Managing Tanium Connections

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

IT Asset Management provides an inventory connector to import Tanium software and hardware data.

Establishing a connection between Tanium and IT Asset Management, consists of the following two stages:

• Configure Tanium Asset to connect to IT Asset Management
• Configure FlexNet Beacon to connect to Tanium.

Before you begin

To complete this process, your chosen FlexNet Beacon must meet the following requirements, some of which should have been fulfilled when the FlexNet Beacon software was installed:

• PowerShell 5.1 or later
• If the version of FlexNet Beacon installed on this inventory beacon is version 15.0.0 or earlier, it may be used to connect to versions of Tanium Asset earlier than 1.8.0.0075. If the installed version of FlexNet Beacon is 15.1.0 or later, it may be used to connect to Tanium Asset version 1.8.0.0075 or later. At that version, there was a change in the way that the Tanium API made available inventory information relating to Microsoft SQL Server. This means that you cannot mix old Tanium with new connector, or vice versa.

Note: The connection to Tanium supports optional use of a proxy.

To configure integration with Tanium:

1. Configure Tanium Asset to connect to IT Asset Management.
   1. You must have an SQL database configured that implements the required Flexera database schema. For instructions see the "Configure Flexera staging database" tutorial at https://docs.tanium.com/asset/asset/exportasset.html?Highlight=flexera. (This database is a requirement of Tanium, and is not used by the connector for inventory collection.)
   2. You must configure Tanium Asset to export data to IT Asset Management by adding IT Asset Management as a destination. For instructions see the "Add Flexera destination" topic at https://docs.tanium.com/asset/asset/exportasset.html?Highlight=flexera.
   3. You must create an Flexera SQL Edition view within Tanium Asset. For instructions see the "Creating a Flexera SQL Edition view within Tanium Asset" topic in IT Asset Management Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference.
   4. You can optionally integrate Tanium Asset with Tanium Index to provide file evidence information to Flexera. For instructions see the "(Optional) Enable file evidence content" topic at https://docs.tanium.com/asset/asset/exportasset.html?Highlight=flexera.
2. To configure FlexNet Beacon to connect with Tanium:
   1. 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.
   2. 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....
   3. 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 Tanium.
      • Source Type: Select Tanium from the drop-down list.
   4. Optionally, if your enterprise uses a proxy server to enable communication between FlexNet Beacon and Tanium, 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.
   5. In the Tanium section, complete the following fields:
   6. Tanium Server: Enter the address of your Tanium Cloud instance, for example, flexerapartner-api.cloud.tanium.com.
      Do not include the http:// or https:// protocol with the server address.
   7. Token: Provide the API Token for the Tanium instance.
      Note: The Refresh button, when selected, will only refresh the existing token with a new token if it is active. If the new token has expired, then selecting Refresh will not refresh the token. In this case, you will need to go to the Tanium site and reactivate the expired token or create a new token.
   8. Click Test Connection to make sure that your specifications are correct (adjusting as necessary for success).
      When FlexNet Beacon has successfully accessed the Tanium APIs using the details supplied, a Test connection succeeded message displays.
   9. Click OK to close this dialog, and you may also click Save. The new connection is added to the connection list in the Inventory Systems tab.
   10. 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.
   11. 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.
   12. In the main FlexNet Beacon interface, click Save to store your newly scheduled connection.
   13. Select the newly-added connection and click Execute Now.
       The Execute Now confirmation dialog displays and the import of Tanium inventory data commences.
   14. Click OK to confirm.
3. You may either:
   • Wait for the scheduled import, its upload to the central application server and import into the compliance database (review results tomorrow); or
   • Select the newly added connection and click Execute Now, click OK to confirm, and wait for an import, upload, and database load. 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 System Health > System Tasks, and periodically refresh this page. When the process is complete, you can inspect the inventory imported from Tanium in the All Inventory page on IT Asset Management.

The resulting import (which follows immediately) may take some time to complete. You may monitor progress in the web interface for IT Asset Management — go to the System Tasks page (Data Collection > IT Assets Inventory Status > System Tasks), and periodically refresh this page. When the process is complete, you can inspect the inventory imported from Tanium in the All Inventory page on IT Asset Management.

Tip: In the All Inventory page:

1. Add the Connection name column to the page.
2. Display the simple filter bar.
3. Filter for the name you have your Tanium connection (the example given was Tanium).

After a successful data import, the hardware and software inventory data from Tanium Asset are visible in the appropriate pages of IT Asset Management.

Note: To know more about the operations available on the Inventory Systems page of FlexNet Beacon, see Inventory Systems Page in the online help. For scheduling data imports through this connection, see Scheduling a Connection, also in online help.