September 2022
Flexera One introduced the following new features and enhancements this month.
Administration
Flexera One added the following new Administration feature in September 2022.
Select a user group when inviting a new user
This feature is available with Administration.
Privileges are better managed through the group construct, when inviting users we forced the administrator to select at least one privilege. This adds an extra step for the administrator to go back and assign the user to the appropriate user group set up by the organization. With this release, administrators can now select a user group when inviting a user—eliminating an extra step while providing a better user experience—as the user gets appropriate access to Flexera One the moment the user accepts the invite. The administrator can additionally select individual roles on top of those roles already bestowed by the group.
Read more about inviting users in the topic, Adding New Users, in the Flexera One Help.
Cloud Cost Optimization
Cloud Cost Optimization added the following new features and enhancements in September 2022.
Aggregation of Rate and Usage Reduction recommendations
This feature is available with Cloud Cost Optimization.
Understanding your spend recommendations is paramount to optimizing your cloud spend and usage. With the latest update to the Flexera One Cost Optimization Total Potential Savings, you can now see where the biggest savings opportunities are on a single page. Additionally, more filtering capabilities are available to quickly find the recommendations to optimize your cloud cost and usage.
The following changes have been made to the Cloud Cost Optimization Cloud Overview page:
- The page has been renamed to Optimization.
- Recommendations are now categorized by a policy set. A policy set is a way Flexera categorizes similar policies across multiple providers. For example, the Unused Volumes policy set is a collection of all the Unused Volumes for AWS, Azure, Google, and others.
- A new chart to show Rate Reduction recommendations that are by cloud and by policy set: Reserved Instance and Savings Plan.
- A new chart to show Usage Reduction recommendations by cloud and policy set: Unused Volumes, Unused Instances, Unused Database Services, Unused IP Addresses, Old Snapshots.
Read more about spend recommendations in the Total Potential Savings section of the Flexera One Help.
Flexera Automation policies enhanced with new authentication method
This enhancement is available with Cloud Cost Optimization.
To improve the integration with Flexera One and cloud providers, the policies listed in the following bullet list have been enhanced with a new authentication method. The listed policies now require a new Flexera OAuth 2.0 credentials for connecting with Flexera Cloud Cost Optimization.
- AWS Delete Unused Classic Load Balancers
- AWS Expiring Reserved Instances
- AWS GP3 Upgradeable Volumes
- AWS Idle Compute Instances
- AWS Old Snapshots
- AWS Reserved Instances Utilization
- AWS Unused IP Addresses
- AWS Unused RDS Instance
- AWS Unused Volumes
- Azure Expiring Reserved Instances
- Azure Idle Compute Instances
- Azure Old Snapshots
- Azure Sync Tags with Optima
- Azure Unused IP Addresses
- Azure Unused SQL Databases
- Azure Unused Volumes
- Billing Center Access Report
- Billing Center Cost Anomalies
- Budget Alerts
- Budget Alerts by Cloud Account
- Cheaper Regions
- Cloud Spend Forecast - Moving Average
- Flexera IAM Explicit User Roles
- Low Account Usage
- Low Service Usage
- Monthly Actual v. Budgeted Spend Report
- New Service Usage
- Reserved Instance Report by Billing Center
- Scheduled Report
- Superseded Instances
When applying the policies you will see a prompt to select the Flexera Automation Credential. Select the Credential created as defined in the Provider Specific Credentials for Flexera.
Flexera Integration app for ServiceNow
Flexera added a new version of the Flexera Integration app for ServiceNow in September 2022.
Flexera Integration app version 5.0.9 now available in ServiceNow Store
The Flexera Integration app for ServiceNow is available with Data Platform, IT Visibility, and IT Asset Management.
We're happy to announce that the latest version of the ServiceNow Flexera Integration app integration (v5.0.9) has passed certification and is now available in the ServiceNow Store. It is supported by ServiceNow versions Tokyo, San Diego, Rome, Quebec. The following provides a list of what’s new in v5.0.9.
IT Visibility and Data Platform integration
Performance improvements
- Performance improvements ingesting data into ServiceNow
- Improved performance of bulk updates of large volume of software instances.
Database view and export definition improvements
- Updated computer and Netgear database view to return all records in table
- Added additional attributes to “Flexera Software Install Export” definition for enhanced customer customization options.
User Interface improvements
- Added “Software Asset Management Software Tables” main menu for imported software installation and software models
- Updated descriptions of some Import Properties to flag properties that are not applicable when SRE is enabled.
Resolved issues
- Resolved volume measurement and is-deleted measurement for IRE integration
- Updated operating system type to be consistent with Technopedia
- Updated normalized software display name to show manufacturer and product name only
- Updated sample reconciliation default state to off.
IT Asset Management/FlexNet Manager Suite integration
- Corrected state transition management error with IT Asset Management/FlexNet Manager Suite integration.
Documentation links
See the following list for the v5.0.9 documentation:
- IT Visibility documentation
- Data Platform documentation
- IT Asset Management / FlexNet Manager Suite documentation
IT Asset Management
IT Asset Management added the following new feature and enhancements in September 2022.
Enhancement in the Agent to recognize different editions of Adobe Acrobat
This enhancement is available with IT Asset Management.
The inventory capabilities of the FlexNet inventory agent have been extended to detect different editions of Adobe Acrobat DC (Professional, Standard and Reader) on desktop machines. This new functionality has been added to the InventorySettings.xml file, which will be delivered to all customers by means of an ARL release.
This extended agent enhancement only supports Windows 10 and Windows 11 desktops.
The agent has been extended based on recent installer changes made by Adobe (impacts Adobe Acrobat DC versions 2021 and later), which has resulted in no way of differentiating between the three Adobe Acrobat DC versions from the existing evidence collected by the agent.
To take advantage of this enhancement, navigate to Data Collection > IT Assets Inventory Tasks > Inventory Settings, scroll down to the Inventory Extensions Version and select Always use the latest version (currently xx**)**. This will automatically deploy the latest InventorySettings.xml file to the agent.
After the latest InventorySettings.xml file has been deployed, the evidence collected by the inventory agent will contain extra evidence disclosing the specific Adobe Acrobat DC version in the NDI. At this point, you will now be able to see the different versions listed on the Installed Applications screen in IT Asset Management, assign licenses and complete other actions as necessary.
In a scenario, where multiple users are sharing a desktop machine to run different Adobe Acrobat DC editions from the same installation, each edition of Adobe Acrobat DC will be recognized and listed on the Installed Applications screen.
For more information on the InventorySettings.xml file, see Inventory Extensions Version in the Flexera One Help.
Changes to the 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:
- Oracle Linux 9.0 (x86 64-bit only)
The following product versions have been added to the compatibility list of IT Asset Management with other products:
- HCL BigFix Inventory on Microsoft SQL Server 10.0.0–10.0.9
From this release, FlexNet inventory agent only supports HP-UX 11i v3 (also known as 11.31) on the Itanium architecture. In other words, other HP-UX versions are no longer supported; HP-UX systems running on the PA-RISC architecture are no longer supported either. This change is due to the compiler libraries upgrade in order to stay on top of security vulnerabilities.
FlexNet inventory agent versions prior to this release will still function on these operating system versions.
If you are using the zero-footprint case of inventory collection on any of the operating system versions that are no longer supported, do not upgrade your inventory beacon version to 18.6.0 or later releases.
Automatic upgrade of FlexNet inventory agent to this release or later releases on any of these operating system versions are disabled. During the automatic upgrade process on some of these operating system versions, an error might occur; however, you can just ignore the error because the existing FlexNet inventory agent installed remains untouched and will keep functioning.
For the full lists, see Prerequisite Software and Compatibility with Other Products in System Requirements and Compatibility.
Including Oracle Java into the Oracle GLAS Evidence archive
This feature is available with IT Asset Management.
The FlexNet inventory agent, whether running locally on an Oracle server or using the zero footprint inventory collection method remotely from a suitable inventory beacon, can regularly return additional information on the Java installations found on the system being scanned as well as uploading special files required for review by the Oracle Global Licensing and Advisory Services (GLAS) to check your compliance with license terms and conditions.
There are two new controls in IT Asset Management to manage this data flow:
- In the Inventory Settings page (Data Collection > IT Assets Inventory Tasks > Inventory Settings), a new Enable collection of Oracle Java audit data check box authorizes your updated FlexNet inventory agents to start collecting and uploading the Oracle Java data, as part of their normal upload cycle. (Any earlier versions of FlexNet inventory agents that have not been updated simply ignore this policy setting.)
- Access the IT Asset Management Settings General page (Administration > IT Asset Management Settings > General), and in its Inventory tab, the Include Oracle Java check box adds the information about Oracle Java into the standard
OracleGLASEvidence.ziparchive, ready for submission for audit when required.
For more information, see Oracle Java Scanning in the Flexera One Help.
IT Asset Requests
IT Asset Requests added the following new feature in September 2022.
Integrate IT Asset Requests with Jamf Cloud
This feature is available with IT Asset Requests.
We are pleased to announce that IT Asset Requests now supports integration with Jamf Cloud to fulfill Mac application deployment on Mac desktop devices. These updates allow users to:
- Configure a connection to Jamf Cloud
- Create software catalog items for Jamf package types
- Place a request for Jamf catalog items
- Leverage ServiceNow as self-service portal to request Mac apps and fulfill deployment on Mac devices
SaaS Management
SaaS Management added the following new features and enhancements in September 2022.
Managing Box Licenses with new Box Client Credentials integration
This feature is available with SaaS Management.
Box, a content management platform for companies of all sizes and industries, is Flexera SaaS Management’s latest SaaS integration to help optimize license spend and license usage. To achieve this goal, you need to create SaaS Management’s new Box Client Credentials integration instructions.
Flexera recommends creating the Box Client Credentials integration to view your organization’s Box license usage data. Any existing Box integrations in SaaS Management will be superseded by this new Box Client Credentials integration.
The Box Client Credentials integration uses the more secure OAuth 2.0 with Client Credentials Grant authentication method.
Box Client Credentials integration features
The following Box Client Credentials integration features help you further manage your organization’s Box subscription.
- OAuth 2.0 with Client Credentials Grant authentication method
- License Differentiation and License Types
- Auto-populated Box Client Credentials license information
- Managing available Box Client Credentials licenses
- Reclaiming Box Client Credentials licenses
- License information and reclamation api endpoints
- Application Task Tracking chart
OAuth 2.0 with Client Credentials Grant authentication method
The OAuth 2.0 with Client Credentials Grant authentication method is required to authorize this Box Client Credentials integration with SaaS Management. For details, refer to the Box Developer documentation section Client Credentials Grant.
License Differentiation and License Types
This feature allows Software Asset Managers (SAMs) to differentiate between the multiple Box subscription plans (see the table below) that are available and being used by their organization’s users. To learn more about license differentiation, refer to Tracking Application Activity by License Type for License Differentiation.
Box License Type Descriptions
| License Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Business Starter | Recommended for users at small business, especially those in the initial stages of operations Includes limited storage Can only collaborate with other paying users |
| Business | Recommended for users at small to medium-sized organizations that collaborate mostly with other internal users Includes all Starter plan features plus unlimited storage, custom branding, and administrative controls over your Box account |
| Business Plus | Recommended for users at businesses in creative industries that collaborate and share often with external users Includes all the Business plan features plus metadata capabilities Can add as many users outside of your business as needed |
| Enterprise | Recommended for corporate businesses that need top-notch security and compliance features Includes all Business Plus plan features plus use Box seamlessly with all cloud tools while meeting security and compliance needs across all devices |
| Enterprise Plus | Recommended for corporate businesses that need top-notch security and compliance features Includes all Enterprise plan features plus Box Shield, Box Governance, Box Shuttle, Box Platform, enhanced services, and more. |
Auto-populated Box Client Credentials license information
The SaaS Management integration with Box Client Credentials offers a License Information integration task that automatically retrieves every 24 hours the name of the Box subscription and license type. This auto-populated Box Client Credentials license information provides a more complete view of your Box SaaS entitlements and component usage by displaying assigned entitlements and user’s license activity (based on the user’s last login). For more details, refer to the Box Client Credentials integration instructions.
Managing available Box Client Credentials licenses
Once the License Information integration task for Auto-populated Box Client Credentials license information is enabled, you can add or remove the Box Client Credentials product licenses you wish to manage within SaaS Management. For more details, refer to the Box Client Credentials integration instructions.
Reclaiming Box Client Credentials licenses
SaaS Management’s SaaS license reclamation workflow offers SAMs the ability to optimize their organization’s Box Client Credentials licenses. To reclaim a Box Client Credentials user’s license, refer to Reclaiming SaaS Licenses.
License information and reclamation api endpoints
License Information
https://api.box.com/2.0/users
Reclamation
https://api.box.com/2.0/users/<<UserID>>
For further API information, refer to the Box Client Credentials integration instructions.
Application Task Tracking chart
The Application Task Tracking chart includes the following integration features for Box Client Credentials:
- Application Access
- Application Roster
- License Differentiation
- License Information
- Reclamation
Extended user dataset for Microsoft 365 license downgrade management
This feature is available with SaaS Management.
Software Asset Managers have been asking Flexera for more user data in one location to help make confident decisions when deciding to downgrade Microsoft user licenses. In response, Flexera’s SaaS Management now offers an expanded user dataset in its Users tab table for its Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Client Credentials integrations that are powered by additional HR Roster API. This expanded user dataset can be exported to share with stakeholders responsible for license downgrade management. Downgrading a more expensive Microsoft user license, such as an E3 license to a less expensive F3 license, provides more SaaS license cost optimization opportunities.
The enhanced Microsoft 365 Users tab table can be accessed from Flexera One’s SaaS menu. From the SaaS menu, click Managed SaaS Applications to open the Managed SaaS Applications screen. Then click the appropriate Microsoft 365 instance link, which opens the Microsoft 365 instance’s Overview tab by default. Click the Users tab to open the Users tab table. The extended user dataset columns are described below.
| Microsoft 365 Users Tab Column | Description |
|---|---|
| UPN | This User Principal Name (UPN) column is a user filtering option. |
| Licenses | This column filters discovered and assigned Microsoft licenses. |
| Activations | This column lists the names of the on-premises products the user has activated. |
| Mail Usage | This column displays the user’s mailbox storage consumption in MB. |
| OneDrive Usage | This column displays the user’s OneDrive for Business (OD4B) storage consumption in MB. |
| Windows | Is the user using a Windows desktop machine? ( Yes or No is displayed.) |
| Mac | Is the user using a Mac device? ( Yes or No is displayed.) |
| Mobile | Is the user using a mobile device? ( Yes or No is displayed.) |
| Web | Has the user accessed Microsoft 365 applications via a browser? ( Yes or No is displayed.) |
| onPremisesSync | The following deployment options are displayed:Yes if it is an on-premises syncNo if it is a cloud sync |
| Days Since Last Activity | This is the number of days since the user last signed in to a Microsoft 365 application. |
| Guest | Is the user a Guest (that is, not a permanent employee such as a contractor)? ( Yes or No is displayed.) |
| Title | The job title of the user is provided by Active Directory. |
| Country | This is the geographical location of the user. |
| Account Created Date | This is the date the user’s Microsoft 365 account was created within the Microsoft portal. |
Note the following: Application Roster data such as Mail Usage, OneDrive Usage, Activations, Windows, Mac, Mobile, and Web is available 3 days after the event(s) occurs. Therefore, the data in the Microsoft Portal may not match the data in Flexera One for these Users tab columns, which are part of the Application Roster. Flexera captures only the last 30 days of data for the following Users tab columns: Activations, Mail Usage, OneDrive Usage, Windows, Mac, Mobile, and Web. Due to the current behavior of the Microsoft report API, if users have not activated any applications (MICROSOFT 365 APPS FOR ENTERPRISE, PROJECT ONLINE DESKTOP CLIENT, VISIO DESKTOP APP, and OFFICE MOBILE APPS FOR OFFICE 365) 30 days from the date of the integration setup:
| Effects of Not Activating Applications Within 30 Days After Integration Setup |
|---|
| The Activations column will be blank and display - . |
| The Windows, Mac, Mobile, and Web columns will display No. |
| For any new activations on day 31, the count will reflect on the Microsoft report API 3 days after the activation and will be retained in the report for the next 30 days. |
Flexera obtains Activations data only when we activate the following Office 365 subscriptions such as MICROSOFT 365 APPS FOR ENTERPRISE, PROJECT ONLINE DESKTOP CLIENT, VISIO DESKTOP APP, and OFFICE MOBILE APPS FOR OFFICE 365 across Windows and Mac machines (For details, refer to the Microsoft documentation section Microsoft 365 Reports in the admin center - Microsoft Office activations).
Flexera obtains Yes values for the Windows, Mac, Mobile, and Web columns only when users perform activities in the following applications: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Teams (For details, refer to the Microsoft documentation section Microsoft 365 Reports in the admin center - Microsoft 365 Apps usage).
More timely Organization SaaS Usage data
This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.
Flexera’s SaaS Management team has been working on a consistent cadence of updating data across the entire SaaS Management UI. The Organization SaaS Usage screen now offers more frequent data updates for tracking SaaS license usage and spend by group, either by department or location. Previously, this screen’s data was updated once per day. The new Organizational SaaS Usage data update cadence is described below.
For Managed Applications that have an integration task error displayed in the Integration tab, you need to re-authenticate the integration to enable the new cadence for updating your organization’s Organization SaaS Usage data. For further error details, download the Execution Log in the Integration tab.
How often is the Organization SaaS Usage data updated?
The Organization SaaS Usage data is updated when Flexera One pulls in new information regarding active/inactive/never active user counts. The new user counts cause this screen's counts to be recalculated. Once the screen's counts are recalculated, the data updates are displayed in the Organization SaaS Usage screen.
Some examples of pulling in new active/inactive/never active user count information include:
- The application's HR Roster information is updated.
- The application's Application Roster integration task is executed.
- New usage events are pulled in.
- An application's activity threshold is modified.
- Licenses are added or modified in the application's Licenses tab.
Additional Salesforce cost driver fields - Phase 1
This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.
Flexera’s SaaS Management has expanded its integration with Salesforce by providing additional fields to help Software Asset Managers fully see and manage cost driver data in their Salesforce environments.
For this release, the additional cost driver fields are only available within the SaaS Management database. In a future release, the new attributes will be made available within the SaaS Management UI. The cost driver data will be presented via a series of Power BI dashboards that are currently being developed.
Salesforce integration requirements
The Salesforce System Administrator profile is required to enable the SaaS Management Setup integration task, which populates the cost driver data within the SaaS Management database. For further details, refer to the Salesforce integration instructions.
For existing Salesforce integrations, you must update the permissions of the user credentials for the System Administrator profile, if not already granted, to fetch the new Salesforce cost driver fields.
Additional Salesforce cost driver fields
The following Salesforce cost driver fields are only available within the SaaS Management database. For further details, refer to the Salesforce integration instructions.
- Organization Type
- Login History
- Sandboxes
- Instance Name
- Primary Org Contact
- Data Storage Total
- Data Storage Used
- File Storage Total
- File Storage Used
Salesforce license drill through view
This feature is available with SaaS Management.
Salesforce license information can now be analyzed for all orgs through two UI views: the Salesforce All Orgs Licenses tab and the Salesforce license drill through view.
Salesforce All Orgs Licenses tab
The Licenses tab provides a high-level overview of your organization’s total Salesforce licenses by name, category, number remaining, and number assigned by org name and org ID. You can analyze license activity for a specific Salesforce License Name across Salesforce orgs by checking the Group By License Name box. An aggregated row of the Salesforce license name is displayed, together with aggregated numbers of Remaining and Assigned licenses from multiple Salesforce orgs.
License Name Data Drill Through
- If the Group By License Name box is checked, clicking the arrow before the aggregated License Name displays a list of License Details pages for each Salesforce org.
- Clicking the Application link opens the License Details page for the Salesforce org.
For details, refer to the Salesforce license drill through view.
Salesforce license drill through view
In this view, user and license activity is focused on the users assigned to a specific Salesforce license either at the All Orgs level or for a selected Salesforce org. You can access this view through the Salesforce All Orgs Licenses tab or by clicking the Licenses Name in the Licenses table of the selected Salesforce org Overview tab. At the top of the license drill through is the Salesforce license name with the relevant org links underneath. Clicking a Salesforce org link opens the Overview tab for the selected Salesforce org. If several Salesforce org links are listed under the Salesforce license name, the license usage data is rolled up from the users who are included in those orgs. For Salesforce user licenses, the Activity Status and Days Since Last Activity graphs drill down to the Users table at the bottom of the Salesforce license drill through view.
In the Salesforce license drill through view, the Activity Status, Days Since Last Activity, and Activities Over Time graphs are only available for Salesforce user licenses.
For more information, see Analyzing Salesforce User and License Activity Data in the Flexera One Help.
New Overview tab design for SaaS applications without usage data
This enhancement is available with SaaS Management.
Flexera’s SaaS Management team received customer feedback to provide more meaningful and accurate SaaS data and metrics for SaaS applications that cannot provide usage data. In response, the SaaS Management user interface now offers an Overview tab design for when the SaaS Management Application Access integration task cannot be enabled for a SaaS application. For a current list of SaaS applications that do not support the Application Access integration task, refer to the empty App Access column in the Application Task Tracking chart.
Overview tab features for SaaS Applications without usage data
From the SaaS menu, click Managed SaaS Applications, which opens the Managed SaaS Applications screen. After clicking a SaaS application name or instance link in the Managed SaaS Applications screen, the Overview tab opens by default.
The table below describes the Overview tab features for when usage data is not available for a SaaS application.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Total Users | Depending on the SaaS application, the source for the total number of users comes from the: Application Roster SSO Application Roster Note: SaaS applications that only have an HR Roster task enabled (Example: Human Capital Management (Workday)) will not have a total users count. |
| Managed Licenses | The number in the Managed Licenses tile equals the total number of licenses created in the SaaS application’s Licenses tab. |
| Estimated (Est.) Annual Spend | This is the total annual cost for all the Managed Licenses . |
| Total Users Over Time | This line chart shows the total users over a 30-day, 1-year, or 2-year period. |