Reconcile

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Reconciliation (or license consumption calculation) is the final step in generating information about what software you licensed against what software you have installed. During reconciliation, IT Asset Management compares the entitlement data with the consumption data to calculate the license position for all publishers (or for a selected publisher), using the settings defined on the System Settings page (for more information, see IT Asset Management Settings: Licensing Tab). The entitlement data is recorded in licenses that are typically created from purchases and optionally linked to contracts; whereas the consumption data is taken from the collected hardware and software inventory.

The default configuration of IT Asset Management includes a pre-scheduled overnight license reconciliation job. This Reconcile page allows you to manually trigger an additional license compliance calculation (reconciliation), but does not affect the scheduled process.

Tip: This manual functionality is only available if you are in a role granting access to the Configure inventory imports to compliance database, and reconcile feature in the Data inputs: business and inventory imports group in the Roles tab of the Accounts page (available through the system menu).

This page also displays the status of the last reconciliation for all publishers, which may either be the overnight scheduled task, or one that you have triggered manually. The Management Dashboard page reflects the result of the reconciliation process.

The last reconcile date and time appears near the top right corner of all pages of the web interface of IT Asset Management. On this page you can click the View more in System Tasks link to view the detailed status of the last reconciliation job on the System Tasks page (for details, see System Tasks).

Here are more details about the two types of reconciliation available in IT Asset Management.

Automatic reconciliation

IT Asset Management automatically triggers a reconciliation job for all publishers according to the reconciliation schedule defined through the System Settings > Inventory page. The default frequency of this task is Daily, and it is normally scheduled overnight (for more information about scheduling this task, see IT Asset Management Settings: Inventory Tab). The automatic reconciliation process includes a full inventory import: that is, it collects the most recent FlexNet inventory imported into the inventory database and all other third-party inventory, before starting the license compliance calculations for all publishers.

Manual reconciliation

The manual reconciliation process uses the most recent inventory data already imported from the inventory sources to calculate a license compliance position. You would typically use the manual reconciliation to verify the impact of some recent changes like new purchases processed or some renewed contracts for a specific publisher. Triggering a manual reconciliation may not provide an accurate compliance status, because many operators may be making changes to one or more license, purchase, or inventory records while the calculation is running. It is useful when you have an urgent need, and perhaps can focus on a specific publisher. However, the general recommendation is to wait for the automatic reconciliation to finish to get the latest overall license position.

You can start a manual reconciliation job for all publishers, or for a selected publisher, based on the options selected in the Run reconcile section, as described below.

Last reconcile of all publishers

This section displays the status of the last reconciliation for all publishers through the following properties:

Status

The status of the last reconciliation for all publishers. This field can have any of the following values:

• Success — The reconciliation job completed successfully.
• Failed — The reconciliation job failed due to some errors. Use the System Tasks page to get the log files for troubleshooting.
• Never commenced — The reconciliation job has not yet started.

Duration

The total time taken to complete the reconciliation job.

Occurred

The date and time when the last reconciliation job was completed.

Last inventory

The date and time when the last inventory was collected.

Run reconcile

This section has the following options:

Reconcile all publishers — Selected by default, this option results in an updated license position for all publishers. You can clear this check box and reconcile the license position for a selected publisher. For more information, see Reconciling for a Selected Publisher.

Update inventory for reconciliation — Depending on your role, you may be able to select this option.

Tip: Selecting this option prolongs the reconciliation process.

If you do not select this option before starting a reconciliation job, the license compliance calculations are based on the inventory data most recently imported into the compliance database.

If you do select this option and then click Reconcile, IT Asset Management imports the most recent FlexNet inventory from the inventory database, but does not update third-party inventory data, instead using the third-party data most recently imported before the reconciliation process was triggered.