December 2021
Flexera One introduced the following new features and enhancements this month.
Administration
Flexera One added the following Administration enhancement in December 2021.
New Cloud Cost Optimization roles
The Flexera One Cloud Cost Optimization application has three new Flexera One Roles. These roles are described below. To assign a Flexera One user to any of these roles, refer to Adding New Users.
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Manage bill adjustments | Full access to manage bill adjustments in Cloud Cost Optimization. |
| Manage custom dimensions | Full access to manage custom tags in Cloud Cost Optimization. |
| Manage rule-based dimensions | Full access to manage rule-based dimensions in Cloud Cost Optimization. |
IT Asset Management
IT Asset Management added the following new features and enhancement in December 2021.
Auto-cleanup of obsolete FlexNet inventory
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
A new setting in the Inventory tab of the IT Asset Management Settings General page authorizes automatic cleanup of records of inventory devices that were once reporting inventory through the FlexNet inventory agent, but now have stopped reporting for your chosen period of time. The setting is in the Obsolete inventory section of the tab.
The default setting is Never, meaning that cleanup of inventory devices is not performed. To trigger automatic cleanup, select a different value (such as 30 days) from the Remove after drop-down.
The clean-up is irreversible. If you wish to preserve records of inventory devices that are no longer reported by FlexNet inventory agent, ensure that Never remains selected in the Remove after drop-down.
This setting may be changed as required. For example, you might leave the default selection of Never until you become aware that some data cleanup is required. Then you can choose an appropriate time window, and wait (typically overnight) until the clean-up occurs. Be aware, of course, that this cleans up all records of devices that have failed to report in your chosen time window.
File replication captures beacon uploads for review
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
An inventory beacon is a data staging post between an inventory source (such as the FlexNet inventory agent) and the central application server. To manage its disk space, as soon as an inventory beacon successfully uploads a file, the local copy of that file is deleted. However, this can make it tricky to catch an uploaded file for examination and troubleshooting, as the interval between receiving the file and subsequently deleting it again can be quite short.
Enter the file Replication page, now available on inventory beacons from version 17.3.0 forwards. When you're troubleshooting, you can choose the kind of file(s) to save, the path for storing them, and how long they should be retained before being deleted to conserve disk space. For a little more detail, refer to the Beacon Versions page in Flexera One.
IBM license consumption in containers now available
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
The following reports in IT Asset Management have been updated to give further insights into peak and current consumption contributed by IBM product or Cloud Paks, whether these products are running in traditional or containerized environments:
- IBM PVU License Consumption
- IBM PVU License Current Consumption
- IBM Cloud Pak License Consumption
- IBM Cloud Pak License Current Consumption
As well as being available through the reports index, these licenses are directly linked to the Consumption tab of the appropriate licenses.
The previous IBM License Service Consumption report is now renamed as the IBM Container Licensing report.
Take inventory of any Linux container software for CI/CD
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
A new tool for collecting software inventory from container images complements other tools that collect hardware inventory (such as the lightweight Kubernetes agent, which deliberately does not get "inside" the containers in the Kubernetes cluster it is inspecting). The tool is a Linux-based script called imgtrack, which uses the software inventory capabilities of the standard FlexNet Inventory Scanner to perform a "static analysis" of the software installed in the container – that is, it is run separately from the container management platform, and does not interfere with any running containers, instead temporarily instantiating a container derived from the image under investigation. When the investigation is complete, the script either triggers upload of the resulting inventory file to an inventory beacon of your choice, or saves the resulting .ndi file to the folder you specify, (or both), before shutting down the special container running the derived image.
Because the script is designed to run outside a production environment, it is ideally suited for use in a chain of continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD). As imgtrack is a fully self-contained file, it can be copied to, and run in, any location you wish, such as /usr/bin or /opt/managesoft/bin or another path of your choice.
For more information, refer to How imgtrack Works in the Gathering FlexNet Inventory reference.
New report optimizes licenses for SQL Server
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
Microsoft offers two main alternatives for licensing SQL Server:
- SQL Server Enterprise, which covers an unlimited number of virtual machines (VMs) with installations of any edition of Microsoft SQL Server on the host, with capping applied according to the number of cores available in each host (and consumption is summed at the host level, so that capping can be applied).
- SQL Server Standard, which must be applied separated to each VM with an installation of Microsoft SQL Server Standard Edition, with a minimum of four cores per VM.
These choices can be quite time-consuming to manage, and many enterprises choose the first option as the simplest and safest path. However, a new report in IT Asset Management, the Microsoft SQL Server Optimization report, now assesses the latest inventory for every consuming device (including stand-alone servers, virtual hosts with VMs running SQL Server, and even orphan VMs where the host cannot be identified) for three different scenarios:
- Covering all installations with a SQL Server Enterprise license.
- Covering all installations (within a cluster) with a SQL Server Standard license (of course, only for those clusters where only SQL Server Standard Edition is installed).
- Licensing a host where each VM is running Microsoft SQL Server Standard edition with the SQL Server Standard license, and hosts where VMs are running Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition with the SQL Server Enterprise license (this may provide a better optimized result than is currently available within IT Asset Management, which takes the default of applying SQL Server Enterprise licenses to any host where any VM is running that Edition of the software).
For each cluster, the report then recommends whichever of those scenarios yields the lowest cost. This can point the way to significant cost savings at your next license or maintenance renewal.
VMware inventory now includes IP address for ESXi host
This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.
For years, the VMware infrastructure inventory reported in IT Asset Management has not included the IP address for the ESXi host server (just as with other inventory-gathering products). Now, in a first for IT Asset Management, this gap has been filled, and the host's IP address is visible in the appropriate pages of the web interface, such as the All Inventory page, or an appropriate inventory properties page.
SaaS Management
SaaS Management added the following new features and enhancements in December 2021.
Azure AD guest users included with HR Roster integration
This feature is available with SaaS Management.
The SaaS Management HR Roster integration task provides the option to include Azure AD Guest users, such as contractors, in the Flexera One All SaaS Users (Organization > All SaaS Users) screen. Including Guest users improves the metrics and calculations provided to the Software Asset Manager.
Details for pulling in Azure AD Guest users using the SaaS Management HR Roster integration task can be found in the “Integrating with SaaS Management” section of the Azure and Azure Client Credentials integration instructions.
ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 license differentiation
This feature is available with SaaS Management.
The following ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 integration instruction sections were updated to reflect the new ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 license differentiation feature.
- Information stored
- Minimum permissions required
- Credentials required
- License Types
- License Differentiation
- Integrating ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 with SaaS Management
- Application Task Tracking
Information stored
The ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 Application Roster integration task pulls in the ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 Fulfiller and Approver roles.
Minimum permissions required
user_admin role for ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2
The user_admin role is required for retrieving the ServiceNow users, activities details, and for user license management in the reclamation task. For details, refer to the Base System Roles section of the ServiceNow product documentation.
For an existing Flexera One integration with ServiceNow added using rest-api_explorer permissions, you are required to re-authorize the integration with the user_admin permission as the new ServiceNow APIs require user_admin permissions.
Administrator role for ServiceNow OAuth2
This role is required to register the Client Application and to generate the Client ID and Client Secret in ServiceNow.
Credentials required
The Flexera One Administer SaaS role or the Manage SaaS applications & users role is required to enter information in the ServiceNow and Service Now OAuth2 integration fields: Specific Fulfiller Roles and Specify Approver Roles.
License Types
ServiceNow offers three types of licenses: Requester, Approver, and Fulfiller. The following table lists the ServiceNow license types displayed in the Activity tab.
| ServiceNow License Types Displayed in the Activity Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| Requester | These end users access the instance through an employee self-service portal. Requesters have no associated roles. Note: Since Requesters are free users, SaaS Management does not pull in these users. |
| Approver | These end users view or modify requests directed to the approver. Approvers can have the approver_user role. The Approver license type has an average cost per user. |
| Fulfiller | These end users access all functionality based on assigned roles. A popular fulfiller role is itil . The Fulfiller license type is the most expensive. |
License Differentiation
SaaS Management offers a license differentiation feature that allows you to view users by license type. To view this license differentiation feature, navigate to the Activity tab of the ServiceNow or ServiceNow OAuth2 App Details screen where you can filter and export the ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 license types.
The total spend for the billable ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 accounts displayed in the App Details screen is based on the ServiceNow license cost details entered in the License Details tab. For details, refer to Entering license details for license differentiation.
Integrating ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 with SaaS Management
Details for viewing specific ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 Approver and Fulfiller assigned users can be found in the “Integrating with SaaS Management” section of the ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 integration instructions.
After successfully integrating with SaaS Management, the ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 Fulfiller and Approver license types display:
- In the Users tab in the Licenses column.
- In the Activity tab in the License Type column.
Application Roster and Application Access API endpoints
The following API endpoints were updated:
https://<<instance>>.service-now.com/api/now/stats/sys_user_has_rolehttps://<<instance>>.service-now.com/api/now/table/sys_user_has_role
Application Task Tracking
License Differentiation has been added to ServiceNow and ServiceNow OAuth2 in the Application Task Tracking chart.
Newly updated Microsoft Product SKUs
This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.
SaaS Management has now been updated to include the new Microsoft SKUs in the catalog and are recognized. For further information, go to Product names and service plan identifiers for Licensing on the Microsoft website.
These SKUs can be added and managed in the SaaS Management Licenses tab for the following Microsoft applications.
- Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Service Virtual Agents Viral SKU
- Dynamics 365 Business Central for Information Workers (IWs)
- Office 365 and Office 365 Client Credentials LK6-00017
- Office 365 and Office 365 Client Credentials LK-00004