Inventory Data Tab

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R1 (On-Premises Edition)

The Inventory Data tab of the Data Inputs page displays your inventory data connections, and enables you to perform one-off uploads of inventory spreadsheets. You can also initiate deployment of new inventory beacons here, as well as download the FlexNet inventory agent for deployment outside the FlexNet Manager Suite infrastructure.

Tip: To access this tab, your operator account must be assigned to at least one role that grants the Allow right to the Configure inventory imports to compliance database, and reconcile feature – and no other role that separately sets a Deny for the same feature. (To access these settings, navigate to the system menu (

in the top right corner) and choose Accounts > Roles tab.)

Available actions

To show or hide the details about an inventory connection in this list, click the header area, or click the light gray expander arrow on the far right of the card.
To prepare for, or perform, a one-time upload of inventory data in a spreadsheet file, click One-off upload, and see Inventory Data One-Off Upload Page.
To temporarily disable a connection and prevent its data being taken into account in the next license calculations, change the Connection status option to Disabled. Switch it back to Enabled to re-enable the connection. More information in the table below.
To permanently delete a connection (there is no undo), show the details for that connection, click Delete connection, and on the confirmation dialog click OK. This removes the connection record from the central database; and you must also remove the same connection's details from the inventory beacon where the connection operates. Otherwise, the next time that the inventory beacon uploads inventory from the connection, the central record is recreated.
To give one connection priority when there are conflicting inputs, click Make primary in that row (more information in the table below).
To start the installation of a new inventory beacon, click Deploy a beacon, and see Installing an Inventory Beacon.
To manage your own deployment of the FlexNet inventory agent, click Manage inventory agent, and see Inventory Agent for Download.

Summary items

In the list of Inventory Data connections, the following details and controls are available by default, before you expand any card. Data labels are shown above the card list:

Control	Details
Name	The larger, blue title at the left end of each card is the name given to the connection. Tip: `FlexNet Manager Suite` is the default connection for import of inventory collected by FlexNet inventory agents.
Task status	The latest result of the most recent import on this connection (which may still be running). On this page, the values are rolled up based on the state of underlying sub-tasks. The System Tasks page also displays the status of the inventory import tasks. The full set of values includes: `Completed` — The most recent inventory import on this connection succeeded without errors. `Failed` — The inventory import failed completely, and no data in the operations databases has been changed as a result of this import. `In progress` — Data is currently being imported through this connection. `Pending` — This sub-task is waiting for a prior task to be completed. `Skipped` — No status has been received for this step. `Timed out` — No notification of progress was received in 24 hours. `Unknown` — The initial state for a connection before any reports have been received.
Connection status	Determines whether data from this connection is updated at the next inventory import: `Enabled` means that the connection is turned on, and any fresh data available from this connection (for example, through an inventory adapter) is included in the next import and subsequent license consumption calculations. `Disabled` means that no new data is imported from this connection. However, existing data from prior imports through this connection are maintained in the database, and still affect the calculations. If the connection is left `Disabled` for too long, its inventory records appear in the Out-Of-Date Inventory listing.
Make primary	On the connection that is currently the primary one, the button is grayed out and displays Primary. Click this button on any other row to make it the new primary connection. The primary connection has priority for the import of hardware inventory. Any non-null value from the primary connection cannot be over-written by conflicting data from any secondary source, even if the secondary source was imported more recently. For values that are null (not reported) in the primary connection, secondary connections can provide data, with the most recent secondary import taking priority for this. (The primary connection setting has no effect on the import of software inventory.)

Expanded items

The following additional details are available when you expand any card in the list. Many are read-only values (except as noted). The first set are the Input details group, which cover any currently running import. The fields, in screen order, are:

Input details	Comments
Source type	The type of data source declared when the connection was created. For source types available on inventory beacons, see Managing Microsoft SQL Server Database Connections and Managing Other Database Connections. For one-time inventory spreadsheets, or for inventory spreadsheets scheduled for import through an inventory beacon, the value is `Spreadsheet`.
Task type	Types of task include: `Business import` — Any of the business data imports described under the Business Data tab. See Business Data Tab `Inventory import` — The standard process of importing all inventory and running license consumption calculations. This includes one-off and scheduled imports of inventory spreadsheets. `SAP import` — Importing the compliance data from FlexNet Manager for SAP Applications.
Beacon server	Identifies the inventory beacon where the import runs. The value is blank for one-time inventory spreadsheet imports, as these are handled directly in the web interface without passing through any inventory beacon.
Database server	The server hosting the remote database from which inventory data was extracted. Left blank for inventory spreadsheet imports, and any other inputs (such as an Active Directory) that do not link to databases.
Overlapping inventory	The current rule used for handling overlaps (records about the same endpoint device from multiple inventory tools) between this inventory connection and any other connection, based on whether or not data from this connection should be considered "stale" in comparison to others. This control is intended to help migrate target inventory devices from one inventory source to another (such as from an old to a newer version of your chosen tool, or to move a target device from one location to another that uses a different inventory connection). Values may be: `Merging duplicate inventory from this feed` — overlapping inventory from this connection is never considered stale, and for overlapping device records, participates in data merges according to the following priorities: If a data point exists in the Primary inventory source, it is used If two equal-priority sources have different inventory dates, the data point is taken from the most recent inventory As a tie-breaker, the connection ID for this source recorded in the database is used (normally meaning that the earliest-created inventory source has priority). This is the normal operational setting when you are not migrating target inventory devices between inventory connections. `Ignore the device’s inventory from this data source` — more recent overlapping inventory from another source for the same device overrides information from this connection. This means that, for overlapping records of a single inventory device, the record from this inventory connection is completely discarded because it is stale. However, when there is no other more recent inventory for an individual target device, the inventory from this source is used as always. `Ignore this device’s inventory if older than nn days` — overlapping inventory collected by this source more than the set number of days before the import is discarded. Fresher overlapping data is still imported from this connection and considered for data merging (as is inventory for devices for which there is no overlap).
Delete connection	Click to permanently remove this connection. There is no undo. Important: When you remove a connection, any inventory data imported exclusively through that connection (and not duplicated in any other source) is removed from the operations databases.

The second group show the results of the Last completed import, with the date and time when that last run started shown on the right side. Clearly, since this group is the last completed import, it does not show the results of an import currently running. This is why you may have different values for Status in this section compared with Task status in the current summary, higher on the page.

Details	Comments
Validation errors	Relevant only to CSV upload, this field displays the count of errors (if any) during the inventory CSV import. You can click the count to open the page of details about validation errors (see Inventory Upload Validation Errors Page).
Devices read from source	The count of inventory device records found in the last import through this connection.
Devices imported	The number of inventory device records created, or updated (where those records were previously created from the same inventory source), in the central operations databases as a result of the inventory import. This may be fewer than the number found in the source if, for example, there were duplicate records, if validation failures excluded some records (in case of CSV imports), or if some of the devices already existed in the operations databases as records created from another inventory source. The key idea here is that this figure relates to records from this one inventory source only, regardless of whether the records were new or updated at the last import.
Devices merged	The number of inventory device records from this source that were merged with existing records created from another, completely independent connection. For example, suppose you had some inventory collected with Microsoft SCCM, and updated some fields with a one-time inventory spreadsheet import. Because these records come from two separate connections, the count is of devices merged (the data being updated according to the Overlapping inventory rule setting).
Reconciled	Displays `Yes` if the imported data has been included in a successful reconciliation, so that results should now be visible in the web interface. If it displays `No`, either a reconciliation was not included in the process, or there was another problem reflected in the Status field (and you can explore more details in the Task status and history listing).
Status	Can display one from the same values as described for the Task status (above). The chosen values may be different if a current import, shown above, has different outcomes than the last completed run, to which this value applies.
Duration	How long the entire, end-to-end process took to integrate the source data with the operations databases. This is the time between when the inventory beacon connected to the source, until the resulting data set was uploaded, the data brought into the operations databases, and the reconciliation was completed using the latest data.
Show/hide task status and history	Click the link to expose (and subsequently hide) the table listing Task status and history. For details, see the following table.

When you expose the Task status and history list, the following columns are available. Some are displayed by default, and others are in the column chooser. They are listed here alphabetically.

Column	Comments
Beacon	Identifies the inventory beacon on which a particular step was running. If there is a hierarchy of inventory beacons on the site, there may be multiple distinct machines involved in the upload processes.
Connection type	Blank for rules, and otherwise shows the kind of connection declared when the connection was first created.
Created by	The name of the operator who started the task.
End date	The date and time when the task finished.
Logs	Provides a link where you can find the log files for the step.
Server name	The name of the beacon or FlexNet Manager Suite server where this step was executed. Left blank for inventory spreadsheet imports, and any other inputs (such as an Active Directory) that do not link to databases.
Start date	The date and time when the task began.
Status	The outcome for each item in the list. For possible values, see Task status at the top of this page.
Summary	Some explanation of any issues that arose in the task or step.
Task/Step	Shows individual tasks with an expander (+) to the left of the name. When the process is importing inventory through a connection (or adapter), the connection name is displayed as task name. When you click the expander to the left of a task, the individual steps are shown. Although inventory beacons are excluded from the hierarchy in this instance, you can identify the inventory beacon involved for each step in the Beacon column.