Learn about how you better identify applications that are recognized in your environment. More specifically how FNMS uses its rich content library to link evidence of an application to your inventory records.
If you are having trouble viewing the video, please click here.
Hello @vwonais , I registered for tomorrow's webinar but I can't attend because of an overlapped meeting. Will this webinar be on demand to listen to after?
Hi @shill2 - Great question. Yes, the recording will be posted on this page for on-demand viewing and if you register by clicking on the link in the post above, we will also send you a copy of the recording.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the webinar. There were several questions that I wasn't able to get to during the webinar. In the interest of privacy, I have answered some via email. However, below are the remainder of the questions that we weren't able to get to on the call.
Question
Answer
When will end users be able to use wildcard % in local ARLs?
When creating Local evidence entries, the linking must be to an actual evidence entry collected in the environment. If you wish for wildcard evidence to be considered for the local ARL, please submit an enhancement request via the customer community.
I have a few cases where I have reported the UR's to you and a few of those are still unrecognized in our environment in spite of the support agent claiming it was included in an ARL that we have installed. How can that be?
Please ensure that you have the latest version of both the ARL and PURLs in your environment. The version numbers can be seen in Settings > System Health > System Health Dashboard. You may also want to verify that you have licensed PURLs for the products in question. E.g. For IBM use rights, you will need to be licensed for the IBM PURL.
which paremeters does "usage" engine use to determine such usage?
Depending on the inventory source, there are various tables that are used for the usage information. For example in SCCM, it is the MonthlyUsageSummary view. For FlexNet Inventory, it is monitoring the launched applications, the number of sessions created for those executables, and the length of each session. This data is them aggregated on a weekly basis to determine if the application is used or not. Please note, file evidence must be present for the application in question for usage to be properly tracked.
When is evidence processed ? ie ARL synced with other views eg PVU consumption. If there is a change on the device how long does it take to appear in the Evidence tab?
Whenever the compliance import runs the evidence is updated. By default, this occurs nightly, but will be determined by your organization's import schedule.
Would this scale to 200,000 servers?
Yes, we have several customers both hosted in the Flexera cloud and on-premises that are well beyond 200,000 devices.
Will FNMS recognize paid Java Support information from other sources than the FNMS agent - like BigFix Inventory?
No, edition information is only available from FlexNet Inventory. The agent collects information directly from the Java Runtime Environment to determine the edition. Other 3rd party sources do not collect this information.
Let's say that I want to see the details for FNMS' wildcards like '% update for %' from your earlier comment and create my own specific evidence for certain things (such as security updates). How am I able to do something like that given that I can not just outright delete evidence that is a Flexera source.
Reference evidence may not be deleted, but local evidence entries can exist concurrently with reference evidence. You can create additional local rules that are attached to reference applications.
Are the installer and file evidence information available to the FNMS Report Builder?
Yes, in the latest version. You are able to add 'Device Evidence', 'Raw Software Installer Evidence', and 'Unrecognized Evidence' as data objects in the report builder. Please note that these data sets will be quite large even in smaller environments.
Do MSIs really constitute a true installation of an application?
The mere presence of the MSI file, no. The package must actually be installed using msiexec and the package must be registered in Add/Remove Programs for the application to actually be considered installed. Some Windows Installer packages use uncompressed external files instead of files compressed into cab files. If so, this is an edge case where an application may be recognized due to file evidence. Directories that are used for package storage should be excluded from file scans.
For Oracle, are you able to determine the host information for virtual instances based on the evidence from FlexNet manager?
Yes, OVMs are supported virtual infrastructures and can by inventoried by FlexNet Inventory.
What is the timescale for Flexera to add application from Unrecognised Evidence?
This varies, but typically for tier-1 publishers, the products are added within 30 days.
