Setting the Import Schedule

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

The schedule for the inventory connector on the inventory beacon forms the 'bridge' between the completed exports from ServiceNow on the one hand, and the nightly inventory imports and compliance (license consumption) calculations on the other. For example:

• If you have chosen a weekly schedule for export of inventory data from ServiceNow (see Scheduling Inventory Exports), then there is no point in scheduling anything more frequent for the import from the inventory beacon – repetitive uploads from unchanged .csv files just create unnecessary system load.
• Ideally, if you want to see the latest inventory from ServiceNow as early as possible after it has been updated, your inventory beacon schedule should allow for data collection, upload to the application server, and import, all prior to the overnight license consumption calculations, so that results are ready for you next morning.

These considerations may mean that you need a custom schedule for import from the ServiceNow inventory connector. It is convenient to have such a schedule configured before you set up the actual inventory connector, so that you can include the schedule within its configuration (rather than revisiting later).

To choose or configure a schedule for import:

1. Run the inventory beacon interface (for example, in the Windows Start menu, search for FlexNet Beacon, right-click it, and select Run as administrator).
   Tip: Remember that you must run the inventory beacon software with administrator privileges.
2. From the Data collection group in the navigation bar, choose Schedules.
3. Review the list of available schedules (and in particular, the Summary column), to see whether you have an existing schedule than can be re-used for the ServiceNow inventory connector, taking into account the schedule optimizations mentions above.
   • If so, your work here is done: skip ahead to configuring the connector itself.
   • If not, continue here to create a purpose-built schedule.
4. Click New....
   The Edit Schedule dialog appears.
5. Complete the details:
   1. Make the Schedule name distinct within the first few characters, such as SNInvWkly.
   2. Select the radio button for the kind of schedule to align with your ServiceNow exports (such as weekly) and set the day and time the schedule triggers the inventory connector.
      Remember that this is local time on the inventory beacon. Take into account any time differences between this local time and time on the MID server on one hand, and the central application server on the other.
6. Click OK to write the schedule into the list on the Scheduling page.
   The list of schedules now contains unsaved information, shown by the trailing asterisk on the Scheduling* entry in the navigation bar. You may save now, or you can apply your newly-created schedule to the new ServiceNow inventory connector (as follows) before saving.