How to gather VMware Inventories automatically by setting up internal rules and using subnets for FlexNet Manager Suite 2018 R2?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

As we have FlexNet Manager Suite 2018 R2 installed in our environment, currently VMware inventory gathering is being done manually using ESXQuery Agent from Beacon Server.

But, we would like FlexNet Manager Suite 2018 R2 to collect VMware inventories automatically from VMware servers.

Therefore, we would like to have some assistance with the step-by-step process, if we can do the same using the scanned subnets or by creating rules inside Flexera.

We have gone through the manual. But, for VMware I am unable to find any such step-by-step process. So, if anyone can kindly advise the process step-by-step.

Please help!

Thanks & regards,
Sourav Sengupta

[winvarma · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

Please follow the below steps for gathering VM ware inventory via rules.

First assign all relevant subnets to your Beacon

Create rule

- Create Action

    >> Action Type : Discovery and inventory

    >> Network scan with ports 22, 135, 139, 161, 445, 80, 443 (chose the ports as required)

    >>  choose "Gather hardware and software inventory from all target devices"

    >> choose "Discover VMware infrastructure" and also checked on "Gather VMware infrastructure inventory, with advanced recognition of VMware applications" 

- Choose Target by adding the Vcenter, ESXI Hostnames and IP addresses. 

    - Save the rule.

Make sure that you have read only access to the Vcenter's in your infrastructure and configure the credentials in the Password manager and run the rule. This should give you VMware details and Vmware inventory.

Regards,

[dennis_reinhardt]

I would like to add a small information to the detailed answer by @winvarma 

If your VMware servers (vSphere, ESX) is restricted not to answer to any PING (ICMP) request, the discovery and inventory task will fail.

You can set the following options in the Registry on your Beacon to disable the requiremet to have a successfull discovery before running the inventory process

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Common\\Discovery\CurrentVersion

• DefaultPingSweepOptions -PS -sp

• DefaultScanOptions -PS -sS -sU

Best, Dennis

[simonclarke69]

Thanks

[winvarma]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Hope the steps mentioned helped if yes request to mark the reply as accepted solution if its working.

Regards,

[joshua_neadow]

Is this still a valid option with 2021 R1?  also, is this only going to target those VM's or is it a full network scan?

[ChrisG]

@joshua_neadow: yes, the options discussed in this thread are available in 2021 R1.

The scan target cover whatever scope you specify in the "target" that is used for the discovery rule, or whatever set of IP addresses you specify on the ESXQuery command line.