July 2021
Flexera One introduced the following new features and enhancements, and included an end-of-life announcement this month.
IT Asset Management
IT Asset Management added the following enhancements in July 2021.
All Containers page redesigned
This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.
Provided that you have enabled collecting inventory from containers, the All Containers page lists inventory collected from two kinds of containers:
- Docker containers managed by the Docker Engine
- OCI containers managed by Kubernetes
Until now, this page was a tree view, but it has now been reworked as a flat listing of:
- Containers (each with its source image, its pod [for Kubernetes], host or node, and the cluster where these operate)
- Pods without containers (as shown in FlexNet inventory), where the container column remains blank but other details remain
- Images from which there are currently no containers running (as shown in FlexNet inventory), in which case the container column and the pod column both remain blank
However, for those who really liked the tree view, the page has default groupings on:
- The Cluster name
- The Container host (a column which also displays the worker node in a Kubernetes cluster)
- The Image ID identifying the image from which the container was instantiated
The default groupings keep a similar appearance, and much of the useful functionality, of a tree view, with the added advantage that you can remove the groupings when they are not helpful.
As well as the changed layout, the available columns have also been revised, with several new columns added for extra transparency and detail. For more information, see the updated Flexera One Help for the All Containers page.
Client Secret support for Microsoft 365 connector
This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.
In a frequently-requested enhancement, the Microsoft 365 connector configured on your preferred inventory beacon can now use a client secret, rather than a session token, for authorizing its requests for inventory data.
This enhancement requires that your relevant inventory beacon is upgraded to FlexNet Beacon version 17.0.0 or later. Once upgraded, FlexNet Beacon supports switching your existing token-based authentication to authentication using a client secret, using the same process as for a new connection.
The client secret configuration is only available when you choose to configure your own single-tenant 'app' in Azure AD, where it is a standard configuration supported by Microsoft for an application (in this case, the connector) that needs to authenticate as itself without user interaction or consent. You will need global administrator permissions in the Azure portal to initially configure the client secret, and you can select the period (between 3 months and 2 years) that the client secret should remain valid, to suit the administrative processes in your enterprise. Of course, shortly before your client secret expires, you should generate a replacement.
Once the Azure portal provides your client secret, you must immediately copy it into a secure location (perhaps a spreadsheet saved securely), along with your chosen expiry date – because as soon as you change pages in the Azure portal, your client secret is hidden forever!
On the inventory beacon side, configuration is as simple as choosing the new Authenticating Flow setting for Client Credentials, and then pasting the supplied client secret into the Client Secret field that appears. The updated connector continues to run on your existing schedule and to return all expected data.
Improved recognition for Linux KVM sources
This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.
In another popular enhancement, Linux (with its embedded Kernel-based Virtual Machine, or KVM) is now correctly recognized from additional suppliers oVirt, Red Hat, and Nutanix. The names now appear (after recognition in incoming inventory), for example, in the Publisher field on the General tab of the application properties sheet.
This improved recognition has an important side benefit, that when these virtual machines are found in inventory, they are now correctly identified as virtual machines (for example, shown as Virtual Machine in the Inventory device type column of All Inventory), rather than being misrepresented as a Computer or a VM Host. In this and similar inventory listings, the new supplier names are shown in the Manufacturer column.
Original Microsoft AzureRM module end-of-life announcement
This end-of-life announcement applies to the original Microsoft AzureRM module in IT Asset Management.
The original Microsoft AzureRM module, now nearing end-of-life, will no longer be supported in IT Asset Management as of July 2021. Instead, support for the more recent Microsoft Az module is continuing, and this newer module allows you to use the Azure Hybrid Benefit to minimize the costs of related licensing. For more information, see this announcement: https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Manager-Blog/Azure-inventory-connector-will-not-support-Microsoft-PowerShell/ba-p/198899. For details on switching to the Microsoft Az module, see https://docs.flexera.com/fnms/EN/WebHelp/index.html#tasks/IB-ConnectAzure.html.
IT Visibility
IT Visibility added the following new features in July 2021.
Ignored devices are removed from IT Visibility
This feature is available with IT Visibility.
IT Asset Management allows you to ignore inventory records if these should not be included in your inventory result set in situations, for example, if the inventory record is known to be inaccurate but it is not feasible to delete the inaccurate record from the inventory source. Inventory linked to retired or disposed assets is automatically ignored by IT Asset Management.
Devices ignored in your IT Asset Management environment now are also filtered from your IT Visibility inventory data set when you own both IT Asset Management and IT Visibility.
Organization data is now available in IT Visibility data exports
This feature is available with IT Visibility.
Associations between device inventory and organizational data in your ITAM environment are now also provided with exports of IT Visibility when using the beta export capability. See Export Files and Hardware_Contextualized.csv for compete details.
SaaS Management
SaaS Management added the following new features and enhancement in July 2021.
Auto-populated Salesforce License Information
This feature is available with SaaS Management.
The Flexera One integration with Salesforce offers a License Information integration task that automatically retrieves the Salesforce license name and total allowed number of licenses. This retrieved Salesforce license information automatically populates the Salesforce Licenses Tab in Flexera One. This auto-populated Salesforce license information provides a more complete view of your Salesforce entitlements by displaying user licenses and permission set licenses.
For complete information, refer to the “Auto-Populated Salesforce License Information” subsection of the Salesforce Flexera One Help.
New look for a SaaS Application’s Overview tab
This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.
The Overview tab in Flexera One is a dashboard that displays a SaaS application’s spend, license count, and user activity. This tab was redesigned to present data in a more consistent and consumable way.
The Overview tab can be found by navigating to the SaaS menu in Flexera One and clicking Managed SaaS Applications. When the Managed SaaS Applications screen appears, click the link of the appropriate application instance to open the application’s details screen. The Overview tab is listed first.
To see how much the Overview tab has been redesigned, use the link underneath the Overview tab to switch between the old and new dashboard.
For complete details, see Overview Tab - New Dashboard in the Flexera One Help.
Salesforce Overview
This feature is available with SaaS Management.
When your organization has multiple Salesforce instances integrated with Flexera One, a grouping row appears with all Salesforce data aggregated in the Managed SaaS Applications screen. After clicking the Salesforce grouping row link, the Salesforce Overview screen appears. This screen allows you to view entitled, consumed, available, and active/inactive/never active user counts for each aggregated license type for all Salesforce Organizations within one location in Flexera One. From the Salesforce Overview screen, you can drill down to a particular Salesforce instance to view user activity