Comparison of Sources

FlexNet Manager Suite 2023 R1 (On-Premises)
This topic has two parts:
  • A comparison of the inventory sources that are supported by FlexNet Manager Suite and Data Platform v5
  • For data sources fully supported by both, a summary of the inventory gaps (some of which may affect compliance calculations) with data imported from each source either directly into FlexNet Manager Suite, or firstly into Data Platform and then imported from Data Platform v5 into FlexNet Manager Suite.
For additional detail, down to the level of individual data fields, refer to subsequent topics.

Supported inventory sources

For each of the data sources (listed alphabetically), this table displays:
  • "Y" when either product offers out-of-the-box support for imports from that source
  • A blank in either product's column when the data source is not supported
  • "C" when either product has a custom extractor/adapter available to collect data from the source and import it into the connecting product.
Tip: Support in FlexNet Manager Suite may be offered through a connector, requiring minimal configuration other than identifying the source; or an adapter, which may require a separate download and installation, and possibly setting up a staging database. In addition, FlexNet Manager Suite supports the development of custom adapters, for example, through the Inventory Adapter Studio (see Inventory Adapter Studio). For Data Platform, the equivalent terminology is extractor.
Inventory source FlexNet Manager Suite Data Platform v5

Symantec IT Management Suite (formerly Altiris)

Y

C

App-V Standalone

Y

  

BMC BladeLogic Client Automation (previously Marimba)

Y

C

BMC Discovery (previously ADDM)

Y

Y

EdgeSight for Citrix Virtual Apps (previously XenApp EdgeSight)

Y

  

Citrix XenApp server agent (for Citrix Virtual Apps)

Y

  

FlexNet Inventory Manager (previously ManageSoft)

Y

  

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

Y

  

HP Discovery and Dependency Mapping Inventory (DDMI)

Y

C

HPE Universal Discovery (HP-UD)

Y

Y

IBM BigFix Platform (previously Tivoli Endpoint Manager)

Y

Y

IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) or HCL BigFix Inventory (see note 1 and 2)

Y

  

JAMF Pro (previously Casper)

C

Y

Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync

Y

  

Microsoft Office 365

Y

  

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (previously Microsoft SCCM or SMS)

Y

Y

Salesforce

Y

  

SAP (through FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications)

Y

  
ServiceNow (see note 3)

Y

SolarWinds Orion

C

Y

Symantec IT Management Suite (formerly Altiris)

Y

C

Tanium Asset

C

Y
Note: In the table above:
  1. For the BigFix Inventory source type, the IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) adapter must be selected. No BigFix Inventory source type is available.
  2. For imports from IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT), only applications with IBM as the Publisher are recognized by the Application Recognition Library. For imports from HCL BigFix Inventory, applications from all publishers may be recognized.
  3. FlexNet Manager Suite does provide for integration with ServiceNow, but in this case it is not importing raw inventory. ServiceNow is regarded as a source of business data rather than inventory data for FlexNet Manager Suite.

Inventory gaps by import path

The following four inventory sources (column 1) are fully supported by both FlexNet Manager Suite and Data Platform v5. Based on the import path, there may be gaps in the imported inventory, and these gaps may be significant enough to prevent compliance calculations for related license types:
  • The middle column identifies inventory gaps when FlexNet Manager Suite imports inventory data directly from each source
  • The final column identifies inventory gaps if the inventory is first imported into Normalize v5 (within Data Platform), and subsequently imported from there into FlexNet Manager Suite.
Data source Direct import to FlexNet Manager Suite Import through Data Platform

BMC Discovery (previously ADDM)

No inventory gaps.

All virtualization data is missing.

HPE Universal Discovery (HP-UD)

No inventory gaps.

Advanced virtualization data missing (see note below).
DNS domain name missing (domain flat name is available).

IBM BigFix (previously Tivoli Endpoint Manager)

All virtualization data is missing.

All virtualization data is missing.

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (previously Microsoft SCCM or SMS)

All virtualization data is missing.

Advanced virtualization data missing.
DNS domain name missing (domain flat name is available).
Note: This table distinguishes between:
  • Simple virtualization calculations for technologies like VMware ESX and Hyper-V — these require only the host/guest relationships to be tracked
  • Advanced virtualization calculations for hardware partitioning technologies like HP-UX vPar, IBM LPAR, and Solaris zones — these require tracking of greater detail, such as partial processors and processor pool information. Information about clusters and host affinity (and the like) is also included in the advanced class.
And obviously, "all virtualization data" includes both of the above.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2023 R1