Properties for Inventory Devices on Apply Allocations and Exemptions Page

This page displays the following columns for inventory devices. Note that some of the columns display properties of hardware asset records, and are populated only for inventory devices that are linked to assets.

Some columns are displayed by default whereas others can be displayed through the column chooser. For displaying columns and other UI options, see the topics under Managing Columns in a Table.

Properties for Inventory Devices on Apply Allocations and Exemptions Page

Property

Description

Asset status

For devices that are linked to hardware assets, this describes where the asset is within the asset life-cycle. May display any of the following values:

• Disposed—The asset is no longer held by the enterprise, as it has been sold, given away, thrown out, or destroyed.
• In storage—The asset has been delivered but has not been installed.
• Installed—The asset is in active use (standard operating condition).
• Other—Any other status used by your organization to classify an asset. This value does not affect any automated processing.
• Purchased—The asset has been purchased but not delivered.
• Retired—The asset has been retired from use, but remains within the enterprise.

Editable in the General tab of the asset properties.

Assigned user

The user assigned to this inventory device. This assignment overrides the Calculated user.

Editable in the Assigned field in Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.

Calculated user

The name of the most frequent user of this inventory device, over the previous 10 inventory collections. This value is calculated as follows:

• If there is only one primary user linked to the inventory device, this user is recorded
• If there are multiple primary users linked to the inventory device, the most frequently logged in user is recorded
• If there is no primary user associated with the inventory device, the last user to logon is recorded.

IT Asset Management generates the value of this field.

Category

The category of this device. IT Asset Management enables you to create customized categories to group inventory devices logically. These categories are additional to Inventory device type and Device role categorization. For example, you can create categories to differentiate database servers, network servers, or firewalls. The custom categories have no impact on license consumption.

Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.

Chassis number

The manufacturer's chassis number reported for the device.

Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).

Not available for Mobile Device and Virtual Machine inventory device types.

Clock speed (MHz)

The maximum clock speed (in MHz) of the processor that is installed in the inventory device.

Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually- created records). If the value is gathered from inventory, it cannot be edited; however, it can be overridden.

Cluster

The name of the cluster that the VM host belongs to.

Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties of the virtual host (for manually-created records).

Available only for inventory devices of type Virtual Machine.

Compliance status

The compliance status of an inventory device. It can have any of the following values:

• Changed—Indicates a change in the compliance status of an inventory device. This value is changed automatically when the following conditions are met:
• The inventory device has a linked asset.
• You have defined the device compliance settings to track any changes in the hardware properties of this device.
• There is a change in the hardware properties for which the device compliance settings have been defined. This change can be manual or a result of a new inventory import.
• Compliant—The inventory details reported in the last inventory import match those of previous imports, or any changes to those details have been approved. For details about reviewing or approving changes to assets, see Viewing and Accepting the Changes to a Device Asset.
• New—The default value for all newly imported devices. This value is not changed until there is a change in the hardware configuration or an asset is linked to this device.
• Not tracked—Indicates that the device is no longer tracked for compliance. This may happen when an inventory import leads to a duplicate device record with some change in its properties.

The value is calculated by IT Asset Management and can be manually set on the General tab of the inventory device properties.

Connection name

The name of the connection through which IT Asset Management received the last inventory for this inventory device.

Cores

The total number of processor cores available in a physical inventory device; or the number of cores assigned to an inventory device that is a virtual machine.

Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, the number of Cores can be manually overridden in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (see Inventory Device Properties / Hardware Tab).

Corporate unit

The corporate unit responsible for the inventory device.

Editable in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.

Cost center

The cost center responsible for all costs incurred for this inventory device.

Editable in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.

Created

The date when this inventory record was created in IT Asset Management.

Tip:New inventory device records are created during a full import to the compliance database, as new inventory is identified. Therefore it's quite possible to have a creation date that is later than the inventory date, with the difference being due to scheduling, such as the scheduling of imports from third-party tools, or delays between the upload of FlexNet inventory and the full import and compliance calculations (for example, if your full imports are scheduled weekly, or the like).

Creation method

The method used to create the inventory device record. The possible values:

• Automatic—the inventory device was discovered in incoming inventory
• Manual—the inventory device was manually created
• VM Host—the inventory device is a virtual machine that was discovered while taking inventory of a host server.

Device name

The name of the inventory device. This field can have any one of the following values: the first part of the full DNS name, the NetBIOS name, or the SNMP name of a computing device. If the device is a virtual host, you can also use its IP address as name.

Tip:The name displays as Flexera SaaS Manager if this is a dummy device record created for imports from your SaaS Management connector.

Important:Do not use a business adapter (or manual edits) to change the name of the inventory device that has been returned from inventory. This may cause creation of duplicate device records, and in any case will be overwritten by future inventory imports. For example, if you initially name new hardware purchases with the serial number while preparing for deployment, update the correct device name before collecting inventory.

By default, the table of allocations and exemptions is sorted in ascending alphabetical order on this value.

Disk (GB)

The total space of all hard drives installed on the inventory device, in Gigabytes.

Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually- created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.

Display adapters

The total number of display adapters installed in the inventory device.

Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually- created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.

Domain name

The name of the domain to which the computing device belongs.

Tip:Displays flexera.com if this is a dummy device record created for imports through your connector to SaaS Management.

Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties for manually created records. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.

Hard drives

The total number of hard drives installed in the inventory device.

Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually- created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.

Host

The name of the host server where this VM is a guest.

Editable in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties.

Note:As long as incoming inventory does not identify the host for this virtual machine, your manual entry is preserved (that is, a null value in inventory never overwrites a manually-entered value). However, once inventory returns a known host for this virtual machine, your value is overwritten with the data from inventory. Should it happen that future inventory again returns no value for the host name, the previous inventory value in this field is cleared, matching the current inventory data.

Available only for inventory devices of type Virtual Machine.

Hosted in

Shows whether the inventory device is on-premises (the default, meaning the device is within your enterprise), or in a cloud operated by a particular service provider. For some cloud service providers, the Hosted in value is set automatically through inventory (AWS is supported from version 13.1.0 of Inventory Agent, and Azure is supported from version 13.2.0). For other cloud service providers, you must make a selection manually.

Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.

Hosted in cloud

Indicates No if the inventory device is hosted on-premises (within your enterprise). Indicates Yes if the inventory device is hosted in the cloud by a cloud service provider. Most inventory devices hosted in the cloud are virtual machines; but this value is available for all inventory devices, because some cloud service providers also rent entire machines (for example, AWS provides dedicated hosts and bare metal instances). This is a convenience column for grouping/filtering inventory devices that are hosted in the cloud. The name of the cloud service provider for each inventory device is available in the Hosted in column.

Inventory chassis type

The chassis type for an inventory device, as reported by the inventory process.

Note:The following chassis types are considered portable computers eligible to be covered by a license's right of the second use:

• Laptop
• Notebook
• Other Hand Held
• Portable
• Sub Notebook
• Tablet

This read-only value cannot be edited, however for the purposes of license calculations, you can override its value with the Assigned chassis type setting in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties.

Inventory device type

Specifies the type of the inventory device, which may be any of the following values:

• Computer—A computing device like a desktop, laptop, workstation, or a non- virtualized server.
• Mobile device—A mobile device like a tablet or smart phone.
• Product—Not a device type, but a pseudo-value used only in IBM VPC licenses to identify rows showing the licensed IBM product. This value may appear only if the Bundle consumption rules (in the license properties Use Rights & Rules tab, under License consumption rules) have the option Consume for each product on a device selected.
• Remote Device—The device is a remote device (not appearing in inventory) known to have accessed virtualized applications. This value is created automatically.
• VDI Template—The VDI template used to create the virtual desktop instance that was accessed from an inventory device (see Virtual Desktop Templates). This value is created automatically.
• Virtual Machine—A virtual machine running on a physical host machine. A physical host can run multiple virtual machines using virtualization technologies from VMWare, Oracle, Microsoft, and so on.
• VM Host—A physical virtual host running one or more virtual machines using any virtualization technology, such as VMWare.

Editable in the Inventory device type field in the General tab of the inventory device properties. The value may be overwritten by incoming inventory.

IP address

The IP address of the inventory device. For inventory devices with multiple IP addresses (for example, those with multiple network cards), a comma-separated list (up to 256 characters) is shown. IP addresses in the IPv6 address family are not reported in FlexNet inventory for devices running UNIX-like operating systems.

Last inventory date

The date when the last inventory information was collected by the Last inventory source for this inventory device.

The inventory process generates the value of this field.

Last inventory source

If you have multiple overlapping inventory sources that report on the same device, it is possible for some inventory details to come from one source and other details from another source. This column identifies the most recent source of inventory that reported the majority of the hardware properties for this device. If you have declared a primary inventory connection and this device appears in inventory from that primary connection, it is likely that your primary connection is supplying the majority of hardware properties, and so is shown here.

Tip:If your primary source reported the majority of hardware properties some time ago, and since then one or more secondary sources have updated a minority of additional properties, this value still shows the primary source (source of the majority of hardware properties). Tracking the primary source is particularly valuable if you have a variation from IBM allowing you to use Inventory Agent and IT Asset Management as replacements for IBM tools (such as ILMT) in the calculation and reporting of sub-capacity licensing for IBM PVU licenses. That agreement requires that you can demonstrate that the Last inventory source is FlexNet Manager Suite, and that this source is reporting every 30 minutes.

The values are system-provided, and cannot be modified. Most values are self- explanatory; some less obvious ones include:

• Data Platform—The inventory was imported from Flexera Normalize (previously BDNA Normalize, part of BDNA Data Platform)
• Flexera SaaS Manager—This is a dummy device created for linking with imports through your SaaS Management connector
• ManageSoft—The inventory was collected by legacy versions of the Inventory Agent, and saved in a separate inventory database
• Manual—You created this inventory device record manually, and no matching inventory has been received yet.
• SMS—The inventory was imported from Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (previously Microsoft SCCM or SMS).
• Tivoli Endpoint Manager—Inventory was imported from IBM Big Fix, or one of its earlier renamings (IBM Endpoint Manager, Tivoli Endpoint Manager).

Tip:If you have custom inventory adapters, entries for these may also appear in this column as appropriate.

Last logged on user

The name of the user that was discovered to be the last logged on user on this device.

Linked asset

The name of an asset, if any, that the device is linked to.

Tip:If the status of the linked asset is set to Retired (in the asset properties), the linked inventory device remains visible in the All Inventory list, but is suppressed in the Out-Of-Date Inventory list, regardless of how long it is since the device reported inventory.

The link between an inventory device and an asset is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.

Location

The location within your enterprise that is responsible for the device.

Editable in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.

MAC address

The Media Access Control (MAC) address of the inventory device. If a device has multiple network interface cards, this field displays a comma-separated list of MAC addresses.

Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).

Not available for Mobile Device, Remote Device or VDI Template inventory device types. For inventory devices, the value cannot be edited once inventory has been returned.

Manufacturer

The manufacturer of the inventory device.

Model

The manufacturer’s model name or number for this device.

Editable in the Model field in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). If the value is gathered from inventory, it cannot be edited, but it can be overridden by entering a new value in the Overridden field in General tab of the inventory device properties. The original value continues to display on the General tab, alongside the overridden value, and may be restored at any time.

Network cards

The total number of network cards installed in a physical inventory device; or the number of network cards accessible by the virtual machine.

Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually- created records).

Not editable for records created from imported inventory.

Operating system

The operating system running on this device.

This value may be blank because:

• The device is recently discovered – the operating system can only occasionally be populated during first discovery, and is often backfilled once inventory is returned for this device.
• The device is a VM host that is a hardware frame that may not be running its own operating system. In this case, the computer Name field is set to a serial number associated with the hardware (because, without an operating system, there is no host name). In fact, no inventory of any kind is possible without an operating system, so IT Asset Management synthesizes the VM host record from common data reported by its guest VMs. The virtual machines in these cases may typically be partitions like:
• LPARs running on IBM PowerPC servers
• Solaris zones on either x86 or SPARC architectures
• nPar or vPar partitions running on HP Integrity servers.

Overridden

Indicates whether the operator has manually changed one or more properties discovered in inventory, or if the inventory details are unchanged for this inventory device.

Partial number of processors

The equivalent number of full-time processors set by the time-sharing controls on the hardware console. Some virtualization technologies (such as on IBM's AIX operating system) report this setting in inventory. You may override an incorrect inventory value for this field.

Populated and (by default) updated on virtual machines by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (only for virtual machines) can be overridden with a manually entered value. An overridden value is no longer updated by incoming inventory.

Pool

The name given to the pool of resources to which this virtual machine belongs.

Processor type

The type of processor installed in the inventory device.

Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this value can be manually overwritten in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (see Inventory Device Properties / Hardware Tab).

Processors

The total number of processors installed in a physical inventory device, or logical processors assigned to a virtual machine.

Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties can be overridden with a manually entered value (see Inventory Device Properties / Hardware Tab). Overridden values are no longer updated by incoming inventory.

RAM (GB)

The size of Random Access Memory (RAM) installed in the inventory device, in gigabytes.

For manually-created records, this is editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.

For virtual machines, the value is editable in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties.

Role

The role assigned to the inventory device, such as Development, Test, and Production. Device roles (where permitted by the product use rights on a license) can exempt devices from consuming entitlements on a license to which they are (and remain) attached. For example, some license agreements may grant an exemption for devices used exclusively for testing. For more details, see Allocations and Exemptions.

Editable in Device role field in the General tab of the inventory device properties.

Serial number

The serial number of the device, attempting to uniquely identify either the hardware (for a stand-alone device) or the virtualization container (for a virtual machine), as reported in inventory.

Tip:This displays Flexera SaaS Manager with a numerical suffix in the special case where the inventory device is a dummy record created for linking with imports through your SaaS Management connector.

Service pack

The service pack number or ID reported by the operating system.

For manually-created records, this is editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.

Sockets

The total number of mounting sockets for central processing units (CPUs) available in a physical inventory device. For a Virtual machine, this may be the number of virtual sockets assigned to the VM.

Tip:This field records the total number of CPU mounting sockets, regardless of whether the sockets are empty or have CPU chips mounted in them.

Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. If it is not available from your inventory, or if the value is inaccurate, you can permanently override with a manual value.

Status

Indicates the current state of a device. It can have any of the following values:

• Active—A device for which the inventory information is received from an inventory source.
• Archived—This device is in transition pending deletion, but is currently held because of its historical impacts on IBM PVU sub-capacity retrospective calculations.
• Awaiting Inventory—This device is a place-holder that has not yet appeared in imported inventory from any source.
• Ignored—The device that is not managed. An ignored device is not considered in license consumption calculations.

Tip:If an inventory device is linked to an asset record, and that asset is given a status of either Retired or Disposed, this Ignored value is automatically set for the linked inventory device.

Provided that the inventory device has not [yet] been linked to an asset record, this value is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (although Awaiting Inventory is no longer available once inventory has been collected for the device, and Archived can never be set manually).

Threads

The total number of threads available in a physical inventory device; or the number of logical processors (virtual processors in a virtual machine, or threads assigned to a partition) assigned to an inventory device that is a virtual machine.

Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties can be overridden with a manually entered value (see Inventory Device Properties / Hardware Tab).

VM name

The name of the virtual machine that is recognized by the host server. This value is visible in the properties of the VM host, in the Virtual Machines tab, in the VM name column.

VM type

The type of the virtual machine. This may be one of:

• AWS EC2—This type is set automatically when this virtual machine record is created/updated from an AWS instance found in inventory imported through an inventory beacon connecting to Amazon Web Services. For further details, see the Cloud hosting tab.
• Hyper-V 
• Linux KVM 
• LPAR 
• nPar 
• Oracle VM 
• SRP 
• Unknown 
• VMware 
• vPar 
• WPAR 
• Zone 

Editable in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties for the virtual machine (for manually-created records). The value may be overwritten by incoming inventory.

VMs

The number of virtual machines hosted by the inventory device (only available when the Inventory device type is VM Host). This is the count of virtual machines on the Virtual Machines tab of the properties of the VM host.