Uploading Inventory Data Into IT Visibility

IT Visibility users can view inventory data uploaded, for example, using IT Visibility inventory beacons installed in their environment or imported from their FlexNet Manager On-Premises instance, to Flexera One.

Important:For most users, the inventory data already being collected in their environment is automatically available in IT Visibility. However, there are some cases in which new IT Visibility customers will need to take steps to ensure their inventory data is being uploaded from their environment to Flexera One. (The steps for new customers of IT Visibility that are also IT Asset Management customers differ slightly from the steps for new IT Visibility-only customers.) Similarly, existing FlexNet Manager On-Premises users must use an IT Visibility Importer tool to extract their inventory data from FlexNet Manager On-Premises and import it to IT Visibility for consumption. For more information, refer to Importing Inventory Data From FlexNet Manager On-Premises Into IT Visibility.

IT Visibility leverages Flexera One’s powerful streaming normalization engine. The data sources for IT Visibility are your enterprise’s various discovery platforms. For a complete list of inventory data sources IT Visibility supports, see Inventory Data Sources Supported for IT Visibility.

As part of the normalization process, your data is deduplicated and then standardized and enriched using Flexera’s proprietary data intelligence library, Technopedia. It is then analyzed and presented in IT Visibility.

Any changes to the Technopedia contents (either in the global Technopedia catalog or in the Private Catalog) automatically trigger the re-normalization process and the normalized data against the updated Technopedia contents will be available in IT Visibility within hours.

The following subsections provide the various ways to upload data to IT Visibility:

• Using IT Visibility Inventory Beacons to Upload Data
• Using the Custom Inventory Importer to Upload Data
• Using Data Platform Extractor on the Beacon Server to Upload Data Using Customized Configurations
• Using Cloud-Based Connections to Upload Data

Using IT Visibility Inventory Beacons to Upload Data

An inventory beacon is a computer located within your organization that gathers software inventory that you specify, and uploads the data to Flexera One. This is the most common method you will use to upload data into IT Visibility.

Note:For help deciding which beacons to use, refer to Uploading Inventory Data to IT Asset Management for New IT Visibility CustomersNew and existing IT Asset Management users can view inventory data collected by beacons in their environment with IT Visibility. Existing IT Asset Management users typically have inventory beacons already installed in their environment. New IT Asset Management users must deploy IT Asset Management inventory beacons to collect and upload inventory data from their environment. See the following table for help with the different scenarios.Which Beacons to UseScenarioWhich Beacons to install and configureI have been already using IT Asset Management and its beaconsEven if you start using IT Visibility, you do not need to do anything specific with your beacons. Keep using IT Asset Management beacons and not IT Visibility beacons. For related information, see Inventory Data Flow.I have both IT Asset Management and IT VisibilityYou need to install and configure IT Asset Management beacons (not IT Visibility beacons). I am a new IT Visibility customer and do not have IT Asset ManagementYou need to install and configure IT Visibility beacons.Tip:The inventory device information in the following list is not collected by beacons but can be integrated from IT Asset Management to IT Visibility. By default, the integration is disabled. To enable the integration of this information, contact Flexera Support. Note that this integration is only available in production environments and not supported in UAT environments.• Device status• Enterprise groups• Corporate units• Locations• Cost centers• CategoriesAutomatic Integration for Existing IT Asset Management CustomersDuring the IT Visibility on-boarding process, Flexera integrates inventory data already being collected by inventory beacons from supported inventory sources. No additional steps are required by IT Visibility users.If you do not see inventory data in IT Visibility after IT Visibility is enabled for your account, contact Flexera support.Note:Automatic integration does not happen for some cloud-based connections such as ServiceNow and Microsoft Intune. These out-of-the-box data sources are supported only in IT Visibility. For more information, see Out-of-the-Box Supported Data Sources.Customers New to Both IT Asset Management and IT VisibilityCustomers who are new to both IT Asset Management and IT Visibility must configure IT Asset Management inventory beacons to collect non-cloud-based inventory data from their environment. Cloud-based connections—such as Jamf Pro and Microsoft Intune—do not require beacons. As shown in Inventory Data Flow, the beacon sends inventory data to IT Asset Management. This data is then automatically imported into IT Visibility for consumption. Note:For some cloud-based connections such as ServiceNow and Microsoft Intune, the data is not imported into IT Asset Management. These out-of-the-box data sources are supported only in IT Visibility. For more information, see Out-of-the-Box Supported Data Sources.For more information about installing and configuring IT Asset Management inventory beacons, refer to Installing and Configuring an IT Asset Management Inventory Beacon and Using IT Asset Management Inventory Beacons. Caution:If you do not see inventory data in IT Visibility after installing and configuring your IT Asset Management inventory beacons, contact Flexera support.Inventory Data FlowThe Inventory Services component of IT Asset Management sends data received from inventory beacons to the Inventory Store. Data received from the beacons is automatically imported into IT Asset Management (if the inventory source is supported by IT Asset Management). The upload to IT Visibility is initiated for your organization automatically. Only inventory supported by IT Visibility is imported into the Inventory Store.For a list of inventory sources supported for IT Visibility, see Out-of-the-Box Supported Data Sources and Supported Data Sources that Require Configuration in Inventory Data Sources Supported for IT Visibility.Note:Your beacons need to be managed from IT Asset Management. In IT Visibility you will still be able to use IT Asset Management beacons for inventory tasks assignment. You can also see status of imports on the All Imports tab of the External Inventory Connections page (Data Collection > Common Inventory Tasks > External Inventory Connections)..

To set up non-cloud-based connections to your discovery sources, you will use the IT Visibility Inventory Beacon. For more information, see the following topics in the Getting Started IT Visibility Inventory Beacons and Agents section of the documentation:

• Creating an Inventory Connection 
• Scheduling Inventory Imports 

Once you have set up a connection to IT Visibility Inventory Beacon and the data is imported and normalized, your data will appear automatically in IT Visibility.

Using the Custom Inventory Importer to Upload Data

Flexera provides a Custom Inventory Importer tool that can be used to import custom inventory data in the form of flat files or CSV files like any other data source. For details and to obtain a Windows or Linux version of the tool, refer to the Custom Inventory Importer Knowledge Base article.

Using Data Platform Extractor on the Beacon Server to Upload Data Using Customized Configurations

IT Visibility supports a variety of data source imports out-of-the-box, requiring no additional configuration. IT Visibility also supports data sources that require additional configuration using the Data Platform Extractor tool.

Starting from beacon version 14.2.0, Data Platform standalone extractors can be executed on beacons to collect data using specific loader configurations. The data will be imported into IT Visibility. For complete information and to obtain a zip of supported configuration files, refer to Installing Data Platform Extractor to Upload Data to IT Visibility Knowledge Base article.

Using Cloud-Based Connections to Upload Data

IT Visibility supports the integration of various cloud-based connections. Uploading inventory data from cloud-based connections does not require beacons. For details about the supported types of cloud-based connections and how to use them, see Exploring Connectors.

Related Information

The following topics are included in this section:

• Inventory Data Sources Supported for IT Visibility
• Uploading Inventory Data to IT Asset Management for New IT Visibility Customers
• Uploading Inventory Data for New IT Visibility-Only Customers
• Importing Inventory Data From FlexNet Manager On-Premises Into IT Visibility

Note:For any existing IT Asset Management customers who do not see their inventory data in IT Visibility after IT Visibility is enabled for their account, contact Flexera support.