Retrieve installed application data for a large set of devices
Exporting installed application data for hundreds of devices using the inventory user interface can result in inefficiencies and scalability issues. Manually retrieving installed application data from the Inventory and Applications tabs does not scale well for large device sets. While custom reports can be exported, handling these files in Excel or similar tools can be problematic for several reasons:
- Each application appears as a separate row, creating very large files
- Excel formulas and Power Query can be slow or unusable on high-volume exports
- Filtering by a specific list of devices (such as servers) is not directly supported in the UI
This article explains recommended approaches that leverage Flexera APIs for extracting this data effectively.
Recommended approaches
Option 1: Use Reporting API
- Create a report in Flexera.
- Retrieve the report output using the Reports API. For reference, see IT Asset Management Data API.
- Apply filtering logic (for example, limit the data to 600 specific server devices) in your data tools or scripts after downloading the report.
NOTE: Device filtering takes place after retrieval.
Option 2: Use the Installed Software API
- Use the Installed Software API endpoint to retrieve all active devices and their installed software. For reference, see IT Asset Management Data API
- Filter the API response to only include the required devices.
- Exclude unwanted client machines during post-processing, ensuring the dataset focuses on servers or other target types.
Using API-based data extraction avoids the limitations of Excel exports and provides flexibility for large environments, enabling filtering and automation when working with hundreds of devices.
