Easiest way to import IBM Datapower (Network Appliance) into FNMS?

[bleepie]

Hello Community,

We are looking to import IBM Datapower data into FNMS. IBM Datapower is a network appliance (running CISCO IOS) and has its own ILMT scanner. This generates data (tar.gz) which we want to import into FNMS to calculate consumption. I have found this "old" community topic:

https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Manager-Forum/IBM-Appliances/td-p/147136

Where three options were mentioned:

1) Use the FlexNet Manager Core Executable method (where the NDTRACK is copied in a local folder and then launched on a scheduled basis with a cron job)

2) Importing the inventory for this server via the FlexNet Manager Flat File Inventory templates

3) Importing the inventory from a 3rd-party source

I have opened a case through the support portal but in the meantime was hoping on some examples and experiences from the community. Are the above mentioned options still valid? And which one is the quickest/easiest to setup? And is this somewhere documented so I can look into it?

Thanks in advance.

[JeffVoss]

for both physical and virtual Data Powers, keep a spreadsheet full of your appliances, and update the import every month. 

Most are hardened appliances that you cannot run an agent on. You will not be able to account for virtual appliances run on VMWare since the FNMS Standard inventory import will ignore them (and wipe out any manual settings you may make.) 

My experience to date is not enough people use appliances for Flexera to devote resources to allow us to manage appliances outside of manually configuring everything and allocating the devices to the licenses. 

[bleepie]

Hi Jeff,

We only want virtual Datapowers in FNMS. I am not sure how a spreadsheet of Virtual data powers will get the Datapowers data into FNMS. Can you elaborate? By the way, are you saying that Virtual Appliances (run on VMWare) are impossible to import (its data) in FNMS and calculate?

[JeffVoss]

The FNMS query to get data from Virtual Center cannot match to an inventoried device (since appliances are locked down and no agent can run) so it ignores the data. During the import of Virtual Center Data, the system wipes anything that it does not match from the hosts (even if manually assigned). 

You can use a one off import to get the devices into the system, and you will need to rerun it regularly to keep the data current. 

You will need to configure the license it is going to to consume entitlements for allocated devices and manually allocate the devices to the license. 

If you search through the Idea's area of this portal you will find a request to support appliances better. 

[SinghJ]

Thanks you for knowledge sharing. I think there is an option (checkbox) if we uncheck it .Then data will not get deleted after each reconcile ..  

[AamerSharif]

Hi Everyone,

For appliances running commercial software and required scanning for licensing, Flexera has disconnected/standalone scanners like IBM disconnected scanner.

Although additional packages are not allowed to install on appliances but due to license compliance/usage requirements customer need to scan appliance. Similar to IBM disconnected scanner, Flexera recommends using ndtrack.sh (standalone/disconnected scanner) by drag and drop to a path like /var/tmp and run it manually or schedle it using cron job and upload the collected inventory data to beacon by specifying the beacon HTTP url (command line parameter) with the approprate frequency. This will collect the inventory data and upload to beacon without installing inventory agent package.

Hope this will help to clarify.

Note: Like IBM disconnected scanner, Flexera disconnected scanner fulfills the same purpose and the recommended solution for software license tracking on appliances for IBM and other publishers like Oracle.