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January 2023

Flexera One introduced the following new features and enhancements this month.

Cloud Cost Optimization​

Cloud Cost Optimization added the following new feature and enhancements in January 2023.

New Azure Savings Plan Recommendations policy added to Automation Catalog​

New Azure Savings Plan Recommendations policy

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This feature is available with Cloud Cost Optimization.

Microsoft recently announced Azure savings plans meant to allow easier purchasing and commitment to discount pricing for users with consistent Azure compute resource usage.

To help Flexera users take advantage of the new Azure savings plan model, we have added relevant recommendations in Cloud Cost Optimization. These recommendations allow our Cloud Cost Optimization users to see the savings they can achieve on their Azure spend, in one aggregated view, along with the other savings opportunities such as Azure RI, Unused Volumes, Idle Instances, and many more.

You can find the policy for Azure Savings Plan Recommendations in our Automation Catalog or in our GitHub repository:

For more information about viewing your organization’s Total Potential Savings from recommendations, see Viewing Potential Savings in Flexera One Help.

For more information about the Azure Savings Plans, see Microsoft’s learning page on that topic: What is Azure savings plans for compute?

Recommendations can be assigned to billing centers using rule-based dimensions​

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This enhancement is available with Cloud Cost Optimization.

Rule-based dimensions now support billing center assignments to recommendations to allow cost center owners to see total potential savings on their billing centers. These recommendations can match based on the vendor_account or resource_group field.

For details about using rule-based dimensions, see Rule-based Dimensions in the Flexera One Help.

New Cloud Cost Optimization role: View bill adjustments​

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This enhancement is available with Cloud Cost Optimization.

Users are now able to see the adjusted and unadjusted costs (raw costs) in Cloud Cost Optimization reports. This new feature is enabled for users who need the cost-transparency to see adjusted and unadjusted costs into their cloud costs using the new role: View bill adjustments.

We have added the View bill adjustments role to allow Cloud Cost Optimization administrators to grant users in their organization the permission to view the Adjustment Program page and the Bill Adjustments dimensions in the dashboards and tabular views.

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The ability to view adjusted and unadjusted costs is also available to users with the Manage organization and Manage bill adjustments roles.

For more information about viewing bill data adjustments, see Bill Data Adjustments in the Flexera One Help.

For more information about Flexera One roles, see Flexera One Roles in the Flexera One Help.

Flexera One Platform​

The Flexera One Platform added the following new feature in January 2023.

Flexera One now supports Spanish translation​

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This feature is available throughout Flexera One.

The Flexera One user-interface text now supports Spanish translations.

Spanish translation is enabled through Flexera One-supported browsers. Refer to the following Help topics for instructions about how to change the browser language:

For complete information, refer to Flexera One Support for Additional Languages.

IT Asset Management​

IT Asset Management added the following new features and enhancements in January 2023.

Changes to supported operating systems and compatibility with other products​

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This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.

The following operating system versions have been added to the list of supported operating systems on FlexNet inventory agent:

  • Cent OS 9
  • Debian Linux 11.5
  • Fedora Linux 37

The following product versions have been added to the compatibility list of IT Asset Management with other products:

  • Citrix Virtual Apps server (previously XenApp server) 7.2209
  • Citrix Virtual Desktops (previously Citrix XenDesktop) 7.2209
  • EdgeSight for Citrix Virtual Apps (previously XenApp EdgeSight) 7.2209
  • IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) or HCL BigFix Inventory on IBM DB2 9.2.30

For the full lists, see Prerequisite Software and Compatibility with Other Products in System Requirements and Compatibility.

Ability to recognize JBoss installations​

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This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.

Previously, there was no visibility on JBoss usage. With this release, the inventory capabilities of the FlexNet inventory agent have been extended to detect the installation of the following Red Hat JBoss and middleware applications:

  • JBoss Enterprise Application Platform
  • JBoss Web Server
  • Decision Manager
  • Fuse

To take advantage of this enhancement, upgrade your FlexNet inventory agent to the latest version. For instructions about upgrading the FlexNet inventory agent, refer to Gathering FlexNet Inventory.

New Allocation Reason field​

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This feature is available with IT Asset Management.

A new Allocation Reason text field has been added to the SoftwareLicenseAllocation table, allowing you to document the reason why a user or device was allocated to a license.

Prior to this enhancement, it was only possible to see why a user or device was allocated to a license in the license history. Similar to the existing Exemption Reason field, you can now see at a glance the reason why a device or user was allocated to a license.

The allocation reason can be added and edited in the Consumption tab of a license, and the Apply Allocation & Exemptions wizard.

The field is a read-only column in the device License tab, and the Apply Allocation & Exemptions screen.

The Allocation Reason field has been added to the reporting column in the allocation object, allowing you to include Allocation Reason when building a report.

New columns in the VMs Inventory Gaps From vCenters report​

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This feature is available with IT Asset Management.

Three new columns have been added to the Virtual Machine group in the VMs Inventory Gaps From vCenters report.

  • Device name —The system name of the virtual machine.
  • Last known state —The status of the virtual machine most recently reported by your cloud service provider.
  • VM type —The type of the virtual machine.

These new columns provide additional information to help with identifying virtual machines.

For more details, see VMs Inventory Gaps From vCenters Report.

SaaS Management​

SaaS Management added the following new feature and enhancements in January 2023.

New Cisco Umbrella API for SaaS Management integration tasks​

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This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.

The End-of-Life (EOL) date for Cisco’s Legacy Umbrella API is September 1, 2023. Cisco’s legacy Umbrella API (v1) used a basic authentication method while the latest version (v2) of the Cisco Umbrella API requires a more secure token-based authentication method.

Flexera’s SaaS Management has migrated its Cisco Umbrella integration to the latest API. If your organization currently has a managed Cisco Umbrella integration with SaaS Management, you need to reauthorize the integration due to the change in authentication method and API from Cisco Umbrella. You will also need to create a new Umbrella API key and secret. For details, refer to the “Generating an Umbrella API Key and Secret” section of the Cisco Umbrella Flexera One Help.

The new Cisco Umbrella API for the SaaS Management Application Roster and Application Access integration tasks is https://api.umbrella.com/admin/v2/users.

New tool for importing SaaS vendor data into SaaS Management​

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This feature is available for SaaS Management.

The Flexera SaaS Management (FSM) team has developed an application incorporating workflow and error messaging for importing SaaS data from over 26,000 SaaS vendors. The FSM Data Ingestion Utility is a client-based Windows desktop tool to help upload data from your organization’s multiple SaaS applications on a regular schedule. This application provides the Software Asset Manager with a complete view across all their SaaS applications.

FSM Data Ingestion Utility workflow​

The following describes the key steps of the FSM Data Ingestion Utility.

  1. Map the input CSV file or API data source fields to Flexera One’s SaaS Import Job API.
  2. Schedule the upload data frequency between your organization’s SaaS applications and FSM Data Ingestion Utility.

Key features​

The FSM Data Ingestion Utility has the following key features.

All inclusive​

Ingests all your organization’s SaaS vendor data to reflect your entire SaaS environment, irrespective of whether that data is available via a vendor API or stored in a CSV file.

Flexible & extendable​
  • Creates and changes field mappings as needed
  • Creates job upload schedules to suit application usage data availability
Reliable​
  • Tracks and provides visibility into application activity through audit logs
  • Retries job uploads multiple times to ensure reliable delivery
Scalable​
  • Enables the ingestion of enterprise-level data
  • Automatically handles ingestion of large CSV files by splitting files into 10MB chunks
Secure​
  • Requires token-based authentication
  • Encrypts and stores refresh token in a database

To download the FSM Data Ingestion Utility installer, see the attachment in the Flexera SaaS Management Data Ingestion Utility Knowledge Base article.

For complete help with the utility, see Flexera SaaS Management Data Ingestion Utility in the Flexera One Help.

Managing Azure domains in SaaS Management​

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This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.

Flexera One’s SaaS Management now offers the ability to manage domains during the integration setup for Azure and Azure Client Credentials. The new Domain Names field allows you to enter a targeted list of your organization’s country or organizational unit domains. Entering a select number of Azure domains helps narrow the scope of your organization’s user activity and SaaS license data displayed in SaaS Management. Managing Azure domains may also minimize extended or additional internal security approvals when integrating Azure and Azure Client Credentials with SaaS Management.

Enabling the Domain Names field for existing Azure and Azure Client Credentials integrations​

If your organization currently has a managed Azure or Azure Client Credentials integration with SaaS Management, you will need to reauthorize the integration in the application’s Integration tab. To access the new Domain Names field, navigate to the Managed SaaS Applications page (SaaS > SaaS Applications > Managed SaaS Applications), click the appropriate Azure or Azure Client Credentials instance link, which opens the application’s Overview tab by default. Navigate to the application’s Integration tab. Click the Setup button, which opens the application’s Integration Configuration dialog. Scroll down to the Domain Names field.

To filter users based on domain, enter the appropriate domain name(s) in the Domain Names field. If you provide multiple domain values, they should be comma separated. Domain names are not case sensitive. If the Domain Names field is left empty, it will pull all the user domains.

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If the User Principal Name (UPN) and mail values are not the same, the entered domain values will not display in the Email column of the Azure or Azure Client Credentials Users tab in SaaS Management.

Enabling the Domain Names field for new Azure and Azure Client Credentials integrations​

To access the Domain Names field for a new Azure or Azure Client Credentials integration, navigate to the Managed SaaS Applications page (SaaS > SaaS Applications > Managed SaaS Applications). Click Add Application. Select the appropriate Azure or Azure Client Credentials tile, which opens the application’s integration setup slideout. Enter any necessary tags in the optional Tags field. Click Authenticate Integration to open the next setup slideout page. Scroll down to the Domain Names field.

To filter users based on domain, enter the appropriate domain name(s) in the Domain Names field. Domain names are not case sensitive. If you provide multiple domain values, they should be comma separated. If the Domain Names field is left empty, it will pull all the user domains.

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If the User Principal Name (UPN) and mail values are not the same, the entered domain values will not display in the Email column of the Azure or Azure Client Credentials Users tab in SaaS Management.

For more information, see the following integration instructions in the Flexera One Help: