Configuring SaaS Manager Connector

Prerequisites

For your on-premises implementation of FlexNet Manager Suite, integration with Flexera SaaS Manager works through a suitable inventory beacon. The general requirements are:

You have licensed Flexera SaaS Manager (in the cloud).
You have chosen a single inventory beacon that will connect to Flexera SaaS Manager. Only a single connection is permitted.
The chosen inventory beacon is a top-level device with direct access to the Internet (optionally, through a proxy server). It must not be a child inventory beacon that uploads to a parent inventory beacon.
On this inventory beacon, FlexNet Beacon release 14.3.0 (shipped with 2019 R2.3) or later is installed.
This inventory beacon has PowerShell 5.1 or later running on Windows Server 2016 or later, or on Windows 10 or later; with the PowerShell execution policy set to RemoteSigned.
The Windows Environment Variable PSModulePath includes the following path:
```
%ProgramFiles%\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
```

Set up

Creating the connection is straight-forward, declaring a PowerShell connector of type Flexera SaaS Manager. Full step-by-step instructions are included in the online help (FlexNet Manager Suite Help > Inventory Beacons > Inventory Systems Page > Connecting to External Inventory Systems > Managing PowerShell Connections > Managing Flexera SaaS Manager Connections).

Scheduling

As part of setting up your connector on the inventory beacon, you selected a suitable schedule for FlexNet Beacon to connect to Flexera SaaS Manager in the cloud, download any new/changed inventory, and subsequently upload this to your inventory database. You chose the schedule so this process could be completed shortly before your nightly full inventory import and license consumption calculation. This timing means that changes made in Flexera SaaS Manager yesterday are visible in the web interface of FlexNet Manager Suite today.

Validation

The day after configuring your connector, validate operations by:

Identifying a licensed application listed in Flexera SaaS Manager.
Finding the same application listed in FlexNet Manager Suite, and validate that the appropriate data is recorded. For example, there is a SaaS User license attached (except for Microsoft Office 365, which should have a Named User license attached).

For more information about validation, data rationalization, and connector clean-up, see Deprecating Other Connectors.