I'm excited to announce that Flexnet Manager Suite 2020 R2 for our On-Premise customers is just around the corner, in this article I'll be summarising the key updates included in this release.   The 2020 R2 release is already available in FNMS Cloud and will be available to On-Premises customers on December 10th 2020. What is included? This latest release includes a number of major features as well as several key changes:   IBM Cloud Paks As one of the leading alternatives to ILMT, our commitment to keeping current with key IBM changes remains strong and so we are pleased to introduce support for IBM Cloud Paks which is a new approach to licensing IBM applications based on Products and Virtual Processor Cores (VPCs). For more details you can either view the features by release page or view the dedicated blog on this topic - Cloud Paks blog.   IBM DB2 Editions and Options We have improved the accuracy of the inventory we collect for DB2 Editions by modifying the FlexNet Inventory Agent to use the db2licm utility as recommended by IBM auditors.  This will increase the trust level in the installed edition for IBM DB2 installations in FNMS. In addition, we have also added the ability to view the DB2 options are installed on these DB2 editions and display whether these options are Used or not; this allows you to identify candidates for optimization by uninstalling the options which are not Used and this will in turn mean these no longer require licensing.   For more details you can either view the features by release page or view the dedicated blog on this topic - DB2 Editions and Options blog     User License Restrictions The Restrictions tab has now been extended to the User license type. For these licenses, group assignments of the   user   are checked, rather than group assignments of the inventory device. The user may be: The primary user of the device (either the assigned user or the calculated user), or A user identified by application usage tracking. *As always, an inventory device for which there is no user record also counts as consuming an entitlement from a User license, and in this rare case, the group assignment of the device is still relevant. For more details you can view the features by release page - User License Restrictions feature page    Citrix Transparency If your enterprise makes use of either Citrix virtual applications or Citrix Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or both, four new reports in this release help provide you visibility into the raw inventory coming from those connections. These reports are called: Citrix Virtual Apps File Evidence Citrix Virtual Apps Installer Evidence Citrix Virtual Desktops File Evidence Citrix Virtual Desktops Installer Evidence. For more details you can view the features by release page - Citrix Transparency Feature page    Inventory Device Transparency 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. For more details you can either view the features by release page or view the dedicated blog on this topic - Inventory Device Matching transparency blog  Analytics In our new Analytics update for 2020 R2 there are 3 major updates: Configurable Management Dashboard - Configurable Management Dashboard feature page  Scheduling Reports via email - Scheduling reports  Sharing reports and Dashboards - Shared Content    Integrations Key updates on our major integrations: Our ServiceNow integration is now certified for ServiceNow Paris and is available on the SerivceNow store. We have a new ServiceNow inventory adapter - ServiceNow Inventory adapter  Our Tanium adapter has been updated to use the latest APIs - Tanium feature page  Agent Updates These agent updates and more are covered on the Agent Change Log  Agent updated to gather inventory from Docker containers on Windows Improvements to file scanning on Docker containers Instances running on Google Cloud identified MacOS agent now collects logged on user data MacOS Big Sur / ARM support added Windows 64 bit agent now available Security Updates JQuery component updated to the latest version - JQuery Feature Page  Scanning of Malicious Content - Malicious Scanning feature page    Additional Information For more information, the following pages will provide more details: Features by Release - 2020 R2  Agent Change Log  Beacon Change Log  ... View more

I am pleased to inform you that the November 2020 update (release number 2020 R2) 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 in the following maintenance windows: Maintenance window for FlexNet Manager Suite Europe: Production Release 2020 R2: Scheduled for November 17 Maintenance window for FlexNet Manager Suite North America: Production Release 2020 R2: Scheduled for November 23 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 2020 R2 which is currently scheduled for December 10.   Here are some highlights of this update. Support for IBM Cloud Paks IBM Cloud Paks is an alternative to PVU in how to license your IBM products.  This method of licensing does not use points for the CPUs but instead is based on a Virtual Processor Core (VPC) metric that is assigned to each product. This release of   FlexNet Manager Suite   includes a new IBM VPC license type for non-containerized infrastructure that simplifies this form of licensing, as well as licensing traditional bundles or individual products. (Support for containers is planned for a forthcoming release.) As IBM Cloud Paks may be bundles with multiple primary products, the VPC license   Consumption   tab is specialized to allow the consumption tree(s) to start from the product(s) attached to the license, 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.   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 - IBM Cloud Paks blog    Learn more Inventory Connector for ServiceNow Our previous integration with ServiceNow focused around 2 way communication with ServiceNow for asset and business data however we are now pleased to add an integration that allows you to import hardware and software inventory data from ServiceNow into FNMS so that it can be merged with inventory data from other sources providing you with a single view of your inventory. This integration requires you to have the ServiceNow Discovery plugin enabled as a minimum however if you also have the SAM plugin, you will get additional inventory data as well.   To get 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 - ServiceNow Inventory blog   Learn more   Improved Inventory for IBM DB2 Editions and Options We have improved the accuracy of the inventory we collect for DB2 Editions by modifying the FlexNet Inventory Agent to use the db2licm utility as recommended by IBM auditors.  This will increase the trust level in the installed edition for IBM DB2 installations in FNMS. In addition, we have also added the ability to view the DB2 options are installed on these DB2 editions and display whether these options are Used or not; this allows you to identify candidates for optimization by uninstalling the options which are not Used and this will in turn mean these no longer require licensing.   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 - DB2 Editions and Options blog   Learn more   Configurable Dashboard Update Earlier this year we introduced the Configurable Dashboard as an optional alternative to the default Management Dashboard in FlexNet Manager Suite, thanks to the feedback from all of you who tried this, we have made improvements to this Dashboard and in FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 this has become a permanent feature. You can now switch between the Dashboards and on your next login to FlexNet Manager Suite, your previous choice will be saved and we have also enabled a number of new capabilities such as the ability to share the dashboards with other operators, improved drill-down and drill-through and the ability to import widgets from the Analytics portal. For more details you can view the features by release page (click on the "Learn more" link below) Learn more   Scanning of Uploaded Documents There are several places in FlexNet Manager Suite where you are able to upload supporting documentation such as Purchases, Contracts, Assets and Licenses. In FlexNet Manager Suite 2020 R2 we have now added automated virus scanning (using ClamAV) to any document that you attempt to upload to the cloud to detect malicious content; if a document is found to have content deemed as unsafe, the upload will be blocked and an error will be displayed. 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've also introduced some additional miscellaneous changes such as: HSTS security header is now standard Inventory Device Matching Transparency Improved recognition of application usage Microsoft Azure connector now selects cloud environments Oracle options usage tracking enhanced jQuery support updated (as discussed in this post) Where the changes were only minor, we have not created separate blogs for these which is why some of the above don't have hyperlinks. For more details you can view the features by release page (click on the "Learn more" link below) Learn more   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 (including improvements gathering Oracle & Docker inventory) 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 are also always standing by to take your call, in case you have any queries suited for a more personalized discussion. Enjoy! Matt ... View more

I am pleased to inform you that the October 2020 update (release number 2020 R1.2) 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 in the following maintenance windows: Maintenance window for FlexNet Manager Suite Europe: Production Release 2020 R1.2: Scheduled for October 1 Maintenance window for FlexNet Manager Suite North America: Production Release 2020 R1.2: Scheduled for October 8 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 2020 R2 which is due in late Q4.   Here are some highlights of this update. Restrictions tab extended to User licenses The Restrictions tab has now been extended to the User license type. For these licenses, group assignments of the user are checked, rather than group assignments of the inventory device. The user may be: The primary user of the device (either the assigned user or the calculated user), or A user identified by application usage tracking. *As always, an inventory device for which there is no user record also counts as consuming an entitlement from a User license, and in this rare case, the group assignment of the device is still relevant. Because users are assessed case-by-case, it is now possible to have two users of the same installation on a single device consuming from different User licenses. For example, a license restricted to London may be consumed by a user with a matching group assignment (also assigned to the location London); but a hot-desking visitor who is not assigned to London cannot break the restriction, and so must consume from another license – either an unrestricted User license, or one with a restriction matching her own group assignment. Where the used software is licensable only by a User license type, and neither an unrestricted User license nor one with a restriction matching the visitor's group assignment exists, the visitor appears in the License Compliance > Unlicensed Installations page. Learn more Scheduling reports in Flexera Analytics Flexera Analytics now provides functionality to schedule any reports that are saved in the Shared Content folder (under Team content), or your My content folder. With the Flexera Analytics scheduling feature: A report can be scheduled to run at a specific time or on a recurring basis You can email a report on a specified schedule to one or more recipients You can save reports on a specified schedule, which will store a history of versions of the report. Note: Flexera Analytics reports support the following output formats: HTML, PDF, Excel, Excel Data, CSV, and XML. Learn more   Docker container support for Windows In this release we have added the capability to discover and inventory Docker containers where the FlexNet inventory agent is installed on your Windows Docker host. This agent now also includes the ability to collect file evidence from containers when file evidence scanning is enabled in the FNMS agent configuration Learn more   Additional 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 (including improvements gathering Oracle & Docker inventory) 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 are also always standing by to take your call, in case you have any queries suited for a more personalized discussion. Enjoy! Matt   ... View more

Hi all, We've recently been going through Flexnet Manager Suite and updating the 3rd party components that we make use of to the latest versions to provide better stability and ensure they are the versions currently supported by each producer. One of these components used in the UI is JQuery however during testing we have identified issues with using this on older browsers and as JQuery only supports current versions and the one behind for each browser, this means we are unable to get these issues resolved. As part of this we've been looking at reducing the amount of older systems we support to provide better stability and quicker turnaround on releases through reduced testing. In this instance, if we don't update JQuery then it leaves potential vulnerabilities in the UI and is supported by the producer of this tool however if we update it, then below are the browser versions which we have confirmed as working: Browser Minimum Supported Version Chrome 80-81 Internet Explorer 11 Edge 85 Firefox 80 Safari  14 Opera Not Supported   Before we proceed with reducing supported versions I'd like to get input from our community users on whether you have any major objections or concerns with this.  We believe that there would be a low impact from our investigations but I wanted to check with you all first.   What do you all think, are we okay to move forward with this update or do you need us to hold off for a short time to give you chance to roll out browser updates? I look forward to the insights from all of you as you help us to keep Flexnet Manager Suite up to date. ... View more

What are Containers in FNMS 2020 R1? Containers are a new type of application virtualisation that provides much greater flexibility and scalability then other technologies.  The most popular of these is Docker and in FNMS 2020 R1 the upgraded agent will allow you to discover and inventory docker containers giving you complete visibility into docker instances in your environment and the software running on them. Some key points about this functionality: An agent upgrade IS required (Cloud and On-Premises) Server components also need to be updated (On-Premises customers only) Docker capability is only on our Linux agents in this release, Windows will be updated later. This release is focused on Discovery and Inventory, software running in containers will not be included in license reconcile or consumption calculations The new agent monitors the Docker Engine service on the device to collect inventory which means you can only discover containers on devices where you have the agent installed and so cloud based Kubernetes or other Container Orchestration services is not currently included.   Getting started with Docker discovery and inventory How to enable Docker Container inventory? Enabling docker inventory will modify installation counts and so by default it is disabled and will need to be enabled. You can do this by: Open Discovery & Inventory – Settings Find “Container Scanning” section Enable checkbox “Enable detection of Docker and running inventory agent inside Docker containers” Click Save in bottom right of screen Once enabled, this will update agent policy and will be deployed to beacons and then agents need to update policy, run inventory, upload this inventory and then full inventory import and reconcile needs to complete. This process usually takes 24-48 hours before it’s all processed.     Viewing list of Containers in your environment To validate that inventory has succeeded, go back to Discovery & Inventory menu and there is now a new Containers section with a view called “All Containers”, this view shows all containers in your environment.   Licensing Managers One of the use cases we were trying to address for SAM Managers was “How many of my applications are running in containers”?  We know from discussions that you want to see what impact containerised applications are having so we’ve added a new “Containers” column to the following views: Application views e.g. Install Applications, All Applications etc Unlicensed Installations       These Container columns show the subset of installations from containers so from the Unlicensed Installations above, you have 4 installations of Ubuntu and 3 come from Containers which means that as Container applications aren’t included in license reconcile, you have 1 that can be addressed by the reconcile and 3 from containers which you need to review and manually allocate where necessary.       Hardware Asset Managers If you are managing specific devices and want to see whether they are running containers there is a “Container” tab which lists the Container and Docker Images.   If you then want to see what applications these devices are running within containers you can go to the Applications tab and you will see a new sub-tab called Containers which will show you all the Containers associated with this device.     These are the main views we’ve implemented, I will be adding a Q&A section at a later date once I’ve finished collating all of the recent questions. ... View more