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Can Flexnet Beacons stay offline periodically?

Hi Flexera team,

I'd like to inquire can Flexera Beacons be used in an environment where connections to SaaS is restricted to a limited time frame? I'm specifically referring to a scenario where the network that the Beacon resides is basically a closed network. Inventory Agents will report to the Beacon as usual, however during that time, Beacon will not be able to connect to SaaS. Periodically ( like once in a quarter or once in a month), the network connection from Agent to Beacon will be closed, and the network connection from Beacon to Flexera One SaaS will be opened so that Beacon can send inventory data to Flexera One SaaS.
This comes from strict network requirement to prevent an open route from the Inventory Agents to the internet.
Can Flexera One be used in such a scenario?

Business impact:
This question is on behalf of a customer looking to Flexera One to use for IBM Subcapacity Licensing.
Customer needs to know if Flexera One can be used in such an environment or should they go with other alternatives(Big Fix, ILMT etc.)

Please advise.

Thanks much in advance,

Joan

(1) Solution

@JoanTSW 

It can be done although not (to my knowledge) officially supported, but it's a manual (and as such error-prone) process and therefore includes quite huge admininistrative overhead to maintain. I would recommend getting Flexera professional services or a partner involved who has the experience from having done this before.

Thanks,

View solution in original post

(5) Replies

@JoanTSW 

I would recommend to implement the Flexera Beacons in a hierarchy as I understand your scenario, i.e., the Beacon implemented in the "closed network" should report to another parent Beacon placed in the customer's internal datacenter so that you merely have to open communication ports from the "closed network Beacon" to its parent Beacon. The parent Beacon can then communicate with Flexera One SaaS.

And then yes, this implementation would suffice the IBM requirements for sub-capacity licensing reporting.

Thanks,

Hi John,

Thank you for your reply.  This is similar to below documentation that I found that should fit my customer's requirement:
"Task Execution for Offline Beacons"
https://docs.flexera.com/flexera/EN/Beacons/OfflineITVisBeaconsExecution.htm
--
The offline beacon can be used in scenarios where the customer needs to install a beacon in a secure environment like a screened subnetwork or DMZ network or when a customer wishes to test the beacon functionality without setting up the network permissions (ports and so on) in a disconnected mode. The inventory files gathered using an offline beacon need to be manually uploaded using the compliance upload utility.
---

However my customer has some follow up questions. Please advise on below questions seeking for your clarification:

1) I understand that Offline Beacon can be used for IT Visibility. Can this also be applied to IT Asset Management Beacon?
2) If yes, how do I use the "compliance upload utility" to upload the inventory files to Flexera One? I could not find details in the Flexera One Documentation.
3) How often do I need to manually upload the collected inventory files ? (daily? weekly? monthly?)
.
Thanks much in advance,
Joan

@JoanTSW 

Before going down this route I think it's important to remind the customer about the IBM requirements related to sub-capacity licensing, Sub-Capacity Licensing Using IBM PVU or IBM VPC, including the IBM High-Frequency Scanning in Flexera's documentation.

There would be a lot of prescriptive processes outlining the required manual effort involved in maintaining the Beacon policies offline, and making sure it's done properly so that the end-result for IBM sub-capacity licensing reported is trustworthy, and (not to forget) would be accepted quality wise by IBM.

I would therefore always recommend to implement the Flexera Beacons in a hierarchy, i.e., the Beacon implemented in the "closed network" should report to another parent Beacon placed in the customer's internal datacenter so that you merely have to open communication ports from the "closed network Beacon" to its parent Beacon.

Thanks,

Hi @JohnSorensenDK 

Thank you for your fast response. We are checking internally about the trustworthiness and the acceptance of the report created in such an environment.
Meanwhile, could you advise on my earlier question,
Can offline beacon also be applied to IT Asset Management Beacons?
This is important because if offline beacon is not configurable for IT Asset Management Beacon, then there is no meaning in even thinking about this option..?
.
I've checked there's a technote mentioned Internet access is required in IT Asset Management Beacon:
https://docs.flexera.com/flexera/EN/ITAssets/PrerequisitesForInvBeacons.htm?Highlight=%20IT%20Asset%20Management%20Beacons
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Access to the Internet:
Access to the Internet is required, including security settings that allow trusted access to IT Asset Management (as described during set-up). If you have multiple inventory beacons, at least one must have Internet access to reach the central application server, and others may be linked as children, organized in a hierarchy.
---
.
Thanks much in advance,
Joan

@JoanTSW 

It can be done although not (to my knowledge) officially supported, but it's a manual (and as such error-prone) process and therefore includes quite huge admininistrative overhead to maintain. I would recommend getting Flexera professional services or a partner involved who has the experience from having done this before.

Thanks,