Imported VMs and Hosts

FlexNet Manager Suite 2021 R1 (On-Premises)

The ImportedVirtualMachine table is a staging table used for input of virtual machine records, including their host server. From here, de-duplicated and normalized records of the VM properties are merged into the VirtualMachine table; and if not already present, records for both the VM and the host are added to the ComplianceComputer table.

Tip: This data is in addition to the inventory imported for the virtual machine (and, separately, its host) and imported as part of the inventory device records. For details, see Imported Computers (Inventory Devices).
There are two listings below. The first maps what is imported from Data Platform v5. The second lists values that FlexNet Manager Suite expects to load into the ImportedVirtualMachine table, that are not available from Data Platform v5, and the impact of these gaps on license reconciliation calculations where these rely on data from only this source.

Data mapping for imported virtualization records

The following listing matches the source data from Data Platform v5 with the equivalent column in the ImportedVirtualMachine table. Other columns from the ImportedVirtualMachine table cannot be populated from Data Platform v5, and so are omitted here (and shown below). For more details on the database tables and columns within FlexNet Manager Suite, please see the FlexNet Manager Suite Schema Reference PDF, available through the title page of online help.

Data Platform (Table)/Column FNMS (Table)/Column Notes

Fabricated from:

(MATCH_TASK_DET) / PROCESS_ID

(MATCH_TASK_DET) / TASK_NAME and the checksum for the same

(DISC_VIRTUAL_HOSTGUEST) / HOST_ID

(ImportedVirtualMachine) / HostComputerID
The format is of this form (shown with nonsense values):
PID123|TheTask|654321:Host789

A computer ID for the host is fabricated from the various details shown (truncated as required and joined with various separator characters). This is then mapped through the ImportedStringMapping table to convert string IDs to integer IDs.

(MATCH_HOST_HW_PROD_MODEL) / CAT_MANUFACTURER (ImportedVirtualMachine) / VirtualMachineType
The type of virtual machine. Values from Data Platform are transformed as follows:
  • Microsoft becomes VMType.HyperV
  • VMware becomes VMType.VMware
  • Any other value becomes VMType.Unknown.
(DISC_ALL_OS) / OSCOMPUTERNAME (ImportedVirtualMachine) / ComputerName As Data Platform has only one name for the VM, the previous value is replicated here (again).
(MATCH_HOST_HW_PROD_MODEL) / CAT_HW_MODEL

Failover to (MATCH_HOST_HW_PROD_MODEL) / DISCOVERED_MODEL

(ImportedVirtualMachine) / ModelNo

The model number reported for the VM.

(MATCH_HOST_HW_PROD_MODEL) / CAT_MANUFACTURER (ImportedVirtualMachine) / Manufacturer

The manufacturer visible to the guest OS running on the VM.

Fixed value Data Platform (ImportedVirtualMachine) / InventoryAgent

The tool that provided this inventory record.

(DISC_ALL_OS) / OPERATINGSYSTEM_TYPE_LABEL (ImportedVirtualMachine) / GuestFullName

The operating system configured for the guest.

Fabricated from:

(MATCH_TASK_DET) / PROCESS_ID

(MATCH_TASK_DET) / TASK_NAME and the checksum for the same

(DISC_VIRTUAL_HOSTGUEST) / Guest_ID

(ImportedVirtualMachine) / VMComputerID
The format is of this form (shown with nonsense values):
PID123|TheTask|654321:Host789

A computer ID for the guest is fabricated from the various details shown (truncated as required and joined with various separator characters). This is then mapped through the ImportedStringMapping table to convert string IDs to integer IDs.

Data not imported from Data Platform v5

The following columns in the ImportedVirtualMachine table cannot be populated by inventory imports from Data Platform v5. Notice that several of them (such as NumberOfProcessors, NumberOfHardDrives, and IPAddress) have matching data points imported as part of the inventory device import for the same guest machine. While several of these missing data points do not impact license compliance calculations, the following gaps are significant:
  • When the original input to Data Platform was from BMC Discovery (ADDM), information about virtual machines (and hosts) is not available. In contrast, when the data source for Data Platform was Microsoft SCCM, the identification of hosts and guests is available for supported platforms such as Hyper-V.
    Tip: This is the inverse of the result obtained when FlexNet Manager Suite takes inventory from these sources directly (rather than through Data Platform). In the this unmediated case, inventory from SCCM does not include the host/guest, and the inventory from ADDM does include the host/guest relationship. Of course, if you have multiple inventory sources collecting from a common target device, the results are merged within FlexNet Manager Suite to provide the most complete record possible.
  • When data is available (from inventory sources such as Microsoft SCCM into Data Platform), the import from Data Platform to FlexNet Manager Suite is missing information about resource pools, vMotion, and partitions. This means that, when Data Platform v5 is the only inventory source for these machines, compliance calculations are impossible for consumption from some licenses such as IBM PVU, Microsoft, or Oracle server licenses.
For further details about these columns that are missing data, please see the schema reference.
  • VMName
  • VCObjectID
  • FriendlyName
  • UUID
  • TotalMemory
  • PoolName
  • CPUUsage
  • MemoryUsage
  • MaxNumberOfLogicalProcessors
  • VMEnabledStateID
  • NumberOfProcessors
  • ProcessorType
  • NumberOfNetworkCards
  • ComplianceConnectionID
  • VMLocation
  • PoolType
  • ZoneResourceManagementMethodType
  • AffinityEnabled
  • CPUAffinity
  • CoreAffinity
  • PartitionID
  • PartitionNumber
  • FullComputerName
  • IPAddress.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2021 R1