IT Asset Management
(Cloud)
Accounts used to connect to the REST APIs of BMC Discovery (as this connector does)
do not use passwords. Instead, they use a bearer token that allows the account to
make API calls. For this reason, before setting up the connector in the FlexNet Beacon interface, you need to correctly configure the account details in
BMC Discovery, and obtain the bearer token.
To configure FlexNet Beacon to connect with BMC
Discovery:
-
First, collect the bearer token:
-
In the BMC Discovery interface, select the
Administration tab.
-
In the Security section of the
Administration page, click the
Users icon.
-
If you need to create a new account in the Users
page, click Add at the bottom of the page.
(Otherwise, locate the appropriate account within the list of
accounts.)
-
In the Add User page, complete the details for the
account:
-
In the list of users, locate this account, and on the right-hand end of
the row, expand the Actions drop-down and select
Generate API Token.
-
In the resulting dialog displaying the bearer token, click
Copy to Clipboard.
-
For safety, paste the value into a Notepad document or similar.
-
Log into the inventory beacon interface as an administrator (for example,
in the Windows Start menu, search for FlexNet Beacon,
right-click it, and select Run as administrator).
Tip: Starting the FlexNet Beacon
interface requires that you are logged in with administrator privileges.
-
Select the Inventory systems page and click the down
arrow on the right of the New... split button, and
choose PowerShell.
Tip: Alternatively, you can edit a connection you have defined
previously, by selecting it from the list of connections and clicking
Edit....
-
In the dialog that appears, complete (or modify) the following required
fields:
- Connection Name: The name you give this inventory
connection is also used in the web interface of IT Asset Management to name the data import task. The name may contain
alphanumeric characters, underscores or spaces, but it must start with
either a letter or a number, for example BMC
Discovery.
- Source Type: Select BMC
Discovery from the drop-down list.
-
Optionally, if your enterprise uses a proxy server to enable communication
between FlexNet Beacon and BMC Discovery, select the Use
Proxy check box, and complete the following additional
details:
- Proxy Server: Enter the address of the proxy
server using HTTP, HTTPS, or an IP address. Use the format
https://ProxyServerURL:PortNumber
,
http://ProxyServerURL:PortNumber
, or
IPAddress:PortNumber)
. If the protocol is omitted,
it defaults to http:
. If the port number is omitted, it
defaults to :80
for http
, or
443
for https
.
- Username and Password: If
your enterprise is using an authenticated proxy, specify the credentials
to access the proxy server you just identified.
-
In the BMC Discovery section, complete
the following fields:
-
BMC Discovery Server:
Enter the IP address of your BMC Discovery instance, for example
10.20.300.40
Do not include the
http:// or
https:// protocol with the IP
address.
-
Bearer Token: Paste in the bearer token that you
retrieved from BMC Discovery in step 1 .
-
Optionally, select the Import Software Key check
box (for more information, see the notes below this process).
-
Click Test Connection to
make sure that your specifications are correct (adjusting as necessary
for success).
When FlexNet Beacon has successfully accessed the BMC Discovery REST
APIs using the details supplied, a Test connection
succeeded message displays.
-
Click OK to close this dialog,
and you may also click Save.
The new connection is added to the connections list
in the Inventory Systems tab.
-
If you do not already have a suitable schedule for this connection available on
this inventory beacon, select the Scheduling page and
click New... to open the Edit
Schedule dialog and define one.
For more details see Scheduling a Connection in the online help.
-
Back on the Inventory systems page, select the new
connection in the list, click Schedule... to select your
appropriate schedule in the Select schedule dialog and then
click OK to confirm your selection.
-
In the main FlexNet Beacon interface, click
Save to store your newly scheduled connection.
-
Select the newly-added connection and click Execute
Now.
The Execute Now confirmation dialog displays and the
import of BMC Discovery inventory data commences.
-
Click OK to confirm.
The resulting import (which follows immediately) may take some time to complete. You
may monitor progress in the web interface for IT Asset Management — navigate to the system menu (
in the top right corner) and choose , and periodically refresh this page. When the process is complete, you
can inspect the inventory imported from BMC Discovery in the All
Inventory page on IT Asset Management.Tip: In the
All Inventory page:
- Add the Connection name column to the page.
- Display the simple filter bar.
- Filter for the name you gave your BMC Discovery connection (the example
given was BMC Discovery).
You may also find it useful to troubleshoot using the log file on the
inventory beacon. To do so:
- On the inventory beacon, navigate to ProgramData\Flexera
Software\Compliance\Logging\ComplianceReader.
- In your preferred flat text editor, open the file
importer-digits that was
modified on today's date (or the date of the last import), and scroll to the
end of the log file. The following entries indicate
success:
[INFO] 0 source data warnings
[INFO] 0 errors, 0 warnings
[INFO] Import has been completed successfully
If
there are warnings or errors in the log file, try to correct the issues. If
you are unable to do so, save the log file and attach it to a support ticket
for examination by a Flexera support engineer.
Some typical early issues include:
- Incorrect details for the account name or bearer token for the
connector accessing the BMC Discovery server
- Proxy or firewall settings preventing access to the Internet
- Import fails with hexadecimal character in the data stream
- Import fails with unable to create the intermediate zip file (is
there sufficient disk space?).
After a successful data import, the hardware and
software inventory data from BMC Discovery are visible in the appropriate pages of
IT Asset Management.
Using the Import Software Key
option
The
Import Software Key option, mentioned in
step
6 in the above
process, is clear (false) by default. If you select the check box (setting the
option to true), two changes occur in data gathering through the connector:
- When the connector calls the API to retrieve discovered packages from BMC
Discovery, it also fetches the
PackageKey
value
- When the connector calls the API to retrieve software instances from BMC
Discovery, it also fetches the
SoftwareInstanceKey
value.
These two values are useful if you are using BMC Atrium configuration
management database (CMDB), and you are using IT Visibility to enrich the collected
software data. In this scenario, the process works like this:
- BMC Discovery collects hardware and software details from devices on the
network.
- BMC Discovery writes the results into BMC Atrium CMDB. When the check box is
selected, the
PackageKey
and
SoftwareInstanceKey
values are also imported into the
CMDB.
- Inventory is extracted from BMC Discovery using the connector, and is
processed by IT Visibility, where the software records are both normalized
and enriched (for example, data is added about the end of service life of
products).
- Subsequently, inventory is again exported from IT Visibility into BMC Atrium
CMDB. As software records are processed, the
PackageKey
and
SoftwareInstanceKey
are used to match the corresponding
records in the CMDB created in step 2, updating the records with normalized
and enriched data from IT Visibility.
If you are
not using BMC Atrium CMDB and passing data through IT
Visibility, leave the
Import Software Key check box clear
(not selected).
IT Asset Management (Cloud)
Current