How to remove all software usage data from FlexNet Manager Suite

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Scenario:

You may wish to remove the current software usage data that is present within FlexNet Manager Suite – whether that is the raw usage displayed on Discovery & Inventory -> Raw Software Usage, or the ‘Last used date’ data that is present on some of your application records.

As the approach described below involves direct database updates, we STRONGLY recommend that a full backup of the associated databases is taken before making any of the changes described below.

Solution:

Data that is displayed on the Raw Software Usage page in FNMS is a result of querying the SoftwareUsagePerWeek_MT table in the InventoryManager database. This contains all of the usage data that is collected by the FlexNet agent only.

To start from a clean slate, this data can be completely removed by executing the SoftwareUsagePerWeekRemoveAll stored procedure as follows:

EXEC dbo.SoftwareUsagePerWeekRemoveAll

Note: by default, the Raw Software Usage page reports on the last 3 months of usage data. This data is considered obsolete when its age exceeds the number of weeks defined in the UsageDataObseletePeriod column in the DatabaseConfiguration table (default = 26)

You may also wish to remove the usage data (‘Last used date’) from the Compliance database too. For example, if you are importing usage data from SCCM’s v_GS_CCM_RECENTLY_USED_APPS view via the SCCM connector, then this will bypass the InventoryManager database and go straight to the Compliance database.

Usage data in the Compliance database is stored in the InstalledSoftwareUsageData_MT table. A similar stored procedure exists for removing all rows of data from this table.

As always, take a full backup of the Compliance DB and consider the potential impact upon your license compliance position before executing the following SQL:

EXEC dbo.InstalledSoftwareUsageDataRemoveAll

Further information regarding all FNMS tables covered in this article can be found at the below Online Help links:

https://docs.flexera.com/FlexNetManagerSuite2020R1/EN/Schema/index.html#SysRef/schema/InventoryManagerSchema/UsageTables/reference/SoftwareUsagePerWeek.html

https://docs.flexera.com/FlexNetManagerSuite2020R1/EN/Schema/index.html#SysRef/schema/ComplianceSchema/Compliance.Logic.LicensingTables/reference/InstalledSoftwareUsageData.html

(Note: this approach only applies to On-Premises implementations of FlexNet Manager Suite)