Summary
Flexera inventory agent provides comprehensive hardware, virtualization and software discovery to provide visibility and software licensing for the entire IT estate.
Flexera Inventory agent for Unix like platforms has been extended to run with least privileges (standard user with no login access to operating system) and modularized to provide control over each module, that will enable user/s to grant elevated privileges when required to collect data that would not be accessible without elevation.
Supported Operations Modes
Flexera Inventory agent for Unix like platforms now supports two operations modes.
- Default operation mode: The installed agent will run as the root user and requires full root access.
- Least privilege operation mode: The installed agent will run as the flxrasvc standard user.
Any Impact on Discovery Capability in Least Privilege Operation Mode
Flexera Inventory agent for Unix like platforms in least privileges mode provides same discovery capabilities as running in root mode. Inventory agent in least privileges mode still collects comprehensive hardware, virtualization and software discovery data required for visibility and software licensing as long as required permissions by the supported operating system are granted to specific modules, For more details check the documentation.
What Do I Need to Do
When deploying Flexera inventory agent for Unix like platforms, you can specifiy the least privileges mode in the bootstrap configuration file (For details, check the sample bootstrap configuration), that will automatically create none-login operating system local account "flxrasvc" to run inventory agent services for the operations.
Upgrade to Least Privileges Mode
You can upgrade an existing agent that has been installed for the default operation mode to the least privilege operation mode. However, if an agent has been installed for the least privilege operation mode, you cannot change it to the full privileged default operation mode. To change an agent from the least privilege operation mode to the default operation mode, you must uninstall and re-install the agent.
Note: If an inventory agent has been installed for the least privilege operation mode, it would not able to perform self-upgrade to new versions. Flexera recommends to use existing deployment tool used within the enterprise to manage Unix like platforms.
