Flexnet Questions

[anjanmajumdar]

Hi Gurus,

Hope you are doing well.

I have the below queries for Windows/Linux machines.

1. If a virtual Machine is turned off for how long the VM will appear in the Flexenet Manager ?
2. How to change the upload location of the file in the Agent ? Require both for Linux and Windows.
3. Command to manually  run  and upload the  file from the Agent ?

Thanks

Anjan

[kclausen]

1 - This depends on the source of inventory for the VM.  If the source is through an inventory connection, then you need to delete the VM out of that inventory source, and the during the next import it will be deleted from FNMS.  Optionally, you can change the status of the Inventory Device from "Active" to "Ignored" (manually or with a Business Adapter).  When an inventory device is ignored, then any software on the device is not considered during License Reconciliation.

If the source of inventory is the Flexera Agent, then you must also change the status of the Inventory Device.  There is a new feature in FNMS-OP 2022 R1 where based on a date threshold, and inventory device where the source is the Flexera Agent is past that date threshold, that device is automatically deleted during the nightly compliance/reconciliation process.

2) I am not sure I understand your question.  The Flexera Agent uploads to a Beacon Server.

[anjanmajumdar]

Thanks kclausen for the reply.

I am looking at the uploader log under /var/opt/managesoft/log. There i can see that the the location where it is trying to connect and upload the log is incorrect. How can I correct the location without uninstalling and reinstalling the agent. I am sure there is a configuration file which i can edit and put the correct path. I need the file both for linux and windows Agent systems.

Once I have corrected the path how to manually restart the upload process. I am sure there is a command to manually initiate the process.

Thanks 

Anjan

[ChrisG]

Manually running mgspolicy using command line options like the following will typically reset the agent according to policy settings that will be downloaded from the specified beacon. These settings include details of beacon that will be subsequently used for downloading and uploading data.

• On Unix-like operating systems:
  

  /opt/managesoft/bin/mgspolicy -t Machine -o DownloadRootURL=http://your-beacon.acme.com/ManageSoftDL​

• On Windows operating systems:
  

  "c:\Program Files (x86)\ManageSoft\Policy Client\mgspolicy.exe" -t Machine -o DownloadRootURL=http://your-beacon.acme.com/ManageSoftDL​ -o UILevel=Auto​

To manually invoke the upload process to upload any files that are pending:

• On Unix-like operating systems:
  

  /opt/managesoft/bin/ndupload -t Machine

• On Windows operating systems:
  

  "c:\Program Files (x86)\ManageSoft\Uploader\ndupload.exe" -t Machine

All the above operations should be run using root rights (on Unix-like operating systems), or local administrator rights (on Windows operating systems).

[jevans]

Hi Anjan, I hope you're well?

I thought I'd add some reasoning about why the Agent might be connecting to the wrong Beacon here.

When you first connect an Agent, you provide it an initial download URL to download Agent Policy from - as Chris has outlined in his earlier reply.

Agent Policy contains configuration for Agent inventory and scheduling, but also details on every other Beacon in the environment (by default).
When an Agent tries to upload up to FNMS, it makes a decision on which Beacon its best to upload to. 
This is outlined here in the Agent's documentation:
https://docs.flexera.com/fnms/EN/GatherFNInv/index.html#SysRef/FlexNetInventoryAgent/topics/SelectIBs-ChapterOverview.html

By default, an Agent will choose the highest priority Beacon of:

• A Matching AD sitename
• The fastest ping response
• A random number - for load balancing between similar Beacons from the previous two algorithms

This may be modified in the Agent policy, there's some other alternatives outlined in the earlier linked document.

If you would prefer particular Agents communicate with particular Beacons, this is also possible through the Inventory Group Settings.
In the Web UI, you can specify a target set of Agents, as with configuring a Discovery & Inventory Rule, and force those Agents to only communicate with a subset of your environment's Beacons.
This is outlined in our documentation, here:
https://docs.flexera.com/FlexNetManagerSuite2022R1/EN/WebHelp/index.html#tasks/InvSet-InventoryGroupSettings.html

I hope that is insightful for you!
Best regards,

Jack