How to configure replication to collect a uploaded agent files on the FlexNet Manager Suite inventory server and beacons

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Summary

This article covers how to configure replication settings on the FlexNet Manager Suite inventory server and beacons to save copies of agent files as they are uploaded.

This can be useful to allow inspection of details in uploaded files, or gathering files for troubleshooting purposes.

Files that can be gathered through this way include inventory (*.ndi) files and usage (*.mmi) files.

Details

The FlexNet Manager Suite inventory server and beacons have a setting called UseReplication that is disabled by default.

On beacon versions 17.3.0 and later, this setting can be enabled on the Replication page in the beacon UI. See the following online help page for details: Inventory Beacons > Replication Page.

On inventory servers and earlier beacon versions, this setting can be enabled with the following steps:

1. Open Microsoft Internet Information Services Manager (IIS) on the server
   
   
2. Expand the tree on the left and click on the ManageSoftRL virtual directory
   
   
3. Double-click Application Settings as shown in the screenshot:
   
4. Set the value of the following settings:
   1. UseReplication = true
   2. ReplicationLocation to the full directory path where you would like uploaded files to be saved (defaults in C:\Replication)
      
      
   For example:

Alternatively, instead of modifying these setting from the IIS interface, you can configure them by directly editing the web.config file for the ManageSoftRL virtual directory. This file can be found in (by default) in C:\Program Files (x86)\Flexera Software\FlexNet Manager Platform\Importers.

Edit the file with local administrator rights in a text editor such as Notepad. Locate the following settings and change them as follows:

<!-- Replication -->
<add key="UseReplication" value="true" />
<!-- Replication -->
<add key="ImportTypesForReplication" value="logs, inventories" />
<!-- Replication Location -->
<add key="ReplicationLocation" value="c:\Replication" />

Save the file once changes have been made. IIS will automatically pick up the changed settings.

Additional Information

The ImportTypesForReplication setting is a comma-separated list that should include one or more of the following values to specify which types of files should be saved:

• logs
• inventories
• usagedata
• vdiaccess
• discovery
• activedirectory
• beaconstatus
• activitystatus
• remoteapplication
• ClientAccess

The contents of the replication folder can be deleted if you don't require these files.

Be aware that saving files in this way can result in a large amount of storage space being used. Remember to remove old files, and turn off the replication setting once it is no longer needed.