Register an IT Asset Management Inventory Beacon
Registering the beacon sets up its communications to IT Asset Management. Complete this process after installing the inventory beacon software.
Note:If you are installing a hierarchy of inventory beacons, so that some 'child' beacons report to 'parent' beacons rather than to the central application server, you must register them top down through the hierarchy. Parent beacons must be registered before their children. As well, for a parent inventory beacon, you must choose between:
|
•
|
Using an IIS web server, or the built-in simplified web server, to manage communications with downstream devices (whether inventory devices or child inventory beacons) |
|
•
|
Using Windows authentication, anonymous authentication, or a local account on the parent inventory beacon to run the web service managing those communications. |
You may implement your choice of web server only after you have registered this inventory beacon.
There is one way to register the beacon and that is registering an Inventory Beacon using the Flexera One user interface. Follow the instructions in the following subsection, Registering an Inventory Beacon Using the Flexera One User Interface.
Registering an Inventory Beacon Using the Flexera One User Interface
This section describes how to register an inventory beacon using the Flexera One user interface.
To register an inventory beacon using the Flexera One user interface:
|
1.
|
On the beacon server, obtain a unique beacon identifier by launching Windows REGEDIT and navigating to: |
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Common\BeaconUID
|
2.
|
Capture the BeaconUID value and remove the beginning and ending brackets. |
|
4.
|
After logging in, if you have access to several organizations, make sure you select the correct one in the Select an Organization section to the left of your user profile. |
|
5.
|
Navigate to IT Assets Inventory Tasks Beacons page (Data Collection > IT Assets Inventory Tasks > Beacons. |
Note:Keep in mind that you should not go to the IT Visibility Beacons page. The IT Visibility Beacons page is for use with IT Visibility application only.
|
6.
|
On the IT Assets Inventory Tasks Beacons page, click the CONFIGURE A BEACON button and copy your beacon UID (without the brackets) that you collected in Step 1b and in the Name field, enter the name of this Beacon. |
|
7.
|
When you have finished entering configuration details, click the DOWNLOAD CONFIGURATION buttton. If you are logged into the Flexera One Platform on a separate workstation than the beacon server, you must copy the downloaded beacon configuration file to the beacon server. |
|
8.
|
On the beacon server, go to the Windows Start menu, find the FlexNet Beacon application, and launch it. |
Tip:Be patient while the beacon application loads. When it loads, the parent configuration details appear.
|
9.
|
Click the Enable parent connection checkbox. |
|
10.
|
Click the Import configuration button. |
|
11.
|
Browse to the location of the downloaded configuration file, select it, and click Open. |
After this registration process, your inventory beacon knows how to “phone home.” To make it operational, you must now:
|
•
|
Add the downstream connections from which data is to be collected (as described in the following topics) |
|
•
|
Ensure that it remains enabled. Operation of each inventory beacon can be enabled/disabled both from the beacon itself, and from Flexera One. By default it is enabled at both ends. |
This individual inventory beacon is now configured for its upstream communications. However, if this inventory beacon is typical, and either:
|
•
|
Is a 'parent' inventory beacon through which others are to upload, or |
|
•
|
Is to collect inventory uploaded by installed instances of Inventory Agent, or by the zero footprint inventory collection method (as defined in Gathering FlexNet Inventory) |
Then you must now choose the kind of web server to use on this inventory beacon, the kind of authentication, and the account credentials to use (if necessary). These details must be in place before you can repeat the configuration process for any child inventory beacons that are to connect here; and before any inventory files can be uploaded. For more details, see Configuring Inventory Collection.