Importing Inventory Targets

The Inventory Targets page (Data Collection > IT Visibility Inventory Tasks > Inventory Targets) displays devices that have been previously imported into IT Visibility. The ability to show imported devices on that page is controlled by a specific configuration that can be enabled for you if you contact Flexera Support. These devices are available to be used for agent configuration.

Currently, the main Flexera One use case for importing data to IT Visibility is to import from third-party systems (FlexNet Beacon and ServiceNow). This is the main scenario for the majority of cases. However, for specific things such as VMWare, it makes sense to import from a .csv file as the result set is very small and typically the list of targets is known. However, keep in mind that currently only VMWare infrastructure-related targets can be imported from a .csv file directly into Flexera One. Prior to Flexera One supporting all target types with a corresponding .csv template that is to be used for importing that specific target type, you can import data by importing inventory through beacons and from ServiceNow.

Inventory targets imported from a .csv file are matched to the previously imported devices by name. In cases where a successful match is found, properties imported from inventory sources may overwrite data imported from a .csv file. If you need to prevent this from happening, simply import the .csv file with inventory targets using specific target names that differ from the device name. For example, if you need to target a vCenter host for remote execution based on a specific IP address and you do not want it to ever be overwritten by what is being imported into IT Visibility for the vCenter host, you may set up the IP address as the target name in the .csv file.

Tip:Your account must have write permissions on Flexera One—at a minimum, the Manage discovery & inventory role—to complete this process (or to see the Import Inventory Targets button). For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles.

To import a list of inventory targets:

In the Data Collection menu click Inventory Targets.

The Inventory Targets page opens to show the most-recently imported type of inventory targets. Below the target type (shown on the left side of the page), you can see the number of inventory targets of this type included in the current display.

On the left side of the page, select the type of inventory targets that you want to import. Types include:

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VMware Infrastructure—Include here your VCenter servers, or else, when VCenter is not in use, your VMware virtual hosts. (Later, Flexera One obtains through their inventory the list of all active virtual machines being managed/hosted, and can also collect suitable inventory from the VMs.)

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Other types will be forthcoming.

Each type of inventory target has a fixed CSV template that must be used for importing it. To obtain the template for your selected target type, click Import Inventory Targets.

The Import Inventory Targets page is displayed.

Ensure that the correct template name is visible in the Pre-set template dropdown, or if necessary select the correct template name for your chosen target type.

Click Download Template.

Your browser downloads the .csv template with the appropriate columns to your computer (by default, on Windows, to your Downloads folder). Opening the file on a Windows computer defaults to opening in Microsoft Excel.

Preserving the column titles in the template, complete the data entry.

You can copy/paste from an existing spreadsheet (exported from the external tool), or reformat an existing spreadsheet to have the same column names. Save the modified file as CSV on your local hard drive for safe- keeping and future reference.

Tip:Only .csv files may be imported. While the existing column names in the template must be preserved, you may add/keep extra columns of other information if useful for you. Any additional columns are not included in the import of inventory targets.

Important:Make sure that each device name is unique. Device names are used for record matching during this import, and records with names matching ones previously uploaded are merged (such that newly imported values for IP address or ports replace the values previously imported). Duplicated names within the same .csv is an error (see below).

You may drag the saved .csv file in Windows Explorer to the drop area on the Import Inventory Targets page, or click or browse to navigate to the file and select it.

The file is immediately uploaded and assessed, and the drop zone is replaced with your assessment results. If there were errors, you may click the Download error file link in that area to download a similar .csv file of just the default template columns, the rows containing errors, and an extra column of annotations explaining the errors found. Possible errors include:

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Blank values.

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Duplicate values in the Name column. Neither of these rows is imported, and they are both marked in the downloadable error file.

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Illegal characters in the device name, such as white space. Use the DNS name, or host name, for each computer (for which only alphanumeric characters are permitted).

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An invalid IP address (both the number values and the dot-separated format must be acceptable).

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An excessive port number (multiple ports, comma-separated with or without white space, may be included, but must be in the range 1 to 65535).

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Expected columns missing or incorrectly named.

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Too many rows – each CSV import is limited to 2000 rows of data. (If you have more than 2000 of the same type of inventory targets, group them into separate .csv files for import.)

You may repair any errors in the downloaded error .csv file, and upload the repairs (previously imported rows that are now excluded from your repairs file are unaffected). Alternatively, you may make the corrections in your original file and then upload it again – rows that were uploaded successfully in the past will now be “merged” with the matching rows on the second import.

To clear an assessment result in the web interface, click the trash can icon in its top right corner. This allows you to import your amended file for reassessment.

If your assessment shows no errors, and reports the numbers of potentially new and updated target devices, the Import Inventory Targets button is enabled. You must click this button to complete the import process, otherwise your uploaded data is discarded.

You are returned to the Inventory Targets page, with any filters from your last display still in place (you may need to clear filters to see your additions, or a filter may be useful for checking that the new entries are in place).

The column chooser provides additional display-only columns that are useful when your inventory targets are in production use. You cannot populate these columns as part of a .csv import – they are populated automatically as operations progress. These include:

Display-Only Columns
Field	Details
Groups	The number of groups of which this inventory target is a member. This column can be particularly useful for managing which inventory targets are not yet in a group to which tasks can be applied – for example, filter this column to show where the value is zero.
Group Name	The group (or groups) where this inventory target is a member. If there are multiple groups, they are all in a comma-separated list – you may need to resize the column, or hover to see the names in a tooltip.
Last Imported	The most recent date when this inventory target was included in an imported .csv file.