ILMT connector limits imports of deleted devices

FlexNet Manager Suite version 2020 R1
You may manage sub-capacity licensing for IBM PVU license types in either of two ways:
  • Using ILMT as the source of truth, and simply importing information for convenient display within your 'single pane of glass' for license information
  • Using FlexNet Manager Suite as the source of truth (by prior agreement with IBM, as detailed in the section on Sub-Capacity Licensing with IBM PVU in the System Reference PDF, available through the title page of online help).

ILMT as the source of truth

In the first case, when you have configured ILMT as the source of truth for IBM PVU sub-capacity licensing, you use the ILMT connector to import data from ILMT for display in FlexNet Manager Suite. However, ILMT has more data available than you need.

For example, if you have devices marked as 'deleted' in ILMT, those records are never removed, and deleted devices accumulate from the beginning of your ILMT record keeping. In previous releases of FlexNet Manager Suite, all these records were imported, which could produce thousands of computer records that were officially 'deleted', but were now cluttering your lists within the FlexNet Manager Suite web interface.

This behavior is now changed. FlexNet Manager Suite no longer imports all deleted device records when ILMT is your source of truth. Instead, it imports only those deleted devices that were first marked as deleted within the last 90 days. These devices may still be relevant, because in that part of the current reporting period before they were deleted, they may have contributed to the peak consumption of your IBM PVU license(s). You may therefore require these devices for your periodic reporting to IBM.

And in a further improvement, once the next reporting period starts, these devices are no longer imported (because now they were not switched to 'deleted' in the newly-current period, but in the previous one which is now no longer relevant). Since these cases now disappear from the next import through the ILMT connector, their matching computer records are automatically removed from FlexNet Manager Suite. You are left with less clutter, with only relevant records retained.

There is a further flow-on benefit. If your records have been cluttered with 'deleted' devices imported from ILMT, your next import and overnight compliance calculation (after this change is live on the production server you access) automatically cleans up all the ancient records, leaving only those deleted within the last 90 days, as described above.

FlexNet Manager Suite as the source of truth

In the alternative mode, when FlexNet Manager Suite is your approved source of truth, you may still opt to import from ILMT as a secondary inventory source, even while the FlexNet inventory agent is mandatory on all relevant devices. If this is your situation, the behavior about records deleted in ILMT is different, in that no deleted devices (not even the ones deleted in the last 90 days) are imported from ILMT as a secondary source.

There is a special case involved here. This case applies if ILMT has been the only inventory source to report a given device, and it has previously been included in imported inventory so that a matching compliance computer record exists in FlexNet Manager Suite. (Because a local installation of the FlexNet inventory agent is mandatory for sub-capacity licensing in this scenario, but no such inventory has been received, this device has been consuming at full capacity points.) If you now mark this device as deleted in ILMT, it disappears from the next inventory import (because deleted devices are excluded in this mode). Since it is not reported by any other inventory source, it is now given the special status of Archived within FlexNet Manager Suite. This status effectively means "awaiting deletion", but the record is retained as long as it may affect the calculation of peak consumption. Typically at the start of the next reporting period, this device is no longer relevant, and is automatically deleted.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2022 R1