We are pleased to inform you that the March 2021 update (release number 2020 R2.2) of FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud is now deployed on February 25th in the UAT environment. We are planning to upgrade Production environment, Europe on March 4 and North America on March 11. Please note upgrade schedule is subject to change, you will be notified in the event that we need to modify the upgrade schedule date. If you have any questions about this release or upgrade please ask through the community or contact Customer Support. The release notes will be published in online product documentation as soon as they are completed.    This release is for   FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud only   and these changes will be rolled into the next On-Premises release – FlexNet Manager Suite On-Premises 2021 R1. Improvements included in March update Toad for Oracle recognition Addition of Oracle Fusion Middleware to GLAS Audit Evidence Inventory Agent change log FlexNet Beacon change log Resolved issues We love to hear about your experiences, so let us know how things go with these updates by posting a comment here or in the FlexNet Manager Forum. Of course, the friendly Flexera Support team is also always standing by to take your call. Thanks for being a partner of Flexera on this journey. Regards, Team Flexera       ... View more

What is the difference between installed inventory agent vs agentless inventory? Installed inventory agent and agentless inventory collection, collect the same inventory data but there are differences what agentless cannot do. The aim of this post is to provide clarity that will help in decision making.   Installed Inventory Agent Collects complete inventory data Software usage data  Required for IBM sub-capacity reporting to track assigned resources Easy to manage, once inventory agent is installed it will keep on collecting and uploading data  Agentless Inventory  Collects complete inventory data No software usage tracking (required installed agent on a device) No frequently changed assigned resources tracking (required installed agent on a device) More management required Inventory beacon requires consistent/reliable access to the remote device/s to connect to collect inventory data Inventory beacon requires credentials to connect to the remote device Assignment of site/subnet/devices to Target to make sure the targeted devices list is up-to-date       ... View more

We are pleased to inform you that the February 2021 update (release number 2020 R2.1) of FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud is now deployed in the UAT environment for testing and familiarization. The update will be deployed to the Production environment over the coming days. This release is for FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud only and these changes will be rolled into the next On-Premises release – FlexNet Manager Suite On-Premises 2021 R1.   Here are some highlights of this update. Oracle BYOL License Optimization Oracle software (BYOL) licensing in the authorized cloud computing environment has different compliance rules compare to Oracle software running in On-Premises infrastructure. We have enhanced Oracle license position calculation rules in FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud February update to include Oracle software licensing in the cloud computing environment under BYOL. FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud February 2021 update provides license position calculation of Oracle Database Enterprise and all Standard Editions running in the public cloud and licensed to use Oracle Processor OR Name User Plus license metric under Oracle BYOL use rights for the authorized public cloud.  To help go into more details you can either view the features by release page (click on the "Learn more" link below) or view the dedicated blog on this topic - Oracle Software (BYOL) Licensing in Authorized Cloud Environment blog    Oracle GLAS Verification Oracle has renamed its former License Manager Services (LMS) program to Global License Advisory Services (GLAS). Oracle GLAS evidence export file is renamed to OracleGLASEvidence.zip in FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud February 2021 update. - Oracle LMS renamed to GLAS     Improved Purchase Order Processing We have simplified purchase order processing of type maintenance and SKU product description, expiry date and license type transparent in the purchase order management views. This will help to identify unrecognized SKUs, SKU’s relevant to a product and a license metric to reduce the time to value. On top of that now unrecognized SKU’s will be automatically recognized once new SKU is added to the Flexera SKU library.  For more details you can either view the features by release page (click on the "Learn more" link below) or view the dedicated blog on this topic - Simplified and easy to manage purchase order processing blog     Oracle Fusion Middleware added to GLAS FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud February 2021 update inventory agent version 2020 R2.1 is enhanced to collect Oracle Fusion Middleware audit evidence. By default, Oracle Fusion Middleware GLAS data collection is turned OFF.  User can opt to enable Oracle Fusion Middleware GLAS data collection. This will help to collect Oracle Fusion Middleware audit evidence data for inspection and audit purposes if required. For more details you can view the features by release page (click on the "Learn more" link below) Learn more   Additional Changes In addition to the key features listed above, we have also introduced some additional miscellaneous changes such as: First look at new inventory tasks for Flexera One early adopter Flexera inventory beacon installation at custom location support   More Information Documentation and further information about the update is available on the Flexera Documentation site, including additional details on: New and changed features in this update Agent change log Beacon change log Resolved issues We love to hear about your experiences, so let us know how things go with these updates by posting a comment here or in the FlexNet Manager Forum. Of course, the friendly Flexera Support team is also always standing by to take your call, in case you have any queries suited for a more personalized discussion. Thanks for being a partner of Flexera on this journey. Team Flexera!     This article provides details about the changes included in the February 2021 update of FlexNet Manager Suite Cloud. ... View more

Oracle Software (BYOL) Licensing in Authorized Cloud Environment in FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2.1 Oracle software (BYOL) licensing in the authorized cloud computing environment has different compliance rules compare to Oracle software running in On-Premises infrastructure. We have enhanced Oracle license position calculation rules in FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2.1 to include Oracle software licensing in the cloud computing environment under BYOL. Which Oracle license types and Database Editions are covered under BYOL FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2.1 release provides license position calculation of Oracle Database Enterprise and all Standard Editions running in the public cloud and licensed to use Oracle Processor OR Name User Plus license metric under Oracle BYOL use rights for the authorized public cloud.  Oracle Database Enterprise Edition licensing in an Authorized Cloud Environment Oracle Database Enterprise Edition licensing using processor license metric in Authorized Cloud Environment counts two vCPUs as equivalent to one Oracle Processor license if hyper-threading is enabled, and one vCPU as equivalent to one Oracle Processor license if hyper-threading is not enabled (Standard Named User Plus licensing applies, including counting the minimums where applicable) Oracle Database Standard Edition licensing in an Authorized Cloud Environment Oracle Standard Edition One, Standard Edition 2, or Standard Edition in the product name licensing in Authorized Cloud Environment counts four or fewer vCPUs as 1 socket, which is considered equivalent to an Oracle processor license. For more than 4 vCPUs, every 4 vCPUs used (rounded up to the nearest multiple of 4) equate to a licensing requirement of one socket. Oracle Database Standard Edition may only be licensed on Authorized Cloud Environment instances up to 16 vCPUs. Oracle Standard Edition One and Standard Edition 2 may only be licensed on Authorized Cloud Environment instances up to 8 vCPUs. Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 Named User Plus metric has minimum 10 NUP licenses per 8 vCPUs Introduced license consumption rules for cloud service providers on the oracle processor and Named User Plus license types License consumption rules under Use rights & rules tab on the Oracle Processor and Named User Plus license properties have consumption settings for cloud service providers. These consumption settings for public cloud can be set manually or by processing a SKU automatically. Cloud service provider compliance rules on Oracle Processor license Cloud service provider compliance rules on Oracle NUP license   Extended Oracle Processor point rule set to include Oracle software licensing rule for public cloud   An example of Oracle Standard Edition License position calculation using Oracle Processor License Metric The following screenshot shows ip-10-19-18-17 instance hosted in AWS running Oracle database standard edition 2 has 4 vCPU assigned and consuming one processor license (Based on Oracle Database Standard editions licensing in authorized cloud environment, four or fewer vCPUs as 1 socket, which is considered equivalent to an Oracle processor license). What if I have negotiated with Oracle to run in other Cloud Service Providers (e.g. Google Cloud Service Provider) FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2.1 also support Oracle license position calculation for instances running Oracle Software in cloud service provider other than authorized public cloud service providers to fulfill the need of customers and partners who have negotiated with Oracle to run Oracle software in cloud service providers other than authorized cloud service providers under the authorized cloud service provider use rights.     ... View more

Simplified and easy to manage purchase order processing and transparency Flexera appreciate our customers and partners valued feedback to improve our solutions to provide more value (decrease time to value), we have made purchase order processing simplified, transparent, and easy to manage in FNMS 2020 R2.1 (next cloud deployment release). Transparency into software product SKU’s description and licensed metric type We have made SKU product description and license type transparent in the purchase order management views in FNMS 2020 R2.1. This will decrease the time to value and help users to quickly find all the relevant SKU’s to a product AND/OR related to a license metric type. The following screenshot shows the SKU description related to a product and license type that SKU offers. You can group by to find all the SKU description to find all the SKU related to a product OR license type. How to find relevant SKU’s Users can do group by SKU description to find all the relevant SKU/s OR SKU’s that are not recognized (SKU’s with empty SKU description).   Automatically recognize unrecognized SKU’s when added to the content library From the 24 th of December 2020, the SKU library update has auto SKU recognition capability for SKU’s, those were not available in the published SKU library when purchased SKU/s was imported into the FNMS. Now existing (already imported into FNMS) unrecognized SKU’s, will be recognized automatically when added to the Flexera SKU library by the Flexera research team. The following screenshot shows an unrecognized SKU with a missing hyperlink, when SKU added to the Flexera SKU library, it will automatically be recognized.   Note: This change will work on the existing released version as the change is part of the SKU library update. Simplified purchase order processing When a user is processing purchase order/s SKU of type maintenance, it will automatically get the latest expiry date from the selected purchase order/s to be processed and let the user proceed (manual selection is not required anymore). Purchase order processing provides flexibility to users to override the available expiry date from purchased SKU/s if required by choosing a date through Until option.   When a user has chosen to override the expiry date, each processed and linked purchased order to license persist its own expiry date, user-specified expiry date get set as Support upgrades until a set date on license properties upgrade rights.   Note: More improvements to follow. ... View more

Enable Software Usage Tracking Based on Add/Remove Evidence FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 now provides an option to enable usage tracking based on add/remove evidence (applies to Windows platforms). How can I enable usage tracking based on add/remove evidence within FNMS? FlexNet Manager Suite has Application usage options under Discovery & Inventory > Target properties page to allow application usage tracking on the specific devices. This option is enhanced to enable usage tracking based on add/remove evidence in addition to installed software usage tracking based on MSI packages. What if the usage tracking option is ON already? If the application usage tracking option is ON already, after upgrade to FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2, usage tracking based on add/remove evidence will be turned ON automatically. Does usage tracking based on add/remove evidence requires an inventory beacon or inventory agent upgrade to version 2020 R2? No, Inventory agent version 2019 R2.2 has usage tracking improvements based on add/remove evidence. Flexera recommends inventory agent version 2019 R2.2 or later. ... View more

Inventory Device Matching Transparency FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 bringing many features that are going to provide a lot more value and Inventory device matching transparency is one of them. A new management view available in the Discovery & Inventory menu lets you investigate how and why overlapping inventory records from multiple different inventory sources were matched and merged into the inventory device records in your compliance database, making the devices visible (for example) in the All Inventory page. This view provides inventory device properties, inventory device matching rules (set of inventory device properties) used to match devices to one inventory device, and RAW inventory device properties to provide a complete picture of how overlapping devices are merged into one inventory device that a user sees in the WebUI. This new Inventory Device Matching listing combines, in each row, data from three sources: The existing inventory device records. The raw hardware properties, imported from all related inventory sources a device is matched to. The rules (set of hardware properties) used to match these, either directly or "transitively" (a transitive match is one that goes through a "third party", such as when device A is matched to incoming inventory item B, and then item C is found to match item B – we say that item C is now "transitively" matched with device A as well). Inventory Device Matching There are multiple rows for every matched inventory device record, one for every match with incoming inventory from a particular source. Simply multiplying all your inventory devices by all your inventory sources may produce a very large number of rows. The following screenshot shows an inventory device imported from three different inventory sources, matched to an inventory device by a rule using rule attributes serial number and computer name.   Note: If you leap directly into this new view (unfiltered), it is easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of data Matched RAW devices count on All Inventory page All inventory   page has new Matched raw devices column available (by default in column chooser). The purpose of   Matched raw devices   count column is to provide, you an easy view into each inventory device has been matched by imported inventory records from (say) three different sources, this column shows the count of three as a hyperlink. Clicking the number of matched raw devices brings you directly into the Inventory Device Matching page, pre-filtered for your investigation. In this example, it would show you three rows: each would repeat the same Inventory device properties from your database (for the device in the All Inventory page where you clicked the link), but each row would show one of the three different inventory imports of Raw inventory device properties that matched that device. Linking those two sides are the rules/properties used in the matching process. You can freely move columns into/out of the column chooser to see just the evidence you want to investigate. The following screenshot shows two inventory device in the All Inventory management view has Matched raw devices count 3 each (Three imported inventory devices matched to each inventory device) matched by the inventory matcher rules based in hardware properties from imported inventory devices. The online help for this new page provides more information.  ... View more

ServiceNow inventory connector to import ServiceNow Discovery data into FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 The ServiceNow inventory connector allows you to import into FlexNet Manager Suite inventory data discovered by ServiceNow (ServiceNow refers to this process as "discovery", whereas in FlexNet Manager Suite, "discovery" refers to just finding devices on the network, and "inventory" refers to gathering information about the software and hardware of the discovered device). With ServiceNow as an inventory source, the imported information includes both hardware information and raw evidence of installed applications. Once imported, the information is shown in FlexNet Manager Suite with a source type ServiceNow. Tip: This inventory connector is quite separate from the existing integration between ServiceNow and FlexNet Manager Suite that allows two-way exchange of information about contracts and assets. You can continue to use that kind of data exchange alongside the import of raw inventory information with the new inventory connector. Prerequisites To import from the ServiceNow inventory connector, you need the following: ServiceNow inventory connector is part of FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 Flexera Integration (5.3.316 or later) for ServiceNow (Available in ServiceNow app store) Must have PowerShell 5.1 or later running on Windows Server 2012 or later, or on Windows 7 SP1 or later ServiceNow releases Madrid New York Orlando Paris ServiceNow discovery plugin (Inventory connector only import inventory data discovered by ServiceNow) ServiceNow inventory connector configuration mode ServiceNow inventory connector supports both modes Direct connection: To import ServiceNow discovery data directly by FNMS Server. Indirect connection: To import ServiceNow discovery data by configuring ServiceNow inventory connection through the remote beacon. What data is imported from ServiceNow Discovery ServiceNow inventory connector imports Hardware inventory data Installer evidence What do I need to enable to import ServiceNow discovery data Assuming you have already enabled ServiceNow discovery capability to discover data from target devices by ServiceNow Deploy Flexera Integration scope application Scheduled Data Exports to export to MID Server flexera_computer_export.csv flexera_software_export.csv (when discovery plugin is activated) flexera_software_install_export_set.csv (when SAM plugin is enabled) Configure ServiceNow inventory connection to import data from exported CSV files available on a MID Server configured in the scheduled data export Full details are available in the online help, and in even greater depth in a new section within the FlexNet Manager Suite Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference, available in either HTML or PDF through the title page of online help. Known limitation One limitation of inventory "discovery" by ServiceNow concerns partitioning technologies that provide virtualization on several UNIX-like platforms. If you are supporting these platforms, the best practice is to install the FlexNet inventory agent locally on them, reporting directly to your inventory beacon(s). This allows the collection of all details needed for your license consumption calculations. This additional information integrates smoothly with the information collected from ServiceNow. Note: Flexera recommends keeping the FNMS inventory source as a primary inventory source to make sure hardware inventory data from the Flexera inventory source takes precedence.   ... View more

IBM Cloud Pak’s and Non-Cloud Pak Products Sub-capacity Licensing using VPC Metric IBM now sells software licenses through ‘IBM Cloud Paks’, a new form of multiproduct bundle license offering which is primarily licensed on a sub-capacity virtual processor core (VPC) metric. IBM Cloud Pak software licenses can be deployed/licensed in traditional Server / VM / Cloud instance environments as well as via Containers. The FNMS 2020 R2 release of FlexNet Manager Suite includes a new IBM VPC license type that for non-containerized infrastructure, simplifies the management of this form of licensing as well as licensing traditional bundles or individual products. (Support for containers is planned for a forthcoming release). A Cloud Paks license consumption is the peak of the aggregated bundled primary Program products consumption – See example below for details. As IBM Cloud Paks may be bundled with multiple primary products, the new FNMS VPC license’s Consumption tab is specialized to allow the consumption tree(s) to show each product(s) consumption individually, below which you can identify the virtual host, any applicable resource pools, and the virtual machines running the software. Alternatively, for those VPC licenses covering only a single primary product, the consumption tree(s) are more familiar, starting with the virtual host(s) where the licensed software is running on a guest VM.   Tip: In Cloud Pak bundles, the licensing of primary products also covers any bundled supplementary products, so these supplementary cannot be separately licensed. IBM Software running in the eligible public cloud provider license compliance For software running on an instance provided by an eligible cloud service provider, IBM's eligible public cloud BYOSL policy recommends counting assigned vCPUs (or threads) and this applies to both IBM VPC and PVU license types instead of core count. For any inventory device record where the Hosted in property has been set to a cloud service provider (and not, of course, to On-premises), the VPC and PVU license automatically takes account of assigned vCPUs. Note: This change may impact IBM PVU compliance position for virtual machines hosted in an eligible public cloud and contributing to IBM PVU compliance position, after the upgrade, if the number of the virtual processor core is different from the number of vCPU assigns to a virtual machine. IBM Cloud Pak license compliance using VPC metric A VPC license doesn't have a points table as such (the way that a PVU license does); but each licensed product in an IBM Cloud Pak bundle has an individual ratio of the number of VPCs permitted for each license entitlement. For example, if a particular product in the bundle has a 2:1 ratio, two VPCs can be used to run that product for every individual license entitlement. If another product in the same bundle has a 1:1 ratio, then that same single license entitlement also authorizes one core (VPC) to be assigned to run the second product. In general, the IBM VPC license is for managing sub-capacity consumption in a way very similar to the IBM PVU license, and in fact all the same PVU sub-capacity rules apply to licensing IBM Cloud Paks. For example, the VPC license tracks peak consumption within the same three mandatory IBM regions, and for the same reporting period, as do PVU licenses. Another familiar requirement, if you have been granted a license variation to use FlexNet Manager Suite to track sub-capacity consumption of PVU license, is that you must archive your sub-capacity consumption reports for two years. This release includes two additional reports that can be saved/archived in the same cycle as your equivalent PVU reports: IBM Cloud Pak License Consumption records the region-based peak sub-capacity license consumption for a given reporting period IBM Cloud Pak License Current Consumption shows the region-based consumption for all Cloud Pak licenses as of the most recent license compliance calculation (typically overnight last night).   You can jump directly to either report from the Consumption tab on an IBM VPC license's property sheet, and they are of course also accessible through the Reports menus. How can I create an IBM Cloud Pak or a Non-Cloud Pak product license? You can create IBM Cloud Pak’s and Non-Cloud Pak’s bundle's licenses by processing SKU of type VPC OR manually by selecting an application part of the bundle and selecting the appropriate license model of the type VPC. What if I am  currently  using a n FNMS  license  set to the PVU  license type  to model a VPC license?   Once you are using version 2020 R2, you will be able to use the VPC license model template. In addition, once you have applied the ARL, SKU library, and PURL updates containing VPC content, you may see recommended license model changes if you have previously used Flexera SKU content to create Cloud Pak licenses.   If you have previously configured several licenses of type PVU  in order to  create a limited model  of  the components of an IBM Cloud Pak   OR   i f  you have previously configured a limited capability VPC metric Cloud Pak license using the SKU library and the PVU metric:    The existing licenses will not calculate Cloud Pak consumption correctly due to the lack of VPC support.    C reate a new VPC Cloud Pak license  by processing a Cloud Pak SKU linked to the VPC license type or by manually selecting  a Cloud Pak application and related VPC license  model template   which includes  the Cloud Pak bundle .   Retire or delete the legacy  PVU  licenses .   If you have previously configured a  VPC metric  non-Cloud Pak license using the  SKU library and the PVU  license type :   Flexera is not yet publishing updates to these SKUs in the SKU library.   Consumption for these titles is currently accurate using the PVU-based license model.    You can convert these licenses to  use the VPC metric  manually by changing the license  from the PVU  license type  to the VPC  license type  (This will automatically update the selected points ruleset.) and ignore license recommendation change if linked SKU/s recommends license type PVU. Flexera’s implementation of the VPC behavior means this conversion will not affect license quantity or consumption levels.    Note:  If you are on an on-premises version of FNMS older than 2020 R2 and attempt to process a purchase linked to Flexera SKU library content configuring a license of  type VPC ( including but not limited to  IBM Cloud Pak SKU's) , the resulting license will be of type  device , and recommended license changes will continue to recommend the device license type.    VPC capability is not supported in older versions of FNMS.   In order to  enable VPC support, you must  upgrad e  to FNMS  version  2020 R2 or later.      Example of IBM Cloud Pak’s licensing using VPC license type A Cloud Pak ‘XYZ’ includes the following product Product A (licensed as 1 VPC(s) to 1 license(s)) Product B (licensed as 1 VPC(s) to 2 license(s)) Product C (licensed as 4 VPC(s) to 1 license(s))   A Cloud Pak VPC ‘XYZ’ license in FNMS would be configured with Products A, B, and C each as Primary products. FNMS will track the consumption of each Product within the A Cloud Pak VPC license. The Cloud Pak XYZ license in FNMS will define each Product’s (A, B + C in this example) VPC to license ratio (e.g. 1 VPC to 1 license or 1 VPC to 4 licenses etc.) which can be manually configured/amended as needed. The Cloud Pak VPC license in FNMS will report the calculated VPC consumption of each product applying the noted license ratio (with granular per Product current consumption details visible in the Consumption tab of the license) and will report the Peak consumption (the highest total consumption value across the combined licensed products (A, B + C in this example) during the reporting period on a day) as the Cloud Pak VPC’s License’s Consumption. IBM Cloud Pak’s bundled products VPC to license ratio view The following example shows “IBM Cloud Pak for Applications Virtual Processor Core” license of type VPC has four primary products, each product has its own VPC to license ratio shown in the Use rights & rules tab on license properties. Primary product VPC to license ratio IBM Cloud Pak’s bundled product VPC to license ratios are published through ARL (application recognition library) update. These are standard ratios published by IBM, usually, you do not require to change them otherwise change to ratio will impact license compliance calculation. The ratio field is left editable to provide more flexibility to our customers.   Primary product contribution to IBM Cloud Pak license consumption In the example, a primary product WebSphere Application Server with 4 VPC to 1 license ratio is installed on a partition (Virtual machine) with two cores assigned. WebSphere Application Server application show consumption contribution 1 at the product level. Note: Consumption contribution for each product is calculated by summing the metric value (assigned cores/vCPU’s (vCPU when the virtual machine is hosted in the public cloud)) and multiplying with the product ratio at the product level. e.g 2 Core x 0.25 = 0.5 (rounded to 1) IBM Cloud Pak’s consumption details Report IBM Cloud Pak Consumption report IBM Cloud Pak License Current Consumption report   Note: IBM Cloud Pak License (IBM Cloud Pak for Applications Virtual Processor Core) and product ratios are shown above are for illustration purposes only. ILMT inventory connector would not import the Cloud Pak's/VPC compliance position from ILMT (does not apply when FNMS is running high-frequency sub-capacity mode) but ILMT will be treated as another inventory source in FNMS 2020 R2 release. ... View more