Making a Data Source Connection the Primary One

FlexNet Manager Suite 2023 R1 (On-Premises)

If you import hardware inventory fields from multiple sources, some fields duplicated across the sources may receive conflicting data. A common case is that one inventory tool returns a particular hardware property, while another tool does not collect the same property and returns a null. There are also differences in the ways tools collect inventory, so that sometimes values vary across tools.

Tip: This section applies only to hardware inventory values. Software inventory is always merged across all sources regardless of any source being marked as primary.

FlexNet Manager Suite resolves conflicting hardware data in two ways:

• A non-null value received from an inventory connection designated as primary is never overwritten. (Nulls can be replaced.)
• Among values received from secondary sources, generally data with the most recent inventory date is used.
  Note: There are some other settings for the secondary sources (related to whether duplicate inventory should be merged, ignored, or ignored only if older than x days).

For example, suppose you have three inventory sources that report these values for a single device A:

Source	Primary	Last inventory date	Cores	Threads
Source 1		10 May 2015	4	16
Source 2	Yes	12 May 2015	8	NULL
Source 3		14 May 2015	6	NULL

All non-null hardware properties from Source 2 are given priority, because it is the primary source. Thereafter, based on date, Source 3 is used, and finally Source 1. The final record for Device A shows 8 cores and a total of 16 threads.

An inventory spreadsheet is treated exactly like any other inventory connection in this regard. You can use a repeated import of an inventory spreadsheet to correct specific values reported incorrectly by other inventory tools.

Tip: You cannot make a one-off inventory spreadsheet upload primary. After a single upload, this source is disabled, and its inventory data ages. Only a repeated upload of an inventory spreadsheet through an inventory beacon should be considered as a possible primary source. Even then, you cannot make it primary until after its first import, so that the source is recognized by the central application server.

To make a source connection the primary one, click Make primary displayed on its row on the Inventory Data tab of the Data Inputs page of the web interface.