IT Asset Management (Cloud)
After you have downloaded and installed the FlexNet Beacon software on your beacon
server by following the instructions in Installing an Inventory Beacon, you can now create an inventory beacon on this beacon server and
register the beacon to set up the “upstream” connection which allows it to upload
collected inventory to Flexera One.
Note: If you are installing a hierarchy of
inventory beacons, so
that some 'child' beacons report to 'parent' beacons rather than to the central
application server, you must
register them top down through the hierarchy. Parent beacons must be registered
before their children. As well, for a parent
inventory beacon, you must
choose between:
- Using an IIS web server, or the built-in simplified web server, to
manage communications with downstream devices (whether inventory devices
or child inventory beacons)
- Using Windows authentication, anonymous authentication, or a local
account on the parent inventory beacon to run the web service
managing those communications.
You may implement your choice of web server only after you have registered
this
inventory beacon.
To create and register an inventory beacon:
-
Run the inventory beacon interface (for example, ).
Tip: Remember that running the inventory beacon
requires an account with administrator privileges.
By default, the
interface should first display the
Parent
connection
page (linked from the
Beacon configuration
group in the navigation bar). Ensure that this page displays.
-
Ensure the Enable parent
connection check box is selected.
This enables the controls in this page.
-
Find the Beacon UID field, click
Copy, and paste the copied string into a text
editor.
-
In a Web browser, access one of the following URLs and log in with your Flexera
credentials: https://app.flexera.com, https://app.flexera.eu, or https://app.flexera.au.
-
In the Flexera One UI, go to .
-
Click Configure A Beacon.
-
Does this inventory beacon connect directly to the central
application server, or does it report to another inventory beacon in your hierarchy?
- If this beacon reports to the central application server, skip the Parent beacon field,
ensuring that it is empty.
- If this beacon reports to another inventory beacon in
your hierarchy, identify that higher beacon in the Parent
beacon field:
-
If you already know its name, enter (part of) the name in the field;
but if you are not sure, leave the field blank.
-
Click Search.
A fly-down lists the available inventory beacons
(matching your text entry, if you used one).
-
Ensure that the appropriate parent beacon is selected (with the check
box on its left end), and click Select.
The beacon name appears in the Parent
beacon control.
-
Configure the following settings.
- Name—Input a name for the beacon. This name will
be used to identify this new inventory beacon in future listings.
- Unique ID—Paste in the Beacon
UID that you copied from the FlexNet
Beacon application. This is the unique ID for the
beacon.
- Upgrade Mode—Select the upgrade mode from the
following options:
- Manual—The beacon will never be
automatically upgraded. This is the default and recommended
option.
- Always upgrade to approved version—The
beacon will always be automatically upgraded to the approved
version. The version number of the approved version is also
displayed for your information.
- Always upgrade to latest version—The
beacon will always be automatically upgraded to the latest
version.
- Use a specific version chosen for this
beacon—If you select this option, a list of all
available beacon versions are displayed for you to select a
specific version, and the beacon will be automatically upgraded
to this version.
-
(Optional) If you want the beacon to be enabled right after it is created,
select the Enabled checkbox.
-
Click Save to create the beacon.
-
Click Download Configuration, and in the confirmation
dialog, click YES. A configuration file in the XML format
will be downloaded. If you are logged into the Flexera One Platform on a
separate workstation than the beacon server, you must copy the downloaded beacon
configuration file to the beacon server.
-
On the beacon server, go to the FlexNet Beacon
application.
-
On the Parent connection page, click Import
configuration.
Important: Do not use the Download
configuration button. This function will soon be deprecated
and the button will be removed.
-
Browse to the location of the downloaded configuration file, select it, and
click Open.
After this registration process, your inventory beacon knows how to "phone home". To make it operational, you must
now:
- Add the downstream connections from which data is to be collected (as described
in the following topics)
- Ensure that it remains enabled. Operation of each inventory beacon can be enabled/disabled both from the beacon itself, and from the web interface for IT Asset Management. By default it is enabled at
both ends.
This individual inventory beacon is now configured for its upstream
communications. However, if this inventory beacon is typical, and either:
- Is a 'parent' inventory beacon through which others are to upload, or
- Is to collect inventory uploaded by installed instances of FlexNet Inventory Agent, or by the zero footprint inventory collection method (as defined in Gathering FlexNet Inventory, available at https://docs.flexera.com/)
you must now choose the kind of web server to use on this inventory beacon,
the kind of authentication, and the account credentials to use (if necessary). These
details must be in place before you can repeat the configuration process for any child
inventory beacons that are to connect here; and before any inventory files can
be uploaded. For more details, see Configuring Inventory Collection.
IT Asset Management (Cloud)
Current