Comparison of Inventory Collection Methods

FlexNet Manager Suite 2023 R1 (On-Premises)
The following table presents a summary comparison of different inventory collection methods available with FlexNet Manager Suite. In the table:
  • "Y" means that the item applies to the method
  • "O" means that the item is optional, or its use depends on the details of your implementation.
Feature
Components Required          
FlexNet inventory agent Y        
FlexNet Inventory Scanner   Y      
FlexNet Beacon installed on an inventory beacon Y Y Y Y Y
Discovery and inventory rules O   Y Y  
Compatible OLEDB drivers from Oracle on inventory beacon       Y  
The tnsnames.ora file       O  
The OEM adapter       O  
           
Privileges Required          
For adoption on Windows: local or domain account (registered in Password Manager) with full access to Windows Service Control Manager on the Oracle server Y        
For operation on Windows:
  • LocalSystem or administrator account
  • Registered in Password Manager
  • Read-only access to Windows Service Control Manager on Oracle server
  • Member of the Windows local security group ora_dba (where LocalSystem appears as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM).
 Y   Y    
For non-privileged operation on Windows:
  • A non-privileged account to which you have given all access rights required for the discovery and inventory collection you require (this unsupported approach is not documented, as it is specific to your environment)
  • Member of the Windows local security group ora_dba (where LocalSystem appears as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM)
  • Has permissions to invoke the commands listed in the Common: Child Processes on Windows Platforms topic in Gathering FlexNet Inventory.
   Y      
For adoption on UNIX-like platforms:
  • Local account with ssh privileges that can elevate to root-level privileges
  • Registered in Password Manager.
 Y        
For operation on UNIX-like platforms: The tracker runs as root. (If the tracker is run as any other account, Oracle inventory is not collected.) This is true for all agent-based inventory gathering:
  • The Adopted case
  • The Agent third-party deployment case
  • The FlexNet Inventory Scanner case
  • The Zero-footprint case.
Tip: As always, it makes no difference whether you invoke the tracker directly as root, or whether you run as another account and use sudo (or similar) to elevate to root before invoking the tracker.
 Y Y Y    
An account with read-only permissions on every Oracle Database for all the tables and views needed for collecting Oracle inventory.       Y  
           
Collected Information          
General hardware and software inventory Y Y Y   O
Oracle Database inventory Y Y Y Y O
Inventory from standby database instances (with tracker version 12.4 or later) Y Y Y    
Oracle application and engineering system inventory Y Y Y   O
Oracle GLAS data for audit

* The direct inventory collection method collects only the software data required by Oracle GLAS. For a complete audit data set, you will need another method to execute the GLAS hardware scripts on each Oracle server.

 Y Y Y O*  
Inventory from Oracle pluggable databases (Oracle 12c and later) — requires InventorySettings.xml version 27 or later. Y Y Y Y O
           
User Actions Required          
Create a discovery and inventory rule. In the Adopted case (but not in the Agent third-party deployment case), ensure that the Allow these targets to be adopted option is selected in the target definition. O        
Create a discovery and inventory rule, and in the action definition:
  • For Action type, choose Discovery and inventory
  • Select Network scan as the discovery method
  • In the General hardware and software inventory section, select Gather hardware and software inventory from all target devices.
If you wish to target exclusively Oracle servers, specify appropriate IP addresses, machine name patterns, or port details to focus the settings under Define machines to target in the Targets tab.		     Y    
To use a network scan, create a discovery and inventory rule with the following options selected in the action definition:
  • For Action type, choose Discovery and inventory
  • Select Network scan as the discovery method
  • In the Oracle database environments section, select the Discover Oracle database environments, Port scan and/or SNMP scan, and Gather Oracle database environment inventory options.
      O  
To use a TNSNames.ora file, create a discovery and inventory rule with the following options selected in the action definition:
  • For Action type, choose Discovery and inventory
  • Select TNSNames file for Oracle databases as the discovery method (you may optionally combine this, for example, with Network scan)
  • In the Oracle database environments section, select the Discover Oracle database environments, Port scan and/or SNMP scan, and Gather Oracle database environment inventory options.
      O  
To use manually-created data to replace discovery, create discovery device records with listener and services information for all Oracle servers; and then create a discovery and inventory rule with the following options selected in the action definition:
  • For Action type, choose Inventory only
  • In the Oracle database environments section, select the Gather Oracle database environment inventory option.
       O  
Separately execute (and report results for) the Oracle GLAS hardware scripts, since these cannot be executed in the direct inventory collection case.       Y  
Schedule file uploads from the FlexNet Beacon.         Y

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)

2023 R1