Archived Inventory
When active, this page lists all inventory devices that have a status value of Archived. These devices do not appear in other views of inventory devices—they remain visible only:
| • | In this page |
| • | In any IBM PVU License Consumption report covering any reporting period within which the archived inventory device was active |
| • | In the Consumption tabs of any IBM PVU licenses that have been allocated to the device (and to repeat, this is true only when IT Asset Management is in 'PVU mode') — and, as for all devices whether archived or not, in the Search results for inventory devices to which you may now want to make a new allocation. |
Tip:Making a license allocation to an Archived device is certainly not required, and does not change either the current consumption shown in the license Consumption tab (where historical consumption does not count) or the historical consumption shown in relevant license consumption reports. An allocation to an archived device includes the device in the Consumption tab listing, but does not change the current total consumption because the archived device cannot currently consume.
Important:The Archived status can be assigned only to devices that appear in FlexNet inventory (that is, in inventory returned from the FlexNet Inventory Agent or FlexNet Inventory Scanner, or from the ndtrack executable that was otherwise installed on the device). Historical details for IBM license consumption are not saved for inventory imported from other sources.
In PVU mode, the Archived status is assigned automatically when an attempt is made to delete or ignore the inventory device record, but it is still required for its historical contributions to sub-capacity points consumption for one or more IBM PVU licenses.
Why a device becomes archived
A device is archived when it currently has, or has ever had, an installation of any software that is, or was at any point, covered by an IBM PVU or VPC license. This refers to licenses that are actually configured in IT Asset Management, not theoretical licenses that could apply but have not been created in IT Asset Management.
It's often assumed that a device must be actively consuming from an IBM PVU or VPC license to be considered for archiving. This is not true. The only requirement is that the device has, or has had, an installation of software that could be covered by one of these license types (or would have been covered in the past).
A device that is not currently consuming from a PVU license, for example, due to a restriction preventing consumption, may still be archived.
If all installations that would normally be covered by a PVU or VPC license are instead covered by a non-PVU or non-VPC license at the time the device would otherwise be archived, the device will not be archived.
Example: Some IBM software may typically be covered by a PVU license but can also be licensed under an IBM Authorized User license for development use. If a device has one installation of this software and that installation is currently covered by an IBM Authorized User license, the device will not be archived.
Delete or ignore the inventory device record:
The attempt to delete or ignore the inventory device record may happen either automatically or through an operator's manual action:
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Methods |
Description |
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Automatically |
An inventory item is automatically archived in either of these cases:
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Manually |
An inventory item can be manually archived by selecting the device in a listing, and clicking Delete. Although discovered devices and inventory devices are separate records, the normal process when you delete a discovered device is to also delete its linked inventory device record (as long as it is not restored by future inventory imports). In the special case where the linked inventory device is also linked to an IBM PVU license, the two linked records are treated differently:
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There are other behavioral similarities and differences between deleting a device and archiving a device.
| • | Deletion—When an inventory device that is a virtual host is deleted, all its guest virtual machines are also deleted. In the inverse case, when an inventory device that is a virtual machine is deleted, its link to the virtual host is lost (although the host record itself is not deleted). |
| • | Archiving—When an inventory device that is a virtual host is archived, all its guest virtual machines are also archived. In the inverse case, when an inventory device that is a virtual machine is archived (but its host is not), its link to the virtual host is maintained, so that it can continue to contribute to the licensing calculations for the host. |
When an inventory device is archived, all records of current installed applications are removed from it, and only historical records of applications linked to IBM PVU licenses are retained. An archived device cannot have licenses other than IBM PVU allocated to it.
While an inventory device is Archived, it takes no part in any license consumption calculations other than its historical impact on IBM PVU consumption. To all intents and purposes, it is as if it has already been deleted, except for its historical contribution to IBM PVU license consumption.
The status of Archived devices is reassessed at each full inventory import and compliance calculation, which by default occurs nightly. As soon as the inventory device's historical records are no longer required (that is, when they fall outside the data retention period, for which see IT Asset Management Settings: Licensing Tab), those PVU details are removed, and the inventory device record is itself finally and automatically deleted.
Tip:If an inventory device that is Archived is unexpectedly matched in incoming inventory—that is, the device somehow reappears—then its status is automatically switched from Archived back to Active, and it disappears from this listing and is once again available in the All Inventory page. Most of the time, though, a device disappears from this listing because it has finally been deleted.
In summary, then, inventory devices with a status of Archived are scheduled for deletion as soon as their historical records are no longer required for IBM PVU license consumption calculations.
You can perform the following actions on this page:
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Action |
Description |
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View or change the properties of an archived inventory device |
Click the hyperlinked name of the device, or select the appropriate row and click Open. The properties of the inventory device remain editable (other than its Status) so that you may correct any device settings that influence PVU points consumption when the reporting period is reassessed (as happens with each full compliance calculation). Tip:This is the only view that allows you to open the properties for an archived device. Also notice that the Status column available in other views of inventory devices is not present in this listing, since every device here by definition has a status value of Archived. |
Properties Displayed on the Archived Inventory Page
For detailed information on the properties displayed in this list, see Inventory Listings Property Reference.
Note:Most lists in IT Asset Management only show a selection of the properties in the underlying database. Some columns are displayed by default and others can be displayed using the column chooser control, including any custom properties that you have added. For information on using the column chooser, see Managing Columns in a Table.