Inventory unreachable devices

[marcog]

Hi guys,

can someone show me if there is any documentation about creating manually an inventory for not reachable devices?

In particulare we have offline servers where no one can install external software. So we need to manually create the device in FNMS to include it in license calculation.

I thought that "Create a discovered device" would do this job, but I'm not sure about it since I cannot tell which application is onboard.

Thanks

[mfranz]

Hi,

Instead of Discovered Devices, you would have to create Inventories.

If you wanted to see the actual application on these devices, the process would be rather complex, you would need to create a custom inventory adapter as well as something to store/stage all the inventory details, including evidences. The process to keep track of all these details alone, would be cumbersome.

An alternative would be to create these devices (without evidences) and just allocate them to corresponding licenses. It wouldn't make an automated process in the sense that new stuff would automatically be reconized. But it could still help creating some tranparancy.

Best regards,

Markward

[marcog]

thanks mfranz, but something is not clear to me, does a button "create inventory" exists?
Creating an inventory listing all application we know they are there is exactly what we want to do. We have a list created by the guy responsible of those server that we cannot access. In my dream I just want to create a server (with the hardware) and want to click (+) and write Weblogic 12c.

[kclausen]

@marcog - How many of these servers do you have, and how often does the software change?

Depending on the number of servers, one possibility is a manual inventory where you would provide the NDTRACK executable (and associated files) to your Server Admins.  The Server Admin would connect to a server, copy the NDTRACK files into a temporary folder, and then launch NDTRACK manually with the proper credentials and command line parameters.  This will generate a standard NDI file on the device.  The NDI file would then be manually copied over to an Inventory Beacon to be uploaded and imported into FlexNet Manager.

Alternately, you can copy the NDTRACK executables into a local folder on a server.  For Linux/UNIX, you can create a cron job that would launch NDTRACK on a scheduled basis (running sudo to root), with the command line parameters to generate the NDI file and automatically upload the NDI file to a specific beacon server.  On Windows, you could perform the same solution by creating a Windows Scheduled Task.

In regards to the User Interface, if you go to the All Inventory view or the Active Inventory view, you will see a Create an Inventory Device button.  This allows you to manually create a new Inventory Device.  However, there is not a way to manually add software inventory.  You would need to use the Flat File Inventory Templates if you have manual inventory (Hardware + Software).

[marcog]

Hi kclausen, thanks for your answer.
First two options are not feasible, since we cannot copy nothing on target devices, neither the ndtrack script. So we need to just list all applications that are there by hands. Software there should mostly not change there, anyway customer is aware that if it changes the manually created inventory needs to be updated by hands too.
So I'm interested in this option you mentioned:
"In regards to the User Interface, if you go to the All Inventory view or the Active Inventory view, you will see a Create an Inventory Device button. This allows you to manually create a new Inventory Device. However, there is not a way to manually add software inventory. You would need to use the Flat File Inventory Templates if you have manual inventory (Hardware + Software)."
Could you explain this too me better or link to a documentation? What is the aim of creating an inventory device if I cannot add application in it?
Thanks for you support

[marcog]

no one can help?

[mfranz]

As mentioned in my post, manually created inventories can be allocated to licenses to consume entilements. This whole process can be automated, using a business import, as long as you have a template listing these devices and their respective licenses.

[ChrisG]

One purpose of manually creating an inventory device would be to manually allocate it to appropriate licenses as @mfranz has described.

As implied in other responses, software applications cannot be "added" on inventory device records by FlexNet Manager Suite operators. Software data always comes from some inventory source - a database, or possibly spreadsheet data as @kclausen suggested. With that said, it is normally expected that this data will be obtained from some structured data source; it's possible but not necessarily easy to prepare data by hand.

Here are a couple of links to documentation about importing data from spreadsheet formats:

• Importing Inventory Spreadsheets and CSV Files
• Inventory Spreadsheet Templates

[marcog]

Thanks Chris, I agree it is not easy, but we have no other chance. There is a block of Disaster Recovery server that cannot be switched on if there is not a disaster. 😄
Let me ask one more thing. Since we know that these servers are exactly a duplication of the same servers that are present in Production. Is there a way to say to FNMS:
1. Duplicate the consumption of this server (this will cover the switched off DR consumption)
2. Duplicate this inventory (so that the consumption automatically duplicates)
3. Download the spreadsheet of the production servers from All Inventory page and use it as one off import only adding the suffix DR to all names, so that we have double the servers.

Thank you all for the support, it is much appreciated. Let me know if the problem I'm writing down is not clear.

[mfranz · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If these machines are "twins". Try this:

1. Grab an inventory file (ndi) of a running machine.
2. Change the unique identifiers
   1. Name
   2. Serial number
   3. Agent ID
3. Import this changed inventory file.

This should create a 2nd inventory in FNMS, with your chnaged values (name, serial number, etc.).

Best regards,

Markward

[marcog]

this actually is an interesting idea, what about if in the future I'm able to inventory those servers?
The fake one come overwritte or I have to finde them manually?

[kclausen]

@marcog  - As long as your "cloned" NDI file has the actual Computer Name, Domain and Serial Number of the computer, then at a future date if you are able to generate inventory with a live agent, then the data will be merged together.

[mfranz]

Theoretically, the *could* be overwritten. But the real inventory would have to produce matching identifiers, e.g. AgentID. This is very unlikely to happen.

Instead, you'll have to remove your manually created inventories.

[marcog]

I'll try this on monday and let you all know what happened 🙂
Thanks to all the community

[marcog]

Ok I tried but I'm finding the "fake" .ndi in the BadLogs folder on the Application server.
Where I can see some logs why they have been refused?

[mfranz]

Hi,

You'll need to run the importer with the "error" parameter, like this:

mgsimport.exe -t inventories -d c:\temp\ -e

-d is the folder with your inventories. The console output should tell you what's wrong with your file.

Best regards,

Markward