How the Adapter Works

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R1 (On-Premises)

Although it is downloaded as a single zipped archive, the adapter includes several components to improve your license reporting. The overview of the finished system shows:

  • An optional set of patterns that can be deployed to each BMC Discovery instance to improve the initial level of inventory detail collected by BMC Discovery.
    Tip: The optional patterns are available for use with BMC Discovery, whether you use the connector or the adapter.
  • For the adapter only, a staging server, which includes a simple SQL database where data collected from BMC Discovery can be massaged for upload to FlexNet Manager Suite. The executable that speeds the data extraction process also resides here. For on-premises solutions, this staging database may optionally reside on the central operations databases server.
  • The conversion and upload component, which converts data formats and uploads the result to the central operations databases maintained by FlexNet Manager Suite.

Operation is summarized in this high-level diagram:

Figure: Process overview

The diagram shows:

  1. Optionally making use of additional patterns packaged with the adapter download, inventory details are collected by BMC Discovery (previously ADDM).
  2. The executable FnmpADDMStage.exe uses the web API to extract the information from BMC Discovery. This method is used because the export process is 100 times faster than using mappings, and there is no requirement to configure custom mappings for each BMC Discovery instance. This executable optionally writes the gathered data into local XML files (available for inspection when required), and (determined by the mode of operation) also writes the data from these XML files into the staging database.
  3. A standard component of FlexNet Manager Suite called a Compliance Reader, executing from the central application server, collects data from the staging database and imports it into the operations databases. This final stage occurs when you run an inventory import to process the incoming inventory.

Adapter components explained

The following topics describe each of the adapter components in more detail, with information to help you decide which of these you will implement in your enterprise. Installation and setup follows in a separate section. The adapter components described in later topics are:

  • Optional collection patterns to enrich the inventory detail collected by BMC Discovery (see Optional Patterns in the section about configuring BMC Discovery – and this configuration is common, whether you are using the adapter or the connector)
  • The FlexNet inventory agent (see The FlexNet inventory agent, which is required for either the adapter or the connector)
  • For the adapter only, the scripts for creating the staging database in Microsoft SQL Server (see Database Table Creation)
  • The FnmpADDMStage.exe executable to extract inventory information from BMC Discovery, optionally write it to XML files, and insert it into the staging database (see The Adapter Executable).

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2022 R1