beacon version approved for
use. (Notice that this global preference can also be set to
Always use the latest version (currently
versionNumber). When that is
selected in the web interface, on inventory beacons, the first two of these choices are identical in effect.)
- Do not upgrade automatically — This
inventory beacon will sit at its current installed
version until you return to this page and change this option.
- Choose a specific version — When you select
this, an additional Specific version control appears.
Use this to choose from the versions available on the central application server.
-
For Configuration status, select
Enabled for normal operation.
Tip: With this control, selecting Disabled
stops the inventory beacon executing the
centrally-determined rules for discovery and
inventory gathering by remote execution or with
installed FlexNet inventory agents. Other beacon functionality,
such as downloading updated rules and settings, collecting and uploading
third-party inventory, Active Directory data, or business information (in
short, any connections defined on the inventory beacon itself),
continue unchanged.
-
Click Download configuration.
-
Use the web browser dialogs to save the configuration file to a convenient
directory on the inventory beacon computer (such as
C:\temp
or the installation folder for the inventory beacon software).
-
Switch to the inventory beacon interface, and in the
same tab, click
Import configuration.
-
Browse to the file you saved in step 9
, and click Open.
The configuration file is loaded, and populates the connection details in the
Parent
connection
page.
-
Does this inventory beacon connect directly to the central
application server (in which case, the Current
parent drop-down shows Application
server), or does it report to another inventory beacon in your hierarchy?
- For a child inventory beacon reporting to another inventory beacon, you must enter the User
Name and Password credentials for the
account you created on the parent that runs the web service managing
uploads/downloads.
- For a top-level inventory beacon that connects directly to the
central application server, the User Name and
Password credentials have been automatically
populated from the configuration file. Do not under any circumstances modify
these values (or any others in this dialog). Should the values become
corrupted, you can repeat this process, being certain to import the new
configuration file (which will contain a different password for the application server).
-
When the configuration details are changed, the inventory beacon runs a background check on the connection, and
displays the results on the page. If there are problems listed, you can address
these and (if required) click Test connection to
retry.
This testing validates the downloaded credentials and the communication
channel. When the connection test displays success, your beacon is registered
and this process is completed.
See
concluding comments below about next steps.
-
If there are errors:
-
Check that your web browser on the inventory beacon
server can still access your central application server, to validate that
the network has not gone down.
-
If the network connection is still good, repeat the Test
connection in the inventory beacon
interface. If the error persists, we have established that it was not a
momentary intermittent problem.
-
Validate that you did not edit the GUID in steps 2-3, and that the
inventory beacon name you created contains only
alphanumeric characters. If either of these problems is possible, repeat
this process from step 2 to create a different configuration file, with
new credentials.
-
Have a system administrator review the beacon log file located in
C:\ProgramData\Flexera Software\Compliance\Logging
to look for further information about the failure. Ask the system
administrator whether there are any network settings (such as proxies)
that prevent a web service accessing a website that a browser is allowed
to access.
-
If the problem is still not resolved, contact Support at Flexera.
Tip: After this registration process, your
inventory beacon knows how to "phone home". To make it
operational, you must now:
- Add the downstream connections from which data is to be collected
(as described in the following topics)
- Ensure that it remains enabled. Operation of each inventory beacon can be enabled/disabled both from the
beacon itself, and from the web interface for FlexNet Manager Suite. By default it is enabled at both ends.
This individual inventory beacon is now configured for
its upstream communications. However, if this inventory beacon is typical, and
either:
- Is a 'parent' inventory beacon through which others are to upload, or
- Is to collect inventory uploaded by installed instances of FlexNet inventory agent, or by the zero footprint inventory collection method (as defined in Gathering FlexNet Inventory, available through the title page of online help)
you must now choose the kind of web server to use on this inventory beacon,
the kind of authentication, and the account credentials to use (if necessary). These
details must be in place before you can repeat the configuration process for any child
inventory beacons that are to connect here; and before any inventory files can
be uploaded. For more details, see Configuring Inventory Collection.
FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)
2020 R2