FlexNet inventory agent ID question

[donald_helliwell]

Flexera's Gathering Inventory documents 2019 R2 and 2020 R1 now state:

All device inventory gathered through the FlexNet inventory agent is identified in either of the following ways depending on the version of the FlexNet inventory agent being used:

• If the version is 2019 R2 or later, the device inventory is identified by a unique Agent ID that is created on the device by the FlexNet inventory agent.

• For versions prior to2019 R2, the device inventory is identified by the computer name and domain name of the device.

This being the case, can the FlexNet inventory agent still be included in a image for deployment to new systems?

Will the individual systems get an individual agent ID and produce individual inventory records?

Or will they all get the same ID which would result in not getting individual inventory from each of the systems?

[ChrisG]

The following thread contains some good discussion on the principle of including the agent in deployment images: Using Flexera Inventory agent as part of deployment package. The TLDR summary of that discussion is that the general consensus is it is normally better to deploy the agent post imaging as part of the software payload installed on computers, and not as part of the image itself.

With that said, in principle there is no absolute blocker to including the agent in an image. Generally the AgentID will be regenerated when an image is installed on a new computer, resulting in FlexNet identifying the computer as a unique device from other devices the image is installed on. See the following for some information about the process of generating (and re-generating) AgentID values: Questions on the FlexNet inventory agent unique identifier (AgentID) property