FlexNet Operations UAT Issue (05 May 2022): FlexNet Operations ALM Customers Using FlexNet Embedded Licensing or Updates & Insights

As you have been notified in Revenera’s various status updates, device-related data no longer exists in FlexNet Operations UAT due to an issue that UAT experienced on 05 May 2022. The express purpose of this document is to provide guidance on how required and related data for devices can be restored in UAT.

For additional guidance, you might want to see FlexNet Operations UAT Issue (05 May 2022): FAQs.

Impacted Functionality

The functionality impacted by the UAT outage includes FlexNet Embedded licensing, Usage, and Updates and Insights. The scope of entity data that is now inaccessible includes:

Publishers
Identities
Device series
Device models
License servers (Cloud and local)
Standalone devices
Served clients

These entities must be recreated in the UAT environment.

Verification of Other Entities

Producers are strongly advised to login to the UAT Producer Portal and End-User Portal in FlexNet Operations to confirm that the following entities are accessible and still populated with data:

Accounts
Users
Custom attributes
Entitlements
Product setup
Updates (applicable to Updates and Insights customers)

Additionally, Electronic Software Delivery (ESD) customers should ensure that they can access the ESD menus.

Refer to Using FlexNet Operations in the FlexNet Operations User Guide for instructions on how to access these entities in the Producer Portal. For entities in the End-User Portal, refer to the FlexNet Operations End-User Portal Help Library.

Recreating Device Data

Because device data is no longer accessible, producers need to recreate device data from scratch in the Producer Portal. This process includes setting up publisher and identity information.

Use the following steps to guide you through this process.

Step 1: Verify the Embedded Device Settings

Producers should ensure that the Embedded Devices settings are properly defined for their UAT environment as these settings have been set to default values.

To access these settings, login to the UAT Producer Portal, and navigate to System>Configure>Embedded Devices. For a description of the settings, refer to Configuring Embedded Devices Settings in the FlexNet Operations User Guide.

Step 2: Re-enable Producer User Settings

If a producer user is experiencing authorization issues on CLS instances, the producer must manually re-enable the producer user's CLS authorization. Use this procedure:

Navigate to System > Configure > Embedded Devices.
Unselect the Enable Producer User for CLS checkbox.
Click Save Configs at the bottom of the screen.
To re-enable the producer user's CLS authorization, navigate to the same setting and select the checkbox.
Click Save Configs. The producer user's CLS authorization is now re-established.

Step 3: Obtain Publisher and Identity Data

To recreate publisher identities, producers first need to obtain publisher and identity data from their Production environment. Follow these steps:

Login to the Production environment using System Administrator credentials. Use the following URL format to access your Production environment:

https://[tenant]-fno.flexnetoperations.com/flexnet/operations

Navigate to Administer > Identities. (Identities is in FlexNet Embedded list).
Click the desired identity to open its View Identity page.
Scroll down to the Download Back Office Identity link, and click it to download the identity file (IdentityBackOffice.bin).
Save the file to your machine, giving the file a unique name.
Repeat this procedure for each identity you want to export to UAT.

For more information about publisher identities, see Managing Publisher Identities in the FlexNet Operations User Guide.

Step 4: Create an Identity in the UAT

Once the identify information has been downloaded from the Production environment, producers need to create their publisher identities in the UAT environment. Follow these steps:

Login to the UAT environment, and navigate to Administer > Identities. (Identities is in the FlexNet Embedded list.)
Click the Create Identity button to open the Create Identity window.
Select Choose File to browse to the location of the back-office .bin file(s) that were downloaded from the Production environment, and upload the file (or the first file, if multiple files were downloaded).
Once the file is uploaded, define the details for the identity in the Create Identity window.
Click Save to the create the publisher identity.
Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each identity you want to create.

For more information about publisher identities, see Managing Publisher Identities in the FlexNet Operations User Guide.

Step 5: Create Custom Device Series, Device Model, or Server Host Types

When a publisher identity is added, a default device series (FLX_CLIENT_SERIES), default device model (FLX_CLIENT), and default server host type (FLX_SERVER) are automatically created. Based on UAT requirements, producers might need to create custom versions of these entities.

NOTE: When creating a custom device model, ensure that the identity, the default Host ID type, and the allowed Host ID types for the model reflect the values you want.

For more information about these device-related entities and how to add new ones, refer to Administering Device and License Server Setup in the FlexNet Operations User Guide.

Step 6: Register New Devices and Create/Provision License Servers

After the publisher identities have been set up (and any required custom device series, device models, or server host types), UAT Producer Portal users can to create and register new devices and/or create and provision license servers.

For information about setting up devices and license servers, see Getting Started with FlexNet Embedded Licensing and Getting Started with Cloud Licensing Service. in the FlexNet Operations User Guide.

Consider the following:

Until new devices and license servers are created in UAT, no device data exists in UAT.
Existing entitlements can be used to provision license servers or to map add-ons to standalone devices.
Available license quantity will now be the full entitlement line quantity.
Any application using a UAT identity prior to 05 May 2022 might no longer be able to activate (in which case the application must be rebuilt using the newer identity).
Served devices polling for features can continue to poll against the newly created license server. However, polls to previous CLS instances will fail. (Clients should be changed to request features from the newly provisioned license servers.)

Step 7: (Customers Using Cloud Monetization API) Re-establish JSON Security

For those customers using Cloud Monetization API (available with CLS instances only), the JSON security needs to be re-established. The public key for the CLS must be re-uploaded for the newly created CLS instances. Use the producer user token to re-upload the certificate so that access requests against the CLS instances are successful. Follow these steps to re-upload the public key:

For the upload, use the /rest_licensing_keys endpoint from the CLS REST APIs for the CLS instance.
Attach the previously generated public key in DER format.
For Authorization, enter the Bearer token for the CLS producer user.
Upload the public key.

Step 8: Handle Usage Data

(For metered usage only) Usage data is available for download, but this data is current only up to 05 May 2022. The recommendation is that new entitlements be provisioned for accounts intended for Usage.

Step 9: Verify Information in the End-User Portal

Once you have set up identity information and have recreated devices and license servers in the UAT Producer Portal, login to the UAT End-User Portal and verify that you can perform basic and device-related operations.

Refer to the FlexNet Operations End-User Portal Help Library for instructions on how to perform these operations.

Basic Checks

Verify that you can perform the following:

Access entitlements.
View and generate FlexNet Publisher fulfillments (applicable to FlexNet Publisher customers only). For additional help, see Getting Started with FlexNet Publisher License File-Based Licensing or Getting Started with FlexNet Publisher Trusted Storage-Based Licensing.
Download files (applicable to ESD customers only).

Device-Related Checks

Verify that you can perform these basic device-related operations:

Register/activate a new device.
Device poll for Updates and Insights
Perform offline device management. Some clients might require an updated identity.

Additional Help

Should you need additional help in dealing with this UAT issue, enter a case via the Get Support menu in the Revenera Community. Be sure to specify your UAT environment and tenant ID and provide details about your issue.

FlexNet Operations UAT Issue (05 May 2022): FlexNet Operations ALM Customers Using FlexNet Embedded Licensing or Updates & Insights