Cloud Service Provider Inventory

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R1 (On-Premises Edition)

This page lists the majority of devices revealed in inventory gathered from cloud service providers.

Tip: At the 2019 R1 release of FlexNet Manager Suite, this page automatically shows information only from AWS EC2. You may also add rows to this listing either by a spreadsheet import (see Inventory Data One-Off Upload Page) or through the Business Importer.

The listed devices are typically 'floating' virtual machines, although they may include dedicated instances, bare metal instances, and similar special cases. The one exception is that AWS "dedicated hosts" are not displayed in separate rows in this listing. Since this is the host type that gives visibility of sockets, cores, and host affinity that may be required for some licenses, the Host value of any virtual machine running on your dedicated host links to the inventory device record for the dedicated host. You may review the hardware details imported from the cloud service provider there.

Important: Be careful to ensure that instances generated at different times from the same base image have been given distinct computer names or domain names. If this is not done, the records are assumed to come from a single device, and are merged into a single device record. Changing names may require that you customize start-up scripts to modify preferences for FlexNet inventory agent when your VMs are instantiated; or your cloud service provider may provide other techniques to achieve unique naming of instances. For more information, see Common: Ensuring Distinct Inventory in the Gathering FlexNet Inventory PDF, available through the title page of online help.

For listed types other than dedicated hosts, where you have arranged for collection of FlexNet inventory (or imported third-party inventory) from one of these devices, this device record is linked to a separate inventory device record where, as always, you can study details of installed software and the like. Where the instances reported cannot be linked to an inventory device record (when the Inventoried column displays No), then apart from related reports, this page is the only management view in FlexNet Manager Suite that summarizes these devices.

Important: Only instances that are linked to inventory device records have any impact on license compliance calculations. It is assumed that for software on other, unlinked instances reported by the cloud service provider, the software license is part of your rental agreement; or that you have made other arrangements for licensing software on instances where you do not gather software inventory. If neither of these assumptions is correct, installed software may represent an audit risk, and you should remedy the lack of inventory.

The following properties (listed alphabetically) are available in the Cloud Service Provider Inventory page. Some are displayed by default, and others are available in the column chooser (see Managing Columns in a Table).

Name	Details
Account	The identifier or name for your enterprise, as provided by your cloud service provider. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties.
Availability type	The type of hosting under which your virtual machine is made available: On hardware shared with other enterprises (`Default`) On hardware reserved for your enterprise alone, but managed by your cloud service provider, creating a dedicated instance (`Dedicated`) On hardware reserved for your enterprise and where you control the configuration directly, sometimes called a dedicated host (`Host`). Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties.
Availability zone	The particular availability zone (subsection of a region) associated with this virtual machine, as reported by the cloud service provider. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties. Imported directly for cloud service providers where FlexNet Manager Suite supports a direct data-gathering connection, such as AWS.
Cloud service provider	The name(s) of the cloud service provider(s) hosting your instances in the cloud. Possible values include all the names defined in the Cloud service providers tab of the System Settings page. The default values include: `Amazon Web Services` `Google` `IBM SoftLayer` `Microsoft Azure`. Any other cloud service providers defined by your operators are also available in the list. For manual editing of inventory device records, this value is set in the Hosted in property on the General tab of the inventory device properties. For instances identified in automated imports from supported cloud service providers (such as AWS), this value is set on import, and any manual changes are overwritten at the next import.
Cores	For a virtual machine instance reported by the cloud service provider, this is the number of cores assigned to the instance.
Creation date	Charges for the particular cloud service commence from this date and time, being when either: The virtual machine was instantiated, or For other device types, rental commenced. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties.
Device name	The name of the inventory device linked to this record. Click to open the properties of the inventory device.
Host	For a virtual machine instance that is running on a dedicated host, this identifies the host reported by the cloud service provider. For details of the dedicated host itself, the Host provides a link to the inventory device properties for that host — a dedicated host (and only this type) always automatically has an inventory device record created for it, so that it can display its hosted VMs in the Virtual Machines tab of its inventory device properties. In summary: For a floating instance, this column is blank, and the host may be changed from time to time at the discretion of the cloud service provider For a "dedicated instance", this column is blank, because you do not have detailed management control of the host Only for a "dedicate host", this column identifies the host and links to the inventory device record automatically created for the dedicated host. In contrast, an inventory device record for each hosted virtual machine is created only when inventory is imported from the VM (that is, when there is a link available under Device name in this listing). For an instance without inventory, the appearance in this listing is the only management record. Therefore, if you use this Host to drill through to the host properties, and check the Virtual Machines tab for the host, you find this current instance only if inventory has been returned from the instance.
Image ID	Identifies the machine image (operating system, software, and configuration) from which this virtual machine (or instance) was launched. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties.
Instance ID	The unique identification code supplied by your cloud service provider to represent this virtual machine (or instance). Used for matching with incoming inventory to create/update an inventory device record. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties. Editing is useful only when you are manually creating records. For AWS, the value is recovered from the API and overwrites any local edits.
Instance region	This geographic area reported by your cloud service provider as 'owning' the Instance ID for the current virtual machine. This region is the parent of the Availability Zone in which the virtual machine was launched. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties.
Instance type	The kind (or size) of virtual machine reported by the cloud service provider for this device. Typically this choice directly controls the pricing for the virtual machine. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties. Imported directly for cloud service providers where FlexNet Manager Suite supports a direct data-gathering connection, such as AWS.
Inventoried	Displays `Yes` if this device has been linked to a separate inventory device record (look for its name linked in the Device name column). Displays `No` if FlexNet Manager Suite has been unable to match this incoming record with any detailed inventory import. Tip: If the FlexNet inventory agent is installed on the device hosted by the cloud service provider, records should be matched by either the Instance ID (requires FlexNet inventory agent version 13.1 or later) or the MAC address. Inventory collected by other third-party tools may also be matched on the MAC address. Alternatively, you may create a business adapter to link the cloud service provider record with an inventory device record. As noted above, records here that display `No` may represent a compliance risk, so that you should investigate these devices, and arrange for inventory collection from them. Best practice is to include FlexNet inventory agent (version 13.1 or later) within the images used to start all instances, and have FlexNet inventory agent configured to collect inventory immediately after start up.
Inventory date	The date when the most recent information was received about this instance. Tip: The imported information may come from either of two sources: From direct connection to the cloud service provider to import available details. It can be the case (such as with the AWS connector) that this is high-level information only, and lacks details about installed software needed for license management. From an inventory source such as FlexNet inventory agent or a third-party tool (such as Microsoft SCCM). In this case, the instance is linked to an inventory device name, and the detailed inventory is held in that inventory device record. For a given instance, if both data sources are available, the date of the more recent import (from either source) is shown.
Last known state	Specifies the status of this cloud instance (typically a virtual machine) when most recently reported by your cloud service provider. For a virtual machine, it may be one of: `Started` — The virtual machine was running at the last import. `Stopped` — The virtual machine has been stopped, releasing all its resources to the host. Some cloud service providers allow for a virtual machine to be restarted from this state. `Suspended` — The virtual machine has been put to sleep mode. All the running processes still consume resources, and the machine can quickly resume. `Terminated` — The virtual machine has been permanently deleted and cannot be restarted. At the next full import and compliance calculation, which by default happens overnight, any matching inventory device record will be removed (unless you have taken the most unusual step of linking that inventory device record to an asset record). Removing the inventory device record prevents the terminated virtual machine having any future impact on license consumption calculations. Tip: Some inventory sources take time to clean up inventory records, so that inventory imports may unavoidably include stale inventory in that period between the instance termination and the inventory clean-up. To help resolve any confusion, terminated instances remain available in this Cloud Service Provider Inventory page so that you can check here, confirming that the instance's inventory device record is correctly suppressed because the instance was terminated. By default, terminated instances are hidden, to reduce clutter. To review a terminated instance, in the simple filter area (top left), change theInclude terminated instances setting to `Yes`. Thereafter, you may like to manage the number of terminated instances by changing the second simple filter for Instances reported from `Any time`, and choosing `In last 30 days`, `In last 60 days`, or `In last 90 days`. (Typically this has little effect on instances that are not terminated, since these are always showing their current state at the time of last import, and don't have historical records.) `Unknown` — The state is unknown.
MAC address	The Media Access Control (MAC) address of the hosted instance. If the instance is hardware with multiple network interface cards, this field displays a comma-separated list of MAC addresses. Tip: Where an Instance ID is not available in the incoming data (because, for example, data came from third-party inventory, or from an incomplete spreadsheet upload, or from an outdated version of FlexNet inventory agent), the MAC address may be used instead to link this record with the inventory device record that shows inventory imported from the instance. This value, collected from the cloud service provider, is not editable in FlexNet Manager Suite.
Network ID	The primary network interface reported by the cloud service provider as associated with this virtual machine or instance. (This is the default interface, and remains associated with the instance throughout its lifetime.) Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties. Overwritten by incoming data for those cloud service providers for which FlexNet Manager Suite supports a direct connection (such as AWS).
Purchased option	The instance option you have purchased, such as `Scheduled` (instances always available on a recurring schedule) or `Spot` (running only on unused instances). Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties.
Threads per core	The number of threads that your cloud service provider reports are available for each core assigned to this virtual machine (or, when this inventory device is a server, for each of the cores available in the server). This property is available in reporting of your cloud service provider instances. Editable in the Cloud hosting tab of the inventory device properties. Overwritten by incoming data for those cloud service providers for which FlexNet Manager Suite supports a direct connection (such as AWS).