January 2024
Flexera One introduced the following new features and enhancements this month.
Cloud Cost Optimization
Cloud Cost Optimization added the following new feature in January 2024.
Ingestion of billing data now available in the FOCUS compliant format
This FinOps feature is available with Cloud Cost Optimization.
Cloud Cost Optimization now ingests billing data provided in the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) v1.0 preview format. The FOCUS specification defines a common format for billing data that enables your organization to better understand their cost and usage patterns across cloud providers. Using this format, your organization can easily exchange datasets between the FinOps tools to manage and optimize costs. For more information, see FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) in the Flexera One Help.
IT Asset Management
IT Asset Management released the following new features and enhancements in January 2024.
Changes to supported operating systems and compatibility with other products
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:
- Fedora Linux 39 (x86 64-bit only)
The following product versions have been added to the compatibility list of IT Asset Management with other products:
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Citrix Virtual Apps server (previously XenApp server) 7.2308
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Citrix Virtual Desktops (previously Citrix XenDesktop) 7.2308
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EdgeSight for Citrix Virtual Apps (previously XenApp EdgeSight) 7.2308
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HCL BigFix Inventory 10.0.13
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HCL BigFix Platform (previously Tivoli Endpoint Manager and IBM BigFix) on Microsoft SQL Server 10.0.9
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BMC Discovery (previously ADDM) 23.3
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VMware vSphere/vCenter/ESXi 8 U1b
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Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (previously Microsoft SCCM or SMS) 2309
For the full lists, see Prerequisite Software and Compatibility with Other Products in the IT Asset Management System Requirements and Compatibility.
The FlexNet Inventory Agent and FlexNet Beacon can now encrypt NDI, DISCO, MMI, SWACC, ACTIVITY and BSTAT file data
This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.
The FlexNet Inventory Agent and FlexNet Beacon now have the capability to encrypt the data contained within the inventory (NDI), discovery (DISCO), usage (MMI), client access (SWACC), activity (ACTIVITY) and beacon status (BSTAT) files they generate. This capability encrypts the inventory data on the machine hosting the beacon and helps prevent inventory files from being viewed or modified by malicious actors.
This requires a setting to be enabled, which at present needs to be done on the customer’s behalf by Flexera. Contact Flexera Support to enable this setting.
Another requirement is that ALL agents AND ALL beacons in the customer's environment must be upgraded to at least version 21.0.
Microsoft Intune adapter supports macOS
This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.
The Microsoft Intune adapter now supports the collection of macOS device information from Microsoft Intune.
On using the Microsoft Intune adapter, macOS device information collected from Microsoft Intune is imported into IT Asset Management, giving you visibility of your macOS-managed devices in your Microsoft Intune estate and subsequently used to calculate license consumption.
Only device information on MAC operating systems with an ownership type of Corporate is retrieved. Data from personal Apple devices is not retrieved.
For more details on how to configure the adapter and what data is retrieved, see Microsoft Intune Adapter in the Inventory Adapters and Connectors Reference.
RPM packages for Linux architectures are now signed using SHA-2 algorithm
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
The RPM packages for various Linux architectures supported by the FlexNet Inventory Agent are now signed using a SHA-2 algorithm. An updated public key is required which can be downloaded from the PLC.
In addition to this change, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are no longer supported as they do not support SHA-2 signing algorithms.
For more information on what operating system platforms are supported by the FlexNet inventory agent, see Prerequisite Software in IT Asset Management System Requirements and Compatibility.
New functionality added for IBM licensing capabilities for container environments
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
IT Asset Management now supports two new additional IBM license metric types: Resource Unit (RU) and Managed Virtual Server (MVS). With the support of these additional license metric types, IBM RU licenses and IBM MVS licenses can now be created in IT Asset Management for the following Cloud Paks:
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IBM Cloud Pak for network automation
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IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps
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IBM Cloud Pak for security.
For each day that IBM products or Cloud Paks run in each Kubernetes cluster in your environment, either the Flexera Kubernetes inventory agent or the lightweight Kubernetes agent collects consumption information as evidence from the IBM License Service. IT Asset Management normalizes the data from the IBM License Service, and recognizes the Cloud Paks and bundled products they contain, as well as any stand-alone IBM products.
As usual, you can link those products to the appropriate licenses, and when IT Asset Management links these to the uploaded evidence, it provides both current consumption and peak license consumption (the peak consumption over the period is the measure of interest to IBM for licensing). IBM requires that, for products (including Cloud Paks) running in Kubernetes clusters, you must use the IBM License Service to identify the products. You can now do this in IT Asset Management for IBM RU or IBM MVS license types.
The following reports in IT Asset Management have been created to provide further insights into peak and current consumption data of software covered by MVS licenses and RU licenses and the license entitlements consumed against those licenses:
In addition, the existing Cloud Pak reports (IBM Cloud Pak License Consumption report and IBM Cloud Pak License Current Consumption report) have been updated to report on Cloud Paks with RU and MVS metric types.
Bundled products licensed with any metric (VPC, PVU, MVS, RU) will now be converted to the metric associated with the Cloud Pak. For example, for a Cloud Pak RU license, if the bundled product was licensed with a VPC metric, VPC will be converted to the RU metric. This is displayed in the Product conversion ratio column in the Consumption tab of License Properties.
To meet IBM's reporting requirements, IBM MVS and RU report data is included in the IBM audit report package, available for download in IT Asset Management. This package can be used as a trusted source for audit. To download the package, open the report in IT Asset Management, select the reporting period, and click the Download the IBM audit report link.
FlexNet Inventory Agent version 21.1.0 changes
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
See FlexNet Inventory Agent version 21.1.0 changes
Inventory Beacon 21.1.0 changes
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.