Configuring IT Visibility Beacon to Upload Inventory to Flexera One
Important:
The “upstream” connection from your inventory beacon allows it to upload collected inventory to Flexera One. Once configured, the same connection also provides for the download of necessary content to each inventory beacon. Downloaded items may include:
| • | Beacon policy—The settings for operation of the inventory beacon itself, plus details that allow each inventory beacon to prepare device policy for any inventory device where the installed FlexNet inventory agent requests it |
| • | Self-update packages—These may include updates for the FlexNet Beacon software; and an inventory beacon may also transfer update packages for FlexNet inventory agent to inventory devices. |
The configuration file needed by each inventory beacon is available for download from Flexera One. This process may be used either to initialize a new inventory beacon, or renew the configuration (for example, after correcting an error).
To configure the upstream connection for an inventory beacon:
| 1. | On the inventory beacon (server), run the FlexNet Beacon software as administrator. |
For example, in the Windows start menu, search for FlexNet Beacon, right-click the product name and select Run as administrator.
| 2. | In the navigation bar on the left, in the Beacon configuration section, ensure that Parent connection is selected. |
If this is the first time starting a new installation of the FlexNet Beacon software, it may default to displaying this page.
| 3. | Select Enable parent connection. |
This selection enables the other controls in this panel.
| 4. | Find the Beacon UID field, click Copy, and paste the copied string into a text editor. |
| 5. | Access Flexera One in a web browser, go to Data Collection > IT Visibility Inventory Tasks > IT Visibility Beacons, and click Create Beacon. |
| 6. | Configure the following settings. |
| • | Name—Input a name for the beacon. This name will be used to identify this new inventory beacon in future listings. |
| • | Unique ID—Paste in the Beacon UID that you copied from the FlexNet Beacon application. This is the unique ID for the beacon. |
| • | Upgrade Mode—Select the upgrade mode from the following options: |
| • | Manual—The beacon will never be automatically upgraded. This is the default and recommended option. |
| • | Always upgrade to approved version—The beacon will always be automatically upgraded to the approved version. The version number of the approved version is also displayed for your information. |
| • | Always upgrade to latest version—The beacon will always be automatically upgraded to the latest version. |
| • | Use a specific version chosen for this beacon—If you select this option, a list of all available beacon versions are displayed for you to select a specific version, and the beacon will be automatically upgraded to this version. |
| 7. | Does this inventory beacon connect directly to Flexera One, or does it report to another inventory beacon in your hierarchy? |
Since this inventory beacon reports to Flexera One, the Parent Beacon field is empty (and disabled).
| 8. | (Optional) If you want the beacon to be enabled right after it is created, select the Enabled checkbox. |
| 9. | Click Save to create the beacon. |
| 10. | Click Download Configuration, and in the confirmation dialog, click YES. |
Downloading the configuration for an inventory beacon automatically refreshes the internal password that the FlexNet Beacon engine on that server must use to communicate with Flexera One.
Tip:If you are updating the configuration for an inventory beacon that has already been operational, its previous password is disabled as soon as you click YES on the confirmation dialog; and the inventory beacon is unable to upload inventory until you complete the import of the new configuration on that server, as described in the following steps.
Once you confirm, the customized configuration file is downloaded to the inventory beacon where you are working.
| 11. | Move back to the FlexNet Beacon interface, and click Import configuration. |
A file Open dialog appears, displaying the contents of your Downloads folder (or browse there if necessary).
| 12. | Select the most recent download (the file name includes the unique ID for this inventory beacon), and click Open. |
The configuration file is imported into FlexNet Beacon.
| 13. | When the configuration details are changed, the inventory beacon displays the resulting URLs, automatically runs a background check on the connection, and displays the results on the page. If there are problems listed, you can address these, and (if required) click Test connection to retry (see Troubleshooting for initial troubleshooting steps). |
Tip:The URLs for upstream connections must use the HTTPS protocol. HTTP is not supported.
| 14. | Click Save (bottom right in the FlexNet Beacon interface). |
| 15. | If you need to configure a firewall to allow your inventory beacon to access Flexera One, be sure to include all of the following URLs: |
|
Function |
URL |
|
Flexera One web page access |
North America: https://app.flexera.com (standard port 443) EU: https://app.flexera.eu (standard port 443) APAC: https://app.flexera.au (standard port 443) |
|
FlexNet Beacon endpoint (for uploads) |
North America: https://beacon.flexera.com https://us-west-2.beacons.flexeraeng.com/inventorybeacons
EU: https://beacon.flexera.eu https://eu-central-1.beacons.flexeraeng.com/inventorybeacons
APAC: https://beacon.flexera.au |
|
Performance and reliability monitoring |
https://js-agent.newrelic.com https://bam.nr-data.net |
|
Certificate revocation checks (standard port 80) |
http://crl.sca1b.amazontrust.com/sca1b.crl |
After this registration process, your inventory beacon knows how to “phone home”, and appears in the list on the Beacons page of the Flexera One web interface. Within about 15 minutes, once its status reports have been uploaded (and you have refreshed the page), its Connection Status is shown as Connected.
To make this inventory beacon operational, you must now:
| • | Add the downstream connection(s) from which data is to be collected, as described in Creating an Inventory Connection. |
| • | Schedule the automated collection of the inventory from your new connection(s). See Scheduling Inventory Imports for details. |
| • | Ensure that it remains enabled. Operation of each inventory beacon can be enabled/disabled both from the inventory beacon itself, and from the web interface for Flexera One. By default it is enabled at both ends. |
If there are errors in the connection, try the following steps:
| 1. | Check that your web browser on the inventory beacon server can still access Flexera One (at the URL listed in the Parent connection page of FlexNet Beacon), to validate that the network has not gone down. |
| 2. | If the network connection is still good, repeat the Test connection in the FlexNet Beacon interface. If the error persists, we have established that it was not a momentary intermittent problem. |
| 3. | Validate that the inventory beacon name you created contains only alphanumeric characters (including extended character sets) and spaces. If not, repeat this process from step 5 to create a different configuration file, with new credentials. |
| 4. | Have a system administrator review the inventory beacon log file located in C:\ProgramData\Flexera\Compliance\Logging to look for further information about the failure. Ask the system administrator whether there are any network settings (such as proxies) that prevent a web service accessing a website that a browser is allowed to access. |
| 5. | If the problem is still not resolved, contact Support at Flexera, including full details, and preferably a screen shot of your results on the Parent connection page in FlexNet Beacon. |