I have a similar problem here. Why is it not possible, that the usage of older Single CAL Versions is automatically covered by a higher Version of Core CAL Suite, Enterprise Suite or even O365+EMS (we are in a transition and do have both)? This should recognised by the system automatically. All the "in-compliant" indications are really irritating especially if you have to do a management report. I tried the mentioned "custom metric" workaround but I still cannot set the usage f.e. a Windows 2005 CAL to zero. Please advise what can be done here without big customisation. Thank you! ... View more

We did have a project for the general implementation of FNMS with Softline Solutions. Besides a few test PCs, the rollout of the agent was not part of the project so we started planning the inventory of our virtual environment on our own and now we discovered, that this is not just simply installing the agent on every physical machine and VM.  I found a 400pages long "Gathering FlexNet Inventory" document, I guess this is the most detailed instructions I could get for inventory. I hope we can manage with this. But I still have a question: In the document it defines the different inventory methods for virtual environments: "Adopted, Agent third‐party deployment, Zero‐ footprint and FlexNet Inventory Scanner" Those methods are also explained in detail in separate chapters with the exact same names. For Hyper-V the possible methods are "Adopted, Agent third‐party deployment, Zero‐ footprint" that is fine. But for VMware the only method listed is: "Remote agentless inventory by an inventory beacon using the vCenter or ESX API." Which method of the ones listed above is this exactly? I guess it is the Zero-footprint method but why is it called differently here? Is there something else to do that is not explained in the document? Just want to make sure we are not missing anything important to make this work. Thank you! ... View more

Hello @adrian_ritz1 , we have not installed the agent yet. We are planning to do that but there are also different methods for different Virtualisation solutions. Not for every solution, the agent is the most recommended inventory method or you also have to set up the password manager etc.  So since I am not an expert for servers and virtual environments and we are setting up the inventory of our servers for the first time, we would like to have a step by step manual of something to follow all the necessary measures correctly and in the recommended way.  In the help section of FNMS it says, there are different ways of gathering inventory: In each case, the business goal is to review relationships that show which virtual machines are operating on which hosts (as well as the application software in use). Obviously, there are different techniques across these different technologies, falling into two main classes: For hypervisor virtualization, inventory is collected from the host (or hypervisor), and also collected separately from each of the virtual machines (which, in most systems, are ignorant about their host machine). Then common data from the BIOS for the guest OS (that is, the serial number of the virtualized hardware) is matched to the host's list of guest serial numbers, allowing FlexNet Manager Suite to present a structured set of records of virtual machines related to their hosts. This is the approach used for Hyper-V, Linux KVM, Oracle VM, and VMware (although for Linux KVM, the guest's UUIDs are used as serial numbers). In the case of VMware, the VMware host inventory is collected remotely by an inventory beacon (using the API available on either a vCenter management server or an ESX host). In other cases, the host inventory may be gathered either by an installed FlexNet inventory agent, or by zero footprint inventory collection by an inventory beacon. And for all the different methods (since we have different virtualisation technologies in use globally) I am looking for a manual which explains every step after the other so we do not miss any steps in between or use the wrong method.   ... View more