Beacon Settings

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Manage the self-update behavior of inventory beacons, and other rules. All inventory beacons collect changes to inventory rules and other settings created through the web interface on the central application server. At the same time, they can check whether a new version of the FlexNet Beacon software is available, and if so (and according to the controls you set in place), update themselves automatically.

The global settings controlling these behaviors are in this section. Local over-rides for some settings are also available, as noted below.

To configure inventory beacon updating:

1. Set the Interval for beacon updates (minutes) by spinning up, or typing in, the preferred interval.
   The default value is to check every 15 minutes. The check-in procedure is very light-weight and fast, and does not significantly load the inventory beacon, the network, or the central application server. Of course, on those less frequent times when there are changes to download, this download burden is incremental and depends on the specific content to transfer.
2. In Beacon version approved for use, select the policy for self-updates of inventory beacons:
   • For fully automated updates of your inventory beacons, choose Always use the latest version (currently release-number). With this setting operational for all your inventory beacons, updates are silent and self-managing.
   • To manually limit the updates to a specific release of the inventory beacon software, select a recent release from the drop-down list of supported versions. With this setting, notifications are displayed to let you know when a new version of the inventory beacon software is available for testing and approval.
     Note: If you select a release number earlier than the version currently deployed to your inventory beacon, you will trigger a downgrade. Since this is not recommended (especially in a production environment), you see a confirmation alert:

        This setting forces inventory beacons to downgrade to an earlier 
     version of the beacon software. Best practice is to keep inventory beacons 
     up to date. Are you sure you want to roll back to this superseded version?

     Either Cancel the alert, and choose a later release of the FlexNet Beacon software; or, if you really intend to force a downgrade, click OK.
   Note: In an inventory beacon hierarchy, each parent inventory beacon must have either the same or later software version than any of its child inventory beacons.

   Tip: Check the release details using the View Change History for FlexNet Beacon link in the Beacon settings section.

   This is a global setting, and is followed by all inventory beacons where the local update policy is set to Always use the latest version (currently release-number). You can also fine tune local exceptions to this global policy by changing the local settings on each inventory beacon (see Configuring Update Settings for Individual Inventory Beacons).
3. Configure the Migration mode: Restrict inventory settings to targeted devices check box.
   • In production, always leave this check box cleared. This ensures that every installed FlexNet Inventory Agent that contacts an inventory beacon receives a response, and is able to operate as part of the system.
   • Only during migration from FlexNet Manager Platform 9.2 (or earlier), you may set this check box to prevent your 9.2 inventory agents from switching over to IT Asset Management until you individually target them. For more information, see the separate Migrating to IT Asset Management PDF available at https://docs.flexera.com/.