Import cloud service provider data for AWS EC2

The new Discovery & Inventory > Cloud Service Provider Inventory page (located in the Virtual Devices group), displays data for devices hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2, with links to matching inventory device records, if any. This data is collected using a new inventory connector that automatically identifies devices hosted in AWS EC2, and imports the associated metadata into FlexNet Manager Suite. Detailed inventory can be collected in other ways, such as by including the FlexNet inventory agent in the image used to instantiate virtual machines in AWS.

Prerequisites

A FlexNet Manager Suite administrator must create a connection on an inventory beacon to import data. The inventory beacon requires:

FlexNet Beacon version 13.1.x.x (2018 R2) or later
PowerShell 3.0 or later
AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell version 3.3.283.0 or later.

The account that is used for the AWS EC2 connection must have the following permissions, set by policies in the AWS console:

DescribeInstances
DescribeHosts
DescribeReservedInstances
GetUser.

Full details are included in the online help, under Inventory Beacons > Inventory Systems Page > Connecting to External Inventory Systems > Managing PowerShell Connections > Managing AWS EC2 Connections.

Additional Information

When a cloud-based instance reports its Last known state as Terminated, any inventory device record that had been linked to the instance is deleted from FlexNet Manager Suite (unless blocked by an unexpected asset link). This prevents the instance being counted in future license compliance calculations. However, terminated instances remain available in the Cloud Service Provider Inventory page, so that you can validate that the inventory device is correctly removed.
Data matching between the AWS metadata and other imported inventory uses the Instance ID field when available (such as with the latest FlexNet inventory agent). For other inventory sources, matching is based on the MAC address value.
Inventory device properties now have a new Cloud hosting tab, displayed when its Hosted in property is anything other than On-premises. The values gathered through the AWS EC2 connector are shown here. For other cloud service providers, customers may populate data through spreadsheet imports or the Business Importer.