Howdoes Flexera manage computers that no longer exist?

[RWG2022]

Hi There,

I am trying to ascertain how Flexera manages inventoried computers that no longer exist. As as example. we have a large number of VM Hosts in Flexera that have been disposed of a long time ago. Flexera obtained the initial inventory via a connection into vCenter. Our VM Hosts don't exist AD, and we don't have connections to any other sources. I have previously flagged the device status as ignored, however I can still see the VM Hosts in Flexera to this day. Is there a reason why they are retained and why they would not be purged from the system following a subsequent inventory scan, as in reality they would no longer be seen? Can anyone answer that for me please? If this is this something that has to be managed manually what other options are available other than using the ignored status? Can I flag a device as disposed etc, and if so where is this done in Flexera? Do I delete the device record from within All Inventory? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

[tjohnson1]

If you would like inventory records generated by the agent to be removed automatically you will need to enable the Obsolete Inventory feature: https://docs.flexera.com/flexera/EN/ITAssets/System_Settings-Inventory_Tab.htm#systemmenu_955074552_1030026

Ignoring the device won't remove it but will prevent it from consuming licenses or counting against your ITAM device license.

[RWG2022]

Thank you for your feedback. This could be a useful option. What happens if a machine is removed via the obsolete inventory option after say 30 days but then subsequently comes back online? Would it re-appear in Flexera with a fresh inventory? Also what is the process for manually removing retired machines before waiting x amount of days for the obsolete inventory option to take place? For example if my server team advise they have retired a number of servers, and we wanted them gone out of Flexera immediately, does deleting the device from All Inventory remove every trace of it from Flexera? Is there a scenario when you wouldn't want to do this too?

Thanks

[tjohnson1 · Accepted solution]

If a device is deleted (whether manually or via the obsolete inventory feature) and later reports inventory, it will be recreated in Flexera One with the new inventory data.

You can delete a device from the UI at any time. If the device is reporting via the agent, it will not come back unless it reports new inventory. If the device is coming from a third-party source, it will be recreated until the device record is removed from the source data being imported.

If you would like to retain the history of the device, you would want to ignore it vs deleting it.

[jasonlu]

@tjohnson1 , this is correct, but there is an exception (there's always an exception!)

If you have 'Enable frequent hardware scanning for IBM sub-capacity license calculations' turned on in Inventory Settings, and if the inventory is required for sub-capacity licensing, then it is moved to the 'archived' state instead of deleted outright.

Look in the help and search for 'Archived Inventory'.

j

[RWG2022]

Thanks - makes sense