Operating the Inventory Export Tool

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R1 (On-Premises)
Once installation and configuration of the tool are complete (see Installing and Configuring the Inventory Export Tool), data about installed software can be exported to Software Vulnerability Manager at any time, simply by invoking the Inventory Export Tool with the export verb and no other command line options. Operation is then fully automatic.
FNMS-VIM.exe export
Remember: MSPs must always include the tenantUID parameter.
FNMS-VIM.exe export --tenantUID tenantuid

The export process is fast (worst case is in the order of a few minutes), and since no data is written to the operations databases, no data locking can occur to interfere with other processes in FlexNet Manager Suite. As an indication of performance, an export of around 340,000 installed items took around five minutes to successfully transfer into Software Vulnerability Manager, with about a minute of that time needed for execution on FlexNet Manager Suite.

If the tool runs without error, the following message is displayed on the command line: Data upload to VIM successfully completed. You may also check the log file for results.

The data uploaded to Software Vulnerability Manager is visible if you navigate in its web interface to Vulnerability Manager > Inventory tab, and find the appropriate software asset list (the default name is FNMS_Import).

For normal operation, Flexera recommends that you create a Microsoft Windows Scheduled Task to trigger the data exchange daily, after data imports have been completed from all regular data sources. Given that the default trigger for the internally-scheduled Inventory import and license reconcile occurs at 2am, you might consider a time around 5am (for more about schedules, see Server-Side Scheduled Tasks).

The process for setting up Windows scheduled tasks varies across different editions of Windows Server. The following example is for Windows Server 2012. Adjust to suit your application server (or batch server).

To set up an appropriate scheduled task:

  1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools, and double-click Task Scheduler.
    The Task Scheduler window appears.
  2. In the navigation tree on the left, select Task Scheduler Library, and then in the Actions list on the right, click New Folder....
    A dialog appears for entering the folder name.

    A suggested value is FlexNet Manager Suite.
  3. Click OK, and select the new folder in the navigation tree.
  4. Select Action > Create Task....
    The Create Task dialog appears.
  5. Enter an appropriate Name, such as Installed Software Export to VIM, and add any Description to help future maintenance of this task.
    Your description may be something like Exports identified applications and unrecognized installer evidence to VIM for security assessment.
  6. Click Change User or Group....
    The Select User, Service Account, or Group dialog appears.
  7. Enter the account name that is to run the scheduled task, and click OK.
    This is the service account that runs on your application server (or web application server in a multi-server implementation), for which the name suggested during implementation was svc-flexnet.
  8. Further down in the Security options group, select Run whether user is logged in or not.
  9. Switch to the Triggers tab, and click New....
    The New Trigger dialog appears.
  10. Ensure that the default setting Begin the task On a schedule is selected, set the parameters for the schedule, and from the Advanced settings group, be sure that Enabled is selected.
    A suggested time is 5am daily, but choose a setting that suits your environment.
  11. Switch to the Action tab, and click New....
    The New Action dialog appears.
  12. Ensure that the default Action, Start a program, is selected, and browse to your local copy of FNMS-VIM.exe.
    Remember to add the export command line parameter, which is all that is needed for regular operation in a single tenant, on-premises implementation. (MSPs must add the tenant UID as always.)
  13. Click OK.
  14. Optionally, make any preferred adjustments to the Conditions or Settings tabs (normally the defaults are acceptable).
  15. Click OK to close the Create Task dialog.
    The new task appears in the list of scheduled tasks for this server.
  16. Right-click the new task, and click Run in the context menu.
    This checks that the scheduled task completes successfully.
  17. You may validate the results in the first place by inspecting the log file, and subsequently examining the appropriate asset list within Software Vulnerability Manager.
The FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Export Tool tool is now fully operational.

The remaining topics are reference material for advanced operators.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2022 R1