Adopted: System Requirements

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

The following details apply to the full FlexNet Inventory Agent when deployed through an inventory beacon to a target device.

Supported platforms

The FlexNet Inventory Agent operates on the following platforms (inventory targets):

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, 11Note: 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

The following table gives three disk space figures for installation of FlexNet Inventory Agent:

• Package type gives the kind of installer package provided for each platform, and Package size defines the disk space to download or copy the installer for each of the platforms, before installation.
• Installed defines the disk space for the binary files after installation. The default locations for installation are:
  • Windows: %ProgramFiles(x86)%\ManageSoft (on modern 64-bit systems, this expands to C:\Program Files (x86)\ManageSoft)
  • UNIX-like systems: /opt/managesoft
• Workspace approximates a typical operating space requirement. The precise requirements depends on the self-update installer package size, the number of inventory files awaiting upload, usage tracking, the growth of log files, and the like. The default locations for this requirement are:
  • Windows: %ProgramData%\ManageSoft Corp for data; and %temp%\ManageSoft for log files. The default values for these on modern operating systems are typically C:\ProgramData\ManageSoft Corp and C:\Windows\Temp\ManageSoft (for the SYSTEM account running processes as Windows services).
  • UNIX-like systems: /var/opt/managesoft for working data, including /var/opt/managesoft/log for log files.

Platform	Package type	Package size	Installed	Workspace
AIX	LPP	25 MB	33 MB	120 MB
HP-UX	SD-UX	74 MB	74 MB	180 MB
Linux i386 (Red Hat, Oracle, CentOS, Fedora, SuSE)	RPM	11 MB	27 MB	120 MB
Linux x86_64 (Red Hat, Oracle, CentOS, Fedora, SuSE)	RPM	36 MB	65 MB	160 MB
macOS	Mac Package Bundle	22 MB	55 MB	150 MB
Solaris SPARC	Sys V Package (pkg)	30 MB	30 MB	120 MB
Solaris x86	Sys V Package (pkg)	25 MB	25 MB	110 MB
Windows	MSI	30 MB	60 MB	160 MB

The following log files are available:

• schedule.log — Log from the ndschedag schedule component
• tracker.log — Generated by the inventory component, ndtrack
• uploader.log — Log from the ndupload file upload component
• usageagent.log — Generated by the mgsusageag usage tracking service.

Memory requirements

• 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.

Communication protocols and ports

All ports used by FlexNet Inventory Agent are configurable to any value through preference settings, for example by including the port number in URL settings. The default values for communications supported between adopted devices and inventory beacons are:

• File upload and download using HTTP protocol: port 80
• File upload and download using HTTPS protocol: port 443
• Additional ports may be required if supporting a proxy.

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).
macOS	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
• macOS — Mac flat package.

System load benchmarks

The following notes reflect observed behavior on sample systems using the full installed FlexNet Inventory Agent.

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
Usage monitoring	Ongoing	Under 1 s / day	Negligible	4 MB to 8 MB	5 KB to 20 KB / day
Policy update*	15 s to 33 s	Under 1 s per policy	Negligible	3 MB to 5 MB	10 KB to 100 KB per policy update

Note: The above values are indicative only and can vary based on a number of factors including how much CPU is being used by other processes as the FlexNet Inventory Agent runs with the lowest priority, what settings are enabled including file scanning and Oracle Fusion Middleware detection, the number of files present on the device and whether specific IncludeDirectory and ExcludeDirectory settings have been provided.

* For each policy update, FlexNet Inventory Agent downloads its current policy from its preferred inventory beacon. This links to several packages:

• Failover settings (upload and download locations on all available inventory beacons, all of which are configured for anonymous authentication)
• Client configuration (the preferences for use by all installed components included in the FlexNet Inventory Agent)
• Schedule
• Inventory settings and extensions (InventorySettings.xml)
• Agent self-upgrade package.

Using each package, FlexNet Inventory Agent checks the last downloaded content against the version currently on the inventory beacon. When there is no change, there is no further download (so that the checking process is both rapid and lightweight for the network). Changed items are downloaded, which may increase the network load for that occasion. The largest single impact is when a new agent update package is declared: for details of the download size per platform for update packages, see the disk space listing above.