Core Deployment: System Requirements

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

The following details apply to the FlexNet inventory core components when you use your preferred third-party deployment processes to install them on a target Windows device.

Supported platforms

The FlexNet inventory core components operate on the following platforms (inventory targets):
Microsoft Windows UNIX-like platforms
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, 2012, 2012 R2, 2012 R2 SP1, 2016, 2019, 2022
  • Windows Server Core 2008 R2 x64, 2012, 2012 R2
  • Windows Server Standard (previously known as Windows Server Core) 2016, 2019
  • Windows 7, 8, 10, 11
    Note: Windows systems that can run on ARM-based devices are also supported.
  • AIX 7.1 LPARs with Technology Level 5 or later, AIX 7.2
  • Amazon Linux 2, 2023 (ARM64/AArch64; x86, 32-bit and 64-bit)
  • CentOS 6-7.5 (x86, 32-bit and 64-bit); 7.6-9 (x86 64-bit only)
  • Debian Linux 8–11.3 (x86, 32-bit and 64-bit); 11.5, 12.0 (x86 64-bit only)
    Note: For Debian Linux 9.4, 9.5 and 10 (both 32-bit and 64-bit), minimal installations of the OS core omit the ifconfig command. This prevents collection of the IP address and MAC address in inventory. The root user can use the following command to restore this functionality:
         apt-get install net-tools  -y
  • Fedora Linux 26 (x86, 32-bit and 64-bit); 27-38 (x86 64-bit only)
  • HP-UX 11i v3 (Itanium only), vPars/nPars
  • macOS 10.15.4–14 (applicable for both Intel and Apple M-series processors)
    Note: If you need to run the FlexNet Inventory Agent of version 20.1 or earlier on an Apple M-series processor ("Apple silicon"), Rosetta 2 must be installed and running. This is Apple's solution for transitioning most Intel-based applications to run on Apple silicon. There are two possible command formats for installing Rosetta 2:
    • Interactive installation that asks for agreement to the Rosetta 2 license:
      /usr/sbin/softwareupdate 
    --install-rosetta
    • Non-interactive installation:
      /usr/sbin/softwareupdate 
    --install-rosetta --agree-to-license
  • Nutanix AHV hypervisor
    Note: All versions that are within their product support lifecycle and use the libvirt library are supported.
  • OpenStack Ironic hypervisor
    Note: As the OpenStack Ironic hypervisor is used to provision bare metal as opposed to virtual machines, devices running under this type of hypervisor will be reported as a Computer.
  • OpenSUSE Leap 42.2, 42.3 (x86, 32-bit and 64-bit); 15-15.4 (x86 64-bit only)
  • Oracle Linux 6.0–6.10 (x86, 32-bit and 64-bit); 7.0-8.7 and 9.0-9.1 (x86 64-bit only)
  • Photon OS 3.0-5.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.0-6.10 (x86, 32-bit and 64-bit); 7.0-8.8 and 9.0-9.2 (x86 64-bit only)
  • Rocky Linux 8, 9
  • Solaris 10–11 (SPARC), Zones for versions 10–11
  • Solaris 10–11.4 (x86), Zones for versions 10–11
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3, 12 SP4, 12 SP5, 15, 15 SP1, 15.2-15.5 (x86 64-bit only)
  • Ubuntu 14–17.04 (x86, 32-bit and 64-bit); 17.10-23.04 (x86 64-bit only)
Linux on IBM zSystems platforms are also supported. The following Linux distributions are certified for usage on the IBM zSystems architecture. For details about supported versions on different hardware types, see https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/linux-ibm-z-tested-platforms.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
  • Ubuntu

Disk space requirements

On target Windows inventory devices in the Core deployment case, the following are disk space requirements:
  • Where the target device is a typical workstation, in the order of 6MB
  • For an Oracle server, in the order of 9MB.
The following log file is available on the target inventory device in the Core deployment case:
  • tracker.log — Generated by the inventory component, ndtrack

Memory requirements

On target inventory devices, the memory requirements are:

  • Minimum RAM: 512 MB
  • Recommended RAM: 2 GB
In general, through a cycle of inventory gathering and upload, the memory demand is in the order of 5-30 MB.

Communications protocols and ports

When the FlexNet inventory core components execute on the target device (in the Core deployment case), the only ports required are the standard ports for communication with the inventory beacon:
  • From FlexNet inventory core components on target device, inbound on the inventory beacon — File upload using HTTP protocol: port 80
  • From FlexNet inventory core components on target device, inbound on the inventory beacon — File upload using HTTPS protocol: port 443

Supported packages to inventory

FlexNet inventory can include data from most package technologies supported by the operating systems, and some additional third-party packaging technologies:
Platform Supported package technologies

All platforms

InstallAnywhere (IA), InstallShield Multiplatform (ISMP), BEA/Oracle Installer (BEA), Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), IBM Installation Manager (IIM)

AIX

LPP, RPM

HP-UX

Software Distributor SD-UX Package

Linux

RPM (Red Hat, CentOS, Oracle, SuSE, Fedora, etc), DPKG (Debian, Ubuntu).

Mac OS X

Mac Application Bundle, Mac Package Bundle

Solaris

Sys V Package (pkg), IPS

Windows

MSI, Add/Remove Programs Registry Key
However, FlexNet inventory cannot collect data from some of the less common or newer operating system technologies and many third-party technologies. Some known examples include:
  • All platforms — IBM InstallStream, IBM Tivoli Netcool Installer
  • Mac OS X — Mac flat package.

System load benchmarks

The following notes reflect observed behavior on sample target inventory devices during collection of FlexNet inventory:
Task Run duration (seconds) CPU usage (seconds) CPU usage (% of single core) Memory usage Network load

Inventory collection

13 to 240 s

5 to 130 s

10% to 50%

4 MB to 20 MB

 10 KB to 200 KB per upload

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Current