Managing PowerShell Connections

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R2 (On-Premises)

FlexNet Manager Suite integrates with PowerShell-connected tools to give you a single cohesive view of your license compliance. For each such external system, you need to define a PowerShell connection to allow data collection.

Note: Inventory from FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications (see SAP Systems Tab) is managed on a separate page, and connections for SAP do not appear here.

Supported PowerShell connections for import of inventory data include:

  • Amazon Web Services

    As a top tier cloud service provider, AWS provides a range of instances that you may subscribe to. The PowerShell connector for Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (AWS EC2) and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) (known as the Amazon connector) connects to standard APIs provided by AWS, extracting data on all current instances and (where the instance is a virtual machine) their hosts. In addition, if you are running Oracle Database in Amazon RDS, the Amazon connector collects Oracle Database inventory.

    After the data is uploaded to the central application server, gathered information is displayed in the Cloud Service Provider Inventory page. In addition, FlexNet Manager Suite automatically creates separate inventory device records for any hosts identified by AWS. If you collect additional inventory from the reported instances (for example, if you have FlexNet inventory agent included in the images used to spin up your instances, or you import additional inventory details collected with a third-party tool), the inventory device record for that software and hardware inventory import is matched to the instance data imported from AWS. Matching is based on the instance ID where that is available, and otherwise on the MAC address. When this match is successful, the Cloud Service Provider Inventory page provides a direct link to each related inventory device record.
    Tip: If a future import from AWS shows that an instance has been terminated, or that a host is no longer available, any linked inventory device records are automatically removed, so that they can have no further impact on your license consumption calculations. Depending on the last known state, instances may still be visible in the Cloud Service Provider Inventory page at this time.
  • Microsoft Azure
    Inventory information from Microsoft Azure can be imported into FlexNet Manager Suite. When combined with inventory collected using FlexNet inventory agent (recommended) or using other inventory tools, this additional information is retrieved by calling Azure PowerShell modules, and then mapped to inventory devices using the Universal Unique Identifier (UUID). You can open the Cloud Service Provider Inventory page to view a direct link to each related inventory device record.
    Tip: The Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) is also called the Azure VM unique ID or vmId.
    Note: The Microsoft Azure connector does not collect virtual machine inventory for virtual machines managed by Microsoft's classic deployment model. For these devices we recommend you use an alternative such as the inventory spreadsheet upload (Managing Inventory Spreadsheet Connections) or simply through editing manually.
  • Flexera SaaS Manager
    Flexera SaaS Manager keeps track of SaaS subscriptions to help identify unused, underused, and abandoned licenses, optimizing your spend and improving management of renewals. This PowerShell connector imports license data (including purchased entitlements and consumption), relevant user data, and the licensed applications into FlexNet Manager Suite so that your software asset managers can monitor all licenses in a single pane of glass. Furthermore, while you are working in FlexNet Manager Suite, if you notice something about a SaaS license that needs attention, links are provided to quickly switch back to Flexera SaaS Manager to make amendments.
    Tip: If you are managing your Office 365 subscription and/or your Salesforce subscription through Flexera SaaS Manager, you only require this one PowerShell connector to integrate all your SaaS license data – specifically, you do not need either of the separate Office 365 or Salesforce connectors. (Those are provided for customers who have not licensed Flexera SaaS Manager.)
  • Microsoft Office 365 Online Account

    Microsoft Office 365 is a set of office tools available online (through a cloud-based subscription) and offline (installed locally). To import the users, licenses, and usage information from the Microsoft Office online account, an inventory beacon requires an inventory connection for Office 365. When created and configured successfully, this connector downloads all this information from the Office 365 online service account and uploads it to FlexNet Manager Suite for compliance calculations. For more information on creating an Office 365 connection, Creating Connections to Microsoft 365. For more about Office 365 support, see FlexNet Manager Suite System Reference.

  • Salesforce.com Subscription Management

    Salesforce.com subscriptions come at a significant cost for large organizations and licensing is complex. FlexNet Manager Suite's integration with Salesforce provides you with ways to better stay in charge of your Salesforce licensing and consumption. FlexNet Manager Suite provides an inventory adapter so you can import Salesforce license allocations and usage data so that you can leverage FlexNet Manager Suite's tools to help you manage Salesforce licensing and consumption costs. With FlexNet Manager Suite's integration with Salesforce, customers can easily see unused Salesforce subscriptions that then allows you to reduce costs at subscription renewal. For more about Salesforce support, see the Managing Connections to Salesforce.com topic in the FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference.

  • ServiceNow
    There are two kinds of data exchange between ServiceNow and FlexNet Manager Suite:
    • A two-way exchange of data about contracts and assets, for which see the ServiceNow Integration with FlexNet Manager Suite section in FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference.
    • A one-way import of inventory information that ServiceNow has "discovered" in your environment. This use of ServiceNow as an inventory source is covered here (see Inventory Connection to ServiceNow), as well as in its own section of the FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference.

    While ServiceNow can return complete inventory from many different kinds of environments, it is currently not strong in discovery of (or, as we would say, collecting inventory from) partitioning technologies that provide virtualization on several UNIX-like platforms. If you are supporting these platforms, best practice is to install the FlexNet inventory agent locally on them, reporting directly to your inventory beacon(s). This allows collection of all details needed for your license consumption calculations. This additional information integrates smoothly with the information collected from ServiceNow. In this case, it is best practice to set your Flexera inventory source as your primary source, so that the hardware information it gathers takes precedence over all other inventory sources (including ServiceNow).

  • Tanium

    Tanium Asset collects a complete inventory of your hardware and software assets for both online and offline devices, including servers, laptops, and desktops. Tanium Asset asset data can be imported into FlexNet Manager Suite which then calculates licensing. This is achieved using the Tanium Connector which also provides scheduled updates of the data import.

    For more information on creating a Tanium Asset connection, see Managing Tanium Connections. For more about Tanium support, see FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference.

To enable FlexNet Manager Suite to interpret the inventory data being imported from a source database, the inventory beacon needs to know:

  • The type of database in which the data is stored
  • The name of the database
  • The location of the database
  • The security permissions required to access the database
  • When (if ever) the data from this database should be considered stale.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2022 R2