Populate the Downloadable Libraries

FlexNet Manager Suite comes with an Application Recognition Library, and a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) Library. You may also have the End of Service Life (EOSL) product, and additional Product Use Rights Libraries (depending on whether you have licensed FlexNet Manager for Datacenters). The various libraries are updated regularly by Flexera and normally downloaded automatically.
Tip: Some product functionality updates are also delivered through the library downloads (for example, the latest version of the InventorySettings.xml file, containing extended functionality for the FlexNet Inventory Agent).
Note: If your server has Internet access controlled through a proxy server, the following URLs must be accessible:
  • For the ARL: https://www.managesoft.com:443/support/Compliance/RecognitionAfter82.cab
  • For the EOSL library: https://www.managesoft.com:443/support/Compliance/EOSL.cab
  • For the SKU library: https://www.managesoft.com:443/support/Compliance/PURL.cab
  • For the PURLs: https://update.managesoft.com:443/ProductUseRights, including access to any sub-directories of this that may be returned to your server in response to its initial request.
For backward compatibility, the HTTP protocol is also supported, with a server-side redirect being issued to the relevant HTTPS address. If you choose to use HTTP protocols, the corresponding addresses must also be authorized through your proxy server; but HTTPS support remains a requirement.

If neither direct access nor access through a proxy server can be provided, you can use an alternative process to manage library updates manually, as described in Manual Updates of Library Data.

At installation time, you need to trigger download of the libraries to create a baseline ready for product use. Library downloads check the terms of your Flexera license. That is why this task cannot be attempted before a current license is installed (see Importing an Updated Flexera License), and must occur on the same server where your license was imported to activate the product.

In summary, the process downloads several different files to which you are entitled, saving them into staging locations on your batch server (or the server hosting that functionality). When the downloads are all completed successfully, the files are imported into the compliance database as required. The staging locations are subdirectories of %PROGRAMDATA%\Flexera Software\FlexNet Manager Platform\DataImport\Content. If necessary, you may customize this by saving your preferred path in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Compliance\CurrentVersion\Recognition\ContentImportDirectory.

For details of log files, see the end of the following procedure.

Complete this procedure as administrator (fnms-admin), having database rights as described in earlier sections.

To trigger a download of the current libraries:

  1. On the batch server (or application server for a single-server implementation), open the Microsoft Task Scheduler.
  2. Manually trigger the Recognition data import scheduled task.
    Given that no other processes are running at this stage of your implementation, it executes almost immediately. By default this task is run at 1am daily.
    Tip: You can save considerable download time and bandwidth by editing the schedule for this task to be 1am on Sunday morning, for example. Since ARL updates are made weekly, and less frequently for other libraries, more frequent downloads are of little benefit, other than perhaps recovering from networking issues.
    Whenever it is triggered, the task places a request for download in the queue of the internal batch scheduler. A utility downloads all libraries according to the terms of your license, and, when all downloads are successful, imports the contents into FlexNet Manager Suite. Depending on your network speeds, a typical download may take in the order of one-two hours, followed by the import.
    Tip: Since all downloads must succeed before the import starts, a failure in any of the downloads means that the import is not attempted on this occasion. However, the process is resilient in that each download is automatically retried up to five times where necessary to work around transient network issues.
  3. Thereafter, in the web interface for FlexNet Manager Suite, navigate to the system menu ( in the top right corner), select System Health > System Health Dashboard, and check the cards for:
    • ARL
    • SKU Library
    • PURL.
    Tip: The cards do not refresh automatically. Use F5 to refresh the display from time to time.
    Each card shows the currently installed version of the relevant library, and the date of the last successful download and import of these libraries. Errors display an additional alert icon with some explanatory text.
In case of errors, check the following log files, located in %ProgramData%\Flexera Software\Compliance\Logging\Content (where the asterisk in each file name is replaced with the appropriate date):
  • mgsImportRecognition*.log
  • recognition*.log (for the Application Recognition Library)
  • importPURL*.log.
Tip: Each log file is configured through a matching .config file saved in the same directory. Note that by default, 30 dated copies of each log file are preserved, and thereafter the oldest file is automatically removed to make room for the next log file (see maxSizeRollBackups in the .config files). You cannot modify the file path for logging within the .config files, but you could if necessary customize the file name(s). If you really need a different file path for these logs, you can change the value used for %property{ComplianceLoggingPath} in the .config files by creating a REG_SZ registry key at SOFTWARE\WoW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Compliance\CurrentVersion\LoggingBaseDirectory on your batch server (or in smaller implementations, the server hosting this functionality), and setting the registry key to your preferred path. (Removing this key again restores the default value.)