How do I perform a bulk update of the Device Role field in FNMS?

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎Feb 02, 2019

Summary

The Device Role field is used for identifying the role of a machine in FNMS e.g. Backup, Failover etc. This article answers some general questions around this field including the answer to how the field can be updated.

Question

How can the Device Role field be updated in a bulk task?

Answer

The device role is a manual field, but it's population could be populated with a business adaptor which you can either create yourself or our services team could help you with (additional costs may apply). Please find some of the most common role definitions below:

Backup / Archive ? This device cannot be started without first restoring it from an archive copy. Typical publisher terminologies include backup, or archival.
Cold Standby / Disaster Recovery ? This device is not currently running, but could be started at any time. Typical publisher terminologies include disaster recovery, cold standby, cold disaster recovery, or failover.
Development ? This device is used exclusively for system development. It does not carry any production load.
Hot Standby / Active Failover ? This device is running, and probably doing work such as mirroring database changes. Typically, this system requires a license, so that it would be unusual to select this role for an exemption.

Typical publisher terminologies include hot standby, active, active clusters, mirroring, HA, standby, or remote mirroring.

Production ? Specifies that the device is being used in the production environment, and it consumes license entitlements for its installed software. This is the default value for all newly imported devices, and you need to change it to reflect any other specific role.
Test ? Specifies that the device is being used exclusively in system testing, and does not carry any production load.
Training ? Specifies that the device is being used for training purposes. Most publishers require that this use is exclusive, and may also require that the device is within a dedicated training facility.
Warm Standby / Passive Failover ? This device is on, but is idling and not carrying any production load.

You can also view these roles in the database by running the following query:

SELECT * from ComplianceComputerRole

Additional Information

As of FNMS 2015 R2 the device role can be used for automatic exemptions so populating this correctly for each device is more important as an incorrect role can affect your consumption counts!

johnksilverwood · ‎Jan 25, 2022

Does anyone have a set of 'best practices' for tagging inventory roles, especially for Cloud customers, given we don't have direct access to the database anymore?

I'd imagine we need to do an adapter with information pulled from our CMDB based on device roles there.

I am also curious if other customers prefer to pull all lower level enviornments into their production flexera and Tag them with their associated roles, OR, do they keep them separate or in UAT?

Thanks !

ChrisG · ‎Feb 02, 2022

@johnksilverwood - yes, using a business adapter to update role details on inventory device records based on CMDB data would be a common approach. The effectiveness of this would depend on having good quality data in the CMDB in a form that can be mapped effectively to the different licensing-focused roles that are in Flexera One ITAM/FlexNet Manager Suite - that can often be a challenge.

It is typical to need to manage licenses installed on devices across all environments, so it is typical to have details about devices across all those environments being imported into Flexera One ITAM/FlexNet Manager Suite.