Virtual Devices and Clusters

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R1 (On-Premises Edition)

The Discovery & Inventory > Virtual Devices and Clusters page (in the Virtual Devices group) displays the cluster hierarchy of the virtualization infrastructure detected in your organization. A cluster is a group of virtual machine hosts, each hosting one or more virtual machines. FlexNet Manager Suite creates cluster records for discovered Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, and Oracle VM clusters when the cluster inventory is collected. You can also create and manage your cluster hierarchy manually if your cluster hierarchy is not detected for any reason. In addition to the cluster hierarchies, this page also displays the virtualization infrastructure inventory of the following types:

VMware (VMware Device and Infrastructure Inventory)
Oracle VM (Oracle VM Device and Infrastructure Inventory)
Microsoft Hyper-V (Microsoft Hyper-V Device and Infrastructure Inventory)
HP and AIX virtualization (nPar, vPAR, and LPAR) (nPar, vPar, and LPAR Device and Infrastructure Inventory)
Solaris zones (Solaris Zones Inventory).

Note: For Citrix XenDesktop inventory, see Citrix XenDesktop Device Inventory.

This page enables you to perform the following actions:

Search for clusters, virtual machines, and virtual machine pools: For more information about using lists, filters, and other UI options, see the topics under Using Lists in FlexNet Manager Suite.
Create or modify a cluster: See Creating a Cluster
View or change cluster properties: See Cluster Properties
Add a virtual host to a cluster: See Assigning a Host to a Cluster
Remove a virtual host from a cluster: See Removing Hosts from a Cluster
Delete a virtual host from a cluster: See Deleting Hosts from a Cluster.
View virtual host or virtual machine details: You can select any virtual host or virtual machine record and click Open to view its properties. For more information about inventory device properties, see Inventory Device Properties.
Create a management view: The Save view as feature of FlexNet Manager Suite enables you to create customized management views of a page by saving the applied user interface settings. For more information, see Creating Management Views.

This page displays the following columns (listed alphabetically). Some columns are displayed by default and others can be displayed through the column chooser. To manage columns and other UI options, see the topics under Managing Columns in a Table.

Table 1. Device properties on the Virtual Devices and Clusters page
Property	Description
Asset name	The name of a computing asset or inventory device. Editable in the Name field in the General tab of the asset properties.
Assigned user	The user assigned to this device. This assignment overrides the Calculated user. Editable in the Assigned field in Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.
Calculated user	The name of the most frequent user of this inventory device, over the previous 10 inventory collections. This value is calculated as follows: If there is only one primary user linked to the inventory device, this user is recorded If there are multiple primary users linked to the inventory device, the most frequently logged in user is recorded If there is no primary user associated with the inventory device, the last user to logon is recorded. The value of this field is automatically generated by FlexNet Manager Suite.
Category	The category of this device. FlexNet Manager Suite enables you to create customized categories to group inventory devices logically. These categories are additional to Inventory device type and Device role categorization. For example, you can create categories to differentiate database servers, network servers, or firewalls. The custom categories have no impact on license consumption. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Clock speed	The maximum clock speed (in MHz) of the processor that is installed in the inventory device. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). If the value is gathered from inventory, it cannot be edited; however, it can be overridden.
Cluster type	Specifies the type of the cluster. FlexNet Manager Suite supports Hyper-V, Oracle VM, and vMotion clusters. Editable in the General tab of the cluster properties.
Compliance status	Indicates the compliance status of an inventory device. It can have any of the following values: `Changed` — Indicates a change in the compliance status of an inventory device. This value is changed automatically when the following conditions are met: The inventory device has a linked asset. You have defined the device compliance settings to track any changes in the hardware properties of this device. There is a change in the hardware properties for which the device compliance settings have been defined. This change can be manual or a result of a new inventory import. `Compliant` — The inventory details reported in the last inventory import match those of previous imports, or any changes to those details have been approved. For details about reviewing or approving changes to assets, see Viewing and Accepting the Changes to a Device Asset. `New` — The default value for all newly imported devices. This value is not changed until there is a change in the hardware configuration or an asset is linked to this device. `Not tracked` — Indicates that the device is no longer tracked for compliance. This may happen when an inventory import leads to a duplicate device record with some change in its properties.
Computer status	Indicates the current state of a device. It can have any of the following values: `Active` — A device for which the inventory information is received from an inventory source. `Archived` — This device is in transition pending deletion, but is currently held because of its historical impacts on IBM PVU sub-capacity retrospective calculations. `Awaiting Inventory` — This device is a place-holder that has not yet appeared in imported inventory from any source. `Ignored` — The device that is not managed. An ignored device is not considered in license consumption calculations. Tip: If an inventory device is linked to an asset record, and that asset is given a status of either `Retired` or `Disposed`, this `Ignored` value is automatically set for the linked inventory device.
Core affinity	Specifies the processor core or range of processor cores to which this virtual machine is bound. Editable in the VM Properties tab of the inventory device properties. Valid only when you select `Virtual Machine` as Inventory Device Type.
Cores	The total number of processor cores available in a physical inventory device; or the number of cores assigned to an inventory device that is a virtual machine. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, the number of Cores can be manually overridden in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (see Hardware Tab).
Corporate unit	The corporate unit responsible for the inventory device. Editable in the Corporate Units page under the Enterprise tab.
Cost center	The cost center responsible for all costs incurred for this inventory device. Editable in the Cost Centers page under the Enterprise tab.
CPU affinity	Specifies the CPU or a range of CPUs to which this virtual machine is bound. Editable in the VM Properties tab of the inventory device properties. Valid only when you select `Virtual Machine` as Inventory Device Type.
Created	The date when this inventory record was created in FlexNet Manager Suite. Tip: New inventory device records are created during a full import to the compliance database, as new inventory is identified. Therefore it's quite possible to have a creation date that is later than the inventory date, with the difference being due to scheduling, such as the scheduling of imports from third-party tools, or delays between the upload of FlexNet inventory and the full import and compliance calculations (for example, if your full imports are scheduled weekly, or the like). Not editable.
Display adapters	The total number of display adapters installed in the inventory device. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (manually-created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only. Not editable for existing inventory devices.
Domain name	The name of the domain to which the computing device belongs. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties for manually created records. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.
Hard drives	The total number of hard drives installed in the inventory device. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only. Not editable for existing inventory devices.
Host affinity	Specifies the host or a range of hosts to which this virtual machine is bound to. Not editable. Valid only when you select `Virtual Machine` as Inventory Device Type.
Inventory chassis type	The chassis type for an inventory device, as reported by the inventory process. This value cannot be edited, however you may override it with the Assigned chassis type setting.
IP address	The IP address of the inventory device. For inventory devices with multiple IP addresses (for example, those with multiple network cards), a comma-separated list (up to 256 characters) is shown. IP addresses in the IPv6 address family are not reported in FlexNet inventory for devices running UNIX-like operating systems. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Last inventory date	The date when the last inventory information was collected by the Last inventory source for this inventory device. The inventory process generates the value of this field.
Last inventory source	If you have multiple overlapping inventory sources that report on the same device, it is possible for some inventory details to come from one source and other details from another source. This column identifies the most recent source of inventory that reported the majority of the hardware properties for this device. If you have declared a primary inventory connection and this device appears in inventory from that primary connection, it is likely that your primary connection is supplying the majority of hardware properties, and so is shown here. Tip: If your primary source reported the majority of hardware properties some time ago, and since then one or more secondary sources have updated a minority of additional properties, this value still shows the primary source (source of the majority of hardware properties). Tracking the primary source is particularly valuable if you have a variation from IBM allowing you to use FlexNet inventory agent and FlexNet Manager Suite as replacements for IBM tools (such as ILMT) in the calculation and reporting of sub-capacity licensing for IBM PVU licenses. That agreement requires that you can demonstrate that the Last inventory source is `FlexNet Manager Suite`, and that this source is reporting every 30 minutes. The values are system-provided, and cannot be modified. Most values are self-explanatory; some less obvious ones include: `Data Platform` — the inventory was imported from Flexera Normalize (previously BDNA Normalize, part of BDNA Data Platform) `ManageSoft` — the inventory was collected by legacy versions of the FlexNet inventory agent, and saved in a separate inventory database `Manual` — you created this inventory device record manually, and no matching inventory has been received yet. `SMS` — the inventory was imported from Microsoft SCCM (previously known as SMS) `Tivoli Endpoint Manager` — inventory was imported from IBM Big Fix, or one of its earlier renamings (IBM Endpoint Manager, Tivoli Endpoint Manager). Tip: If you have custom inventory adapters, entries for these may also appear in this column as appropriate. Not editable.
Last logged on user	The name of the user that was discovered to be the last logged on user on this device. Editable by clicking the linked full name in the Last logged on field displayed in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties. Not available when you create an inventory device manually.
Location	The location within your enterprise that is responsible for the device. Editable in the VM Properties tab of the inventory device properties.
MAC address	The Media Access Control (MAC) address of the inventory device. If a device has multiple network interface cards, this field displays a comma-separated list of MAC addresses. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Manufacturer	The manufacturer of the inventory device. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Model	The manufacturer’s model name or number for this device. Editable in the Model field in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). If the value is gathered from inventory, it cannot be edited, however it can be overridden by entering a new value in the Overridden field in General tab of the inventory device properties. The original value continues to display on the General tab, alongside the overridden value, and may be restored at any time.
Name	The name of the cluster or virtual host or virtual machine. Editable in the General tab of the cluster properties.
Network cards	The total number of network cards installed in a physical inventory device; or the number of network cards accessible by a `Virtual machine`. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Operating system	The operating system running on this device. Tip: This value may be blank because: The device is recently discovered – the operating system can only occasionally be populated during first discovery, and is often backfilled once inventory is returned for this device. The device is a VM host that is a hardware frame that may not be running its own operating system. In this case, the computer Name field is set to a serial number associated with the hardware (because, without an operating system, there is no host name). In fact, no inventory of any kind is possible without an operating system, so FlexNet Manager Suite synthesizes the VM host record from common data reported by its guest VMs. The virtual machines in these cases may typically be partitions like: LPARs running on IBM PowerPC servers Solaris zones on either x86 or SPARC architectures nPar or vPar partitions running on HP Integrity servers. The discovery and inventory process generates the value of this field.
Partial number of processors	The equivalent number of full-time processors set by the time-sharing controls on the hardware console. Some virtualization technologies (such as on IBM's AIX operating system) report this setting in inventory. You may override an incorrect inventory value for this field. Populated and (by default) updated on virtual machines by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (only for virtual machines) can be overridden with a manually entered value. An overridden value is no longer updated by incoming inventory. Available only for inventory devices of the type `Virtual Machine`.
Path	The path of this device in the virtualization hierarchy. For example, cluster_name/host_name/ for a virtual machine. Not editable.
Processor type	The type of processor installed in the inventory device. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this value can be manually overwritten in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (see Hardware Tab).
Processors	The total number of processors installed in a physical inventory device, or logical processors assigned to a `Virtual machine`. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties can be overridden with a manually entered value (see Hardware Tab). Overridden values are no longer updated by incoming inventory.
RAM	The size of Random Access Memory (RAM) installed in the inventory device, in gigabytes. For manually-created records, this is editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.
Role	The role assigned to the inventory device, such as `Development`, `Test`, and `Production`. Device roles (where permitted by the product use rights on a license) can exempt devices from consuming entitlements on a license to which they are (and remain) attached. For example, some license agreements may grant an exemption for devices used exclusively for testing. For more details, see Exemptions. Editable in Device role field in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Serial number	The serial number of the device, attempting to uniquely identify either the hardware (for a stand-alone device) or the virtualization container (for a virtual machine). For records created automatically (or updated) from incoming inventory, this is as reported in inventory. For manually-created inventory device records, this value is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties. This value is not editable for records created or updated from collected inventory.
Service pack	The service pack number or ID reported by the operating system. For manually-created records, this is editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.
Sockets	The total number of mounting sockets for central processing units (CPUs) available in a physical inventory device. For a `Virtual machine`, this may be the number of virtual sockets assigned to the VM. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. If it is not available from your hardware inventory, or if the value is inaccurate, you can permanently override the inventory data with a manual value.
Source	The details of this host were gathered from one of the following sources: `Automatic` — Discovered in incoming inventory `Manual` — Manually created by a user `VM Host` — Discovered on the VM host. Not editable.
Threads	The total number of threads available in a physical inventory device; or the number of logical processors (virtual processors in a virtual machine, or threads assigned to a partition) assigned to an inventory device that is a virtual machine. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties can be overridden with a manually entered value (see Hardware Tab).
Total disk space	The total space of all hard drives installed in the inventory device, in Gigabytes. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.
Type	Displays the type of each record in this table. Values may be: `Cluster` `Host` (you must expand a cluster to show the hosts within it) `Pool` (expand a host to see any pools assigned to it) `Virtual machine` (to see the VMs, expand either the host or the pool, as applicable). Tip: If you filter on any of these values, the table contents change from a tree to a flat list.
VM name	The name of the virtual machine that is recognized by the host server. This value is visible in the properties of the VM host, in the Virtual Machines tab, in the VM name column. Editable in the VM Properties tab of the inventory device properties. The compliance calculation updates this field with the machine name returned in inventory (matched by serial number).
VM type	The type of the virtual machine. For manually-created records, this value is editable in the VM Properties tab of the inventory device properties for the `Virtual machine`. The value may be overwritten by incoming inventory.