Database Schema: Overview

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R1 (On-Premises)

The data underlying FlexNet Manager Suite is arranged in a number of distinct databases. Most frequently these databases live within a single database server, although in very large scale implementations, it is possible to implement them across multiple servers.

The most fundamental distinction is between:
  • Data imported from various instances of the FlexNet inventory agent as software and hardware inventory from individual computers within the enterprise (see Inventory Database Schema)
  • Data used to calculate license positions, combining the software applications recognized from the imported inventory, the license entitlements collated from purchase records and other sources, structural information about the enterprise itself, and so on (see Compliance Database Schema).

A small set of tables is common to both these databases. These shared tables are documented within each of the above chapters.

In support of this basic structure, there are also the following major aspects:
Each of the chapters covering these schemata has a common structure:
  • The chapter header includes a list of different aspects of the data described in the chapter. (These aspects are also the lowest level included in the summary table of contents for the entire volume.)
  • The chapter header is followed by a reminder of the information structure in each of the database table descriptions.
  • Each aspect then has a section header page listing all the individual database tables contained within that aspect.
  • Finally, the detailed topics, one for each database table, listing all the properties (columns) in the table and various attributes of each one.

This structure makes it easy to drill down from a high-level understanding of the data structure to an individual table. Conversely, if you know a table name, use the PDF search mechanism in your reader software to locate its description. Similarly, you can also search for individual properties within tables, even when you don't know their provenance.

One final chapter takes a slightly different approach. Rather than documenting an internal schema, it covers the schema used for spreadsheets importing inventory information, and the mapping of those columns to the relevant database tables and column.

This document is not an exhaustive description of the entire database structure. For example, the system makes widespread use of views extracted from these underlying tables for (amongst other reasons) performance improvements. These views are not documented here. Nor are the mechanisms used in a multi-tenant implementation for partitioning each tenant's data made explicit in this document. However, this is a complete description of all the basic data tables from which all else is derived.

Furthermore, the descriptions of each database table are compiled automatically using the same mechanism that generates the database schemata themselves. This process guarantees complete coverage of all tables at each release.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2022 R1