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June 2023

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

Automation, including Cloud Cost Optimization​

Flexera One added the following new Automation features in June 2023.

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This feature is available with Automation.

The Applied Policies page (Automation > Applied Policies) now features a fixed table header, ensuring that when you scroll down in the list, critical information remains visible. Additionally, the Policy Name column and the column containing the Actions menu are now pinned, so that when you scroll horizontally, you maintain easy access to the Actions menu while also maintaining context.

The Automation Incidents page (Automation > Incidents) features a pinned Subject column and also includes a fixed table header, simplifying navigation and preserving incident context.

Log Level policy parameter added​

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This feature is available with Automation.

Although detailed logging is crucial for effective troubleshooting, it can also introduce memory usage overhead and potentially slow down the policy evaluation process.

You can now control the amount of information to log during policy evaluation by using the Log Level parameter when applying a policy. This gives you control over the level of detail recorded during policy evaluation.

For more information, see the “Common Policy Configuration Options” section of Applying Policies.

Flexera Integration app for ServiceNow​

Flexera released the following new app version of the Flexera Integration app for ServiceNow in June 2023.

Flexera Integration app for ServiceNow version 5.1.2 now available in ServiceNow Store​

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This feature is available with Data Platform, IT Visibility, and IT Asset Management.

The latest version of the ServiceNow Flexera Integration app (v5.1.2) is here. Version 5.1.2 includes a new option to pause imports into ServiceNow, a new optional setting for date token behavior, a performance improvement, and a number of resolved issues.

The Flexera Integration app was just recently certified by ServiceNow. This version of the Integration app supports ServiceNow versions Utah, Tokyo, and San Diego. A full list of what’s changed can be found below for v5.1.2.

IT Visibility and Data Platform integration​

General improvements​

  • Option to pause imports into ServiceNow
  • Data token behavior change for Hardware records
  • New index for data source in the Software Installation table

Resolved issues​

  • Corrected an issue where Linux Servers were not always being classified correctly.
  • Updated category mappings to use more standard naming. In some cases, the category Flexera used for a model was identical to the category typically used in categories out of the box—except for an extra s. For example, the plural, computers (Flexera) instead of the singular computer (out of the box). In these cases, the s was removed to avoid unnecessary categories or confusion.
  • Resolved an issue where IRE (Identification and Reconciliation Engine) wasn’t resetting the is_deleted flag when CIs (Configuration Items) “returned” after dropping out of the previous discovery.
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There were no changes IT Asset Management/FlexNet Manager Suite Integration for version 5.1.2.

See the following list for the v5.1.2 documentation:

Flexera One Platform​

The Flexera One Platform added the following new features in June 2023.

New Access Rule API​

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This feature is available with the Flexera One API.

An Access Rule API helps grant permissions to existing users, groups, or service accounts within the scope of an Org or project.

For more details, please see the API documentation listed here:

https://developer.flexera.com/docs/api/iam/v1#/Access%20Rule​

Flexera One now supports German translation​

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This feature is available throughout Flexera One.

Flexera One user-interface text now supports German translations. Ongoing improvements to German translations will occur on a monthly basis.

German 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 enhancement in June 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 version has been added to the list of supported operating systems on FlexNet inventory agent:

  • Kubernetes 1.27

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

  • Docker 24.0

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

IT Visibility​

IT Visibility added the following new beta features and enhancement in June 2023. These features will be included in a General Availability (GA) release on October 31, 2023.

Support for software inventory recognized from file evidence​

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This enhancement is available with IT Visibility.

File evidence is an evidence type for software inventory. It indicates evidence in the form of a file that is found on a computer—it might simply be the name of the file, or the information found within the file (such as with ISO-compliant software identification [SWID] tags).

Previously, IT Visibility normalization did not cover inventories discovered from file evidence. Therefore, the inventory Data Store did not include software records from file evidence.

Now, IT Visibility offers support for file evidence. All the software inventories recognized from file evidence are normalized and are available in the Data Store.

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Currently, file evidence is not counted in the total evidence count for software on the Inventory Normalization Statistics page yet. This will be implemented in future releases.

Calculated lifecycle dates now available in IT Visibility​

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Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

Following the availability of Calculated Lifecycle Data in the Technopedia API, this data is now also available in IT Visibility.

Technopedia provides enrichment data such as lifecycle dates—General Availability (GA), End of Life (EOL), and obsolete dates (the last date in which any support is provided by the vendor, captured the way it was published by the vendor)—in addition to software releases. Flexera’s Content Team curates these dates from various sources (direct from vendors' websites or other reliable sources). However, not every vendor provides this information publicly, leaving Technopedia customers facing the challenge of having to manage releases with missing lifecycle dates.

Calculated Lifecycle supplements the curated, research-based dates by introducing dynamic calculations on dates for a particular release based on existing dates from other related releases (such as releases under the same product, family, suite, vendor, category, and so on). These calculations provide additional data points to customers who need to have explicit dates in their EOL management use-cases, while at the same time still maintain full transparency that they are calculated dates.

With the Calculated Lifecycle Dates, you can better understand when the software might be at risk, even if not formally communicated by the vendor so that you can choose to take actions to mitigate vulnerabilities and support costs.

You can access the Calculated Lifecycle Dates by using any of the following methods:

  • Go to Flexera One's Data Export page (IT Visibility > Data Exports) and click Create Export. A compressed archive that contains multiple CSV files will be downloaded. You can find the calculated lifecycle dates in the Software_Technopedia_Lifecycle.csv file.

    For more details, see Exporting Data from IT Visibility in Flexera One Help.

  • Go to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard) and click Data Explorer. The calculated lifecycle data is available.

  • Go to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard). The calculated lifecycle information is available in the relevant dashboards.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Query endpoint to download the files in CSV format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Export endpoint to download the files in Parquet format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

Enhanced IT Visibility export now available​

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This feature is only available with the latest version of IT Visibility. Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

With IT Visibility’s enhanced export, you can now include enrichment content pack attributes as part of the exported data. These enrichment content packs are also available through the IT Visibility API.

The enhanced export also provides the following data:

For more details about how to use the enhanced export, see Exporting Data from IT Visibility in Flexera One Help.

Complete visibility into discovered hardware and software evidence now available in IT Visibility​

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Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

You can now see all your discovered hardware and software evidence with match counts overall, aligned with normalized results where applicable. This data can help you understand what happens between your devices and the normalization results, such as finding software evidence on specific devices, listing all hardware and software evidence that is unrecognized, inspecting the instance count for each piece of evidence, and so on.

You can access the discovered evidence by using any of the following methods:

  • Go to Flexera One's Data Export page (IT Visibility > Data Exports) and click Create Export. A compressed archive that contains multiple CSV files will be downloaded, which includes all files for discovered evidence.

    For more details, see Exporting Data from IT Visibility in Flexera One Help.

  • Go to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard). The discovered hardware and software evidence data is available.

  • Go to the IT Visibility Software Evidence page (Applications & Evidence > IT Visibility Software > IT Visibility Software Evidence).

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Query endpoint to download the files in CSV format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Export endpoint to download the files in Parquet format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

New Hardware Specifications Content Pack now available in IT Visibility​

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Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

You can now access enriched hardware inventory specification data, which includes additional hardware Technopedia attributes such as battery life, AC and DC power consumption, energy star certification, power rating of the device, and so on. The hardware specifications content pack can help you estimate your carbon footprint, plan for power consumption needs, and understand the environmental impact of your IT infrastructure.

You can access the Hardware Specifications Content Pack by using any of the following methods:

  • Go to Flexera One's Data Export page (IT Visibility > Data Exports) and click Create Export. A compressed archive that contains multiple CSV files will be downloaded, which includes all files for enriched hardware specifications.

    For more details, see Exporting Data from IT Visibility in Flexera One Help.

  • Go to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard) and click Data Explorer. The enriched hardware specifications data is available.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Query endpoint to download the files in CSV format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Export endpoint to download the files in Parquet format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

Device and Software Mashup Data attributes now available IT Visibility​

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Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

With IT Visibility’s Data Mashup feature, you can augment your organization’s inventory data with non-discoverable business context data to produce custom insights and reports. You can now download the device mashup data and the software mashup data normalized against Technopedia in the CSV format from the enhanced IT Visibility Export and leverage the CSV files for downstream integration, including integration with ServiceNow.

  • For device data, the custom mashup data includes Org, Department Code, Department Name, Owner ID, Owner Name, Location, and so on.
  • For software data, the custom mashup data includes EA standards, IT security approved technology, and so on.

Accessing Device Mashup Data and Software Mashup Data​

You can access the Device Mashup Data and Software Mashup Data by using any of the following methods:

  • Go to Flexera One's Data Export page (IT Visibility > Data Exports) and click Create Export. A compressed archive that contains multiple CSV files will be downloaded. The device mashup data is available in the devices_mashup.csv file and the software mashup data is available in the software_mashup.csv file.

    For more details, see Exporting Data from IT Visibility in Flexera One Help.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Query endpoint to download the files in CSV format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Export endpoint to download the files in Parquet format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

You can also access the Device Mashup Data by going to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard) and click Data Explorer. The device mashup data is available.

New Open Source Content Pack now available in IT Visibility​

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Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

You can now download enriched open source data normalized against Technopedia, which enables you to identify whether a particular software component in your environment or from the Technopedia catalog is open source, along with the type of restriction associated with it. Using this data, you can manage the risks associated with open source software selection and deployment and protect yourself from unintended open source consequences.

You can access the Open Source Content Pack by using any of the following methods:

  • Go to Flexera One's Data Export page (IT Visibility > Data Exports) and click Create Export. A compressed archive that contains multiple CSV files will be downloaded, which includes all files for the enriched open source data.

    For more details, see Exporting Data from IT Visibility in Flexera One Help.

  • Go to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard) and click Data Explorer. The enriched open source data is available.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Query endpoint to download the files in CSV format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Export endpoint to download the files in Parquet format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

New Software Vulnerability Enrichment Pack now optionally available in IT Visibility​

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Note the following:

  • The Software Vulnerability Enrichment Pack is an add-on entitlement and not part of the base IT Visibility product. For more information, contact your account representative.
  • This feature is only available with the latest version of IT Visibility. Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

You can now explore, visualize, and export enriched data about software vulnerability and threats associated with your normalized inventory that gives directional insight and intelligence into your security risks. Using this data, you can see the risks in deployed software and patch versions, which will help you prioritize your security response.

You can access the Software Vulnerability Enrichment Pack by using any of the following methods:

  • Go to Flexera One's Data Export page (IT Visibility > Data Exports) and click Create Export. A compressed archive that contains multiple CSV files will be downloaded, which includes all files for the enriched software vulnerability data.

    For more details about using the enhanced export, see IT Visibility Data Export in Flexera One Help.

  • Go to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard) and click Data Explorer. The enriched software vulnerability data is available.

  • Go to Flexera One’s IT Visibility Dashboard page (IT Visibility > Dashboard) and then click Change Dashboard. The Software Vulnerability Enrichment dashboard is available to choose.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Query endpoint to export the files in CSV format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

  • Use the IT Visibility API: Export endpoint to export the files in Parquet format as a snapshot of the full inventory dataset and as delta inventory.

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The Software Vulnerability Enrichment Pack includes data for all Secunia Advisory IDs (SAIDs) from the Secunia database, as well as the most critical and urgent Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVEs) that are linked to the SAIDs, but does not include data for the entire CVE set from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

Ability to determine how many versions behind a software release is​

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This feature is available with IT Visibility.

Upgrading to the latest version of IT Visibility is not automatically performed for customers who were onboarded prior to October 31, 2023. To request an upgrade, contact Flexera Support.

October 2023 Update to GA: Although this was released as a beta feature in June 2023, it was subsequently included as a GA feature on October 31, 2023.

IT Visibility customers are able to determine how many versions behind (the current/latest version) a particular software release is, so that n-1 (or n-x) software management can be accomplished.

SaaS Management​

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

New Power BI reporting insights for Microsoft 365 cost analysis and license downgrading​

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This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.

Flexera One’s SaaS Management offers Power BI extensible reporting for Microsoft 365. The following new insights for analyzing Microsoft 365 cost analysis and downgrading Microsoft 365 user licenses are now available.

  • Blocked Credentials
  • Last Sign In
  • Last Used M365 Application
  • Multifactor Authentication

While these insights will not be available within the SaaS Management user interface until the third quarter of 2023, you can use Power BI reporting to utilize these insights now. For further information, refer to the Microsoft 365 Power BI Reporting for Flexera One's SaaS Management Knowledge Base article.

For more information refer to the following Flexera One Help topics:

New ServiceNow account information displayed in SaaS Management​

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This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.

At the top of the ServiceNow Managed SaaS Applications page (SaaS > Managed SaaS Applications) are two new ovals that display information related to your managed ServiceNow application in SaaS Management. For details, see the following table.

ServiceNow account informationDescription
ReleaseThe ServiceNow release name associated with your managed ServiceNow application.
Example: Tokyo
Tip: Knowing the release name helps you understand your organization’s upgrade path as ServiceNow releases a new version at least once a year with new fixes, functionalities, and features.
Note: If your ServiceNow instance requires an upgrade, ensure the upgrade is successfully completed. Otherwise, the ServiceNow API returns an incorrect Release value, which is then displayed in SaaS Management.
Sandbox instancesThe number of active ServiceNow sandbox instances that are managed in SaaS Management.
Note: If your organization does not manage any sandbox instances in SaaS Management, a dash “ - ” is displayed.

Flexera One Help resources​

For related Flexera One SaaS Management integration instructions, see:

Tracking consumption-based SaaS license spend from all SaaS vendors​

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This feature is available with SaaS Management.

SaaS vendors may use a consumption-based licensing model to charge customers for the amount of SaaS licensing units consumed. Previously, SaaS Management only tracked Salesforce Marketing Cloud consumption-based SaaS license spend using a bespoke Contacts Usage tab on the SaaS Application Details page. Now, you can track consumption-based SaaS license spend from all SaaS vendors on the Consumption tab of the SaaS Application Details page.

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The Consumption tab details may vary slightly for each SaaS vendor. You can enable the Consumption tab through either scenario:

Accessing the Consumption tab​

You can view the Consumption tab by navigating to the SaaS menu and clicking Managed SaaS Applications. On the Managed SaaS Applications page, select the appropriate SaaS application’s instance link. Depending on the SaaS application, the default tab displayed is either the Overview tab or the Consumption tab. If the Overview tab displays, go to the Consumption tab.

Features for consumption-based SaaS licenses​

The Consumption tab of the SaaS Application Details page, displaying consumption-based SaaS license details, is automatically populated with the following information:

  • Consumed quantity
  • Purchased quantity
  • Remaining quantity
  • Average monthly consumption
  • Monthly allowance

Additional product consumption details are manually entered in the SaaS application's Consumption Details slideout. For details, refer to the Flexera One help topic Adding an Application to Your Organization's list of Managed SaaS Applications.

Technopedia​

Technopedia added the following new feature in June 2023.

Calculated lifecycle data now available in the Technopedia API​

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This feature is available with Technopedia.

Technopedia provides enrichment data such as lifecycle dates—General Availability (GA), End of Life (EOL), and Obsolete dates (the last date in which any support is provided by the vendor, captured the way it was published by the vendor)—in addition to software releases. Flexera’s Content Team curates these dates from various sources (direct from vendors' websites or other reliable sources). However, not every vendor provides this information publicly, leaving Technopedia customers facing the challenge of having to manage releases with missing lifecycle dates.

Calculated Lifecycle supplements the curated, research-based dates by introducing dynamic calculations on dates for a particular release based on existing dates from other related releases (such as releases under the same product, family, suite, vendor, category, and so on). These calculations provide additional data points to customers who need to have explicit dates in their EOL management use-cases, while at the same time still maintain full transparency that they are calculated dates.

Customers coming from Data Platform will see this an improvement to the existing Calculated Lifecycle Date concept in Data Platform where the settings provide the ability to hard-code a very rough global parameter (such as setting EOL dates equal to GA dates + 47 months) which does not give a very reliable prediction across various products/vendors. Additionally, these Calculated Lifecycle Dates from Flexera One Technopedia will soon be made available in various data consumption methods within Flexera One, including IT Visibility's dashboards and reports, IT Visibility exports, as well as the IT Visibility API.

Using Flexera One’s Technopedia API, you can now manage software releases with missing lifecycle dates. The Flexera One Technopedia API adds the following support for calculated lifecycle data to its SoftwareLifecycle dataset:

  • New calculated date fields —These fields contain calculated values based on an algorithm that picks the best scenario (“case”) to calculate the missing dates. Each date field— General Availability, End of Life, Obsolete —has its own calculated date field.
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    These dates are calculated, and not actual dates as published by the vendor.

  • New calculated “case” fields —These fields provide information on how the dates were calculated—whether they were calculated based on dates from other releases under the same product, calculated based on dates from other releases within the same suite, and so on.

For more information, see Technopedia API in the Flexera One API Reference as well as the SoftwareLifecycle dataset for definitions of the new fields.