Typical Scenarios and Use Cases

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Here are some typical use cases for the various combinations of code objects and deployment approaches. This high-level summary helps you decide which approach you wish to adopt. Subsequent topics provide in depth coverage of each approach. By settling on your approach as early as possible, you can minimize study time.

The bold keywords in the following use cases are the ones summarized at the end of Deployment Overview: Where to, and How.

A replacement for ILMT managing IBM PVU licenses

"By agreement with IBM, we will use FlexNet inventory tools for sub-capacity reporting on IBM PVU licenses."

It is mandatory to use the full FlexNet Inventory Agent, locally installed on target inventory devices, whether in the Adopted case or the Agent third-party deployment case.

Minimum on-going management

"I have a straight-forward network configuration, and I am OK to provide a domain administrator password for installation. Thereafter, I want automatic self-updating of the system to version limits that I control, and maximum automation of all processes — including managing the mobile devices of our road warriors."

Consider the Adopted case.

Minimum deployment effort, minimum management

"We have well-established deployment processes. I don't want another one, and I don't want to store passwords, whether for deployment or operation. I also need to track usage to help manage license harvesting and redeployment. I must be able to control where the agent is installed. And I also want maximum automation for future management."

Consider Agent third-party deployment. After you manage the initial deployment, the FlexNet Inventory Agent self-manages in line with your policies set in the web interface of IT Asset Management. And unlike zero footprint inventory collection, there is no on-going requirement for password storage.

A quick test

"I want to run the core components in a test environment and inspect the inventory that is returned. I won't be tracking usage."

Consider FlexNet Inventory Scanner. Easy to deploy, test with default settings, and remove cleanly afterward.

Specialized and focused

"I have a moderately-sized group of servers from which I need to collect specialized inventory, such as Hyper-V, VMware, and I also have some Oracle virtual machines."

Consider Zero-footprint inventory collection. The inventory beacon can control agentless inventory collection for several specialized inventory types, as well as agent-based general hardware and software inventory when required; all conveniently controlled through the definition of rules in the web interface for IT Asset Management.

Leveraging current infrastructure

"We have deployment, monitoring, and security under tight control. We want minimum disruption of our current practices."

For Windows platforms, consider Core deployment, when it is necessary to augment your current inventory-gathering tools and methods with the advanced inventory-gathering capabilities of IT Asset Management. (You can, of course, import inventory from other tools, but that is not the subject of this document.) With this option, you manage deployment as well as future updates, scheduling, monitoring and any required remediation, and so on.

On UNIX-like platforms, consider using FlexNet Inventory Scanner. Once again, with this approach there are no downloads or self-updates, so that you manage deployment as well as future updates, scheduling, monitoring and any required remediation. When you execute the ndtrack.sh shell script, it sets environment variables, selects the platform-specific version of the ndtrack executable and writes it to disk, executes it (passing in any command-line parameters you specify), and then removes the executable. More details are in FlexNet Inventory Scanner: Operation on UNIX-Like Platforms.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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