Where FlexNet Agent Counts\Most Appropriate

[raaron1]

Greetings!

My client has great inventory coverage with SCCM for all Windows devices and Tanium w. Asset Module for everything (which we will use for all non-Windows OSs). They also have a significant footprint of Oracle and IBM products. It is here where we seek to selectively deploy the FlexNet Agent. Here are my questions.

Oracle: Of all Oracle software out there, is the Agent only needed for databases? Or are there any other Oracle software titles where the Agent is equally recommended.

IBM: There is installed product on Windows and *NIX. They seek to use the Agent instead of ILMT. What titles have sub-capacity reporting requirements where the Agent would be needed? 

We could say, for all servers that have *any* server-side IBM or Oracle^ products installed - use the Agent. But we'd like to be uber selective in where we deploy the Agent and have SCCM\Tanium provide all else. 

Thanks, Rob A

^ Of course, we understand that Java isn't reason for full Agent deployment.

[ChrisG · Accepted solution]

I think you've touched on the key Oracle software there: Database and Java (on UNIX-like operating systems) are the two Oracle products that the agent gathers specialized data about. I can't think of any others.

Many IBM products (I would say "most" that run on servers) have sub-capacity reporting requirements. Many (most?) of them use the PVU metric. From the IBM Sub-capacity licensing FAQs :

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7. How can I determine if a product is licensed based on PVUs?

The product and/or part number description will almost always state the licensing metric. The following links are sources for Passport Advantage pricing/licensing:

IBM License Information document database

IBM Passport Advantage Licensing

[raaron1]

Thanks @ChrisG !

Wow, there is a surprise here though. I know with the Java paid license issue, the agent is quite capable to figure things out. But are you saying I need to advise the client that the agent should be installed on all UNIX-like servers where Java is installed? Alternatively, if Tanium is installed on these servers, would that be a acceptable?

Thanks, Rob

[ChrisG]

To gather details about an installation of Java on a UNIX-like operating system sufficient to work out what sort of license applies really requires the java executable to be invoked to gather specific version information. The FlexNet inventory agent will do that for you, but I would guess that Tanium doesn't - and even if Tanium did then a custom adapter would likely be required to import that data into FlexNet Manager Suite. The following blog post from @vijay_menon is related to this: Updated FlexNet Inventory agent for Oracle Java compliance

Invoking the java.exe executable isn't required on Windows as version information can be read from the WinPE header in java.exe files.