Preface: Gathering FlexNet Inventory

FlexNet Manager Suite 2021 R1 (On-Premises)

Optimizing your software licenses requires that you can balance your purchased license entitlements against consumption of those entitlements. Consumption is calculated by examining hardware and software inventory — details about your computing devices as well as the applications installed (or used) on them.

Inventory can be brought into FlexNet Manager Suite in three main ways:

• Inventory collected by third-party tools can be imported through adapters that normalize the data for use in FlexNet Manager Suite. There are several adapters supplied as standard (for example, see the FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference PDF file, available through the title page of online help), and it is also possible to build custom adapters to import data from other third-party tools (see The Inventory Adapter Studio chapter in the same PDF file).
• Some systems provide APIs that FlexNet Manager Suite can interrogate for inventory information.
• FlexNet Manager Suite also has a "native" ability to collect inventory information, collectively called "FlexNet inventory" to distinguish it from inventory gathered through the other sources.

After an introductory matrix comparing the results you may expect from various sources, the remainder of this document is solely concerned with the third of these methods, the collection of FlexNet inventory.

Learning about FlexNet inventory gathering involves understanding different configurations of the code elements that gather the inventory. As well, where these code elements are deployed influences both the capabilities and the management requirements of the system. In fact, even the methods of deployment can have some influence.

For these reasons, the first chapter summarizes these factors to arrive at a standard nomenclature, used consistently throughout this document. There is also an overview of some key scenarios to help you choose which combination of code elements, deployment location, and deployment method you need.

The following chapters each treat just one of the resulting "cases". Comparable details are provided for each of the cases. The concept here is to simplify your reading. Instead of needing to work out which data point applies to your case, you need read only the one chapter that applies to your case. It contains the relevant data points exclusively for that case. (Since there is considerable overlap between the cases, this makes the document overall rather repetitive. Fortunately, you do not need to read it all. It is a reference work, not a narrative.) Notice further that each case's Details chapter includes topics for:

• The Normal Operation expected for the case — this may help you make your final choice about the method(s) of gathering FlexNet inventory that you will use in your enterprise
• The System Requirements specific to this case
• The Accounts and Privileges required for the case
• The Implementation used for this case (for example, how to deploy the code entities for the case, if deployment is in fact required)
• Troubleshooting comments applicable to the case.

Those chapters are followed by one that covers material that is common to all cases. You may choose topics from the Common: Details chapter selectively, if they apply to your environment.

Finally, there are chapters of reference material covering the command lines for key code elements, and a significant number of preference settings that can control the behavior of those code elements.

But first, we need a clear understanding and nomenclature, covered in the first chapter.