Inventory Systems Tab

FlexNet Manager Suite 2023 R1 (On-Premises)

This tab lists the external systems for gathering hardware and/or software inventory from your computing estate. Systems listed here are recognized by your inventory beacon, and it imports data from them on a regular schedule (which you configure in the Scheduling page).

Deleting a Database Connection

If you have moved data to a different database, or no longer require the data from a particular database to be imported into FlexNet Manager Suite, you can delete a database connection. But first...

The decision to delete a database connection should not be taken lightly.

• If you delete a connection from a remote, free-standing inventory beacon, the data collected from it that has already been imported goes stale over time.
• If you have an inventory beacon that is co-installed on your central server (batch server/processing server/application server, depending on the scale of your implementation), and from this inventory beacon, you delete a database connection, a further deletion may follow on in the database. Any computers whose inventory data is obtained only from this database connection will be removed from FlexNet Manager Suite, together with details about their installed applications. This includes VM hosts and virtual machines (and details of any VM pools used to organize them).

If that is the outcome you want, just select the connection in the list and click Delete.

Scheduling Execution

See Scheduling a Connection. In addition to any scheduled execution, you can select any connection from the list, and click Execute Now.

Columns

The following columns appear in the list.

Connection Name

A descriptive name for this connection that you created when specifying the connection.

Type

The type of connection specifies the way that the inventory beacon will handle and label the data it uploads. Full details of the connection types are available in Managing Microsoft SQL Server Database Connections.

Server

The server name or IP address, or the reserved word (local) if the target database is on this same inventory beacon server.

Database

The name of the database on the above server that the inventory beacon connects to, and from which it extracts inventory information.

Connection String

Required only for connections to systems other than Microsoft SQL Server, such as ILMT. For details, see the Connection column in Managing Other Database Connections.

Overlapping Inventory

If you use more than one inventory source, it is possible to get overlapping inventory (records about the same endpoint device from multiple inventory tools). The Overlapping Inventory control is particularly useful for managing migration from one inventory tool to another (or to a new version of your chosen tool). Settings are shown as:

• Imported — inventory is imported to FlexNet Manager Suite where de-duplication can occur. Your setting of the primary connection assists in this de-duplication. This is the normal operational setting when you are not managing migration between inventory sources.
• Rejected — When you have more recent inventory from another source for the same target inventory device, the record from this source is completely ignored. (Technically, the device record is deleted from the staging table in the database, and so can never be imported.) This occurs even if this connection has been selected in FlexNet Manager Suite as your primary connection. (Of course, best practice is that you do not reject records from your primary connection.)
• nn day filter — Any overlapping inventory collected by this source more than the set number of days before the import is ignored. Fresher overlapping data is still imported and considered for data merging.
  Tip: In the interests of keeping inventory current, this control has a maximum value of 60 days.

For more about setting this control, see Connecting to External Inventory Systems and its subtopics.

Last run

The date and time when this inventory connection was most recently executed.

Next run

The date and time when the inventory beacon is next scheduled to collect inventory from this connection. Adjusted on the Scheduling page.