Rules Page

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R1 (On-Premises Edition)

The Rules page (in the Discovery group of the navigation bar) shows the rules that this inventory beacon intends to execute at some future time.

Discovery and inventory rules created on the central application server determine what actions each of your inventory beacons takes. The rules are downloaded automatically on a schedule you can adjust in the web interface (the Beacon settings section under Discovery & Inventory > Settings), with the default value being every 15 minutes.

The rules control independent activity by the inventory beacons, in areas like network scanning and direct inventory gathering. (Rules do not apply to the extraction of inventory data from third-party systems, which are controlled through the pages in the Data collection group of the FlexNet Beacon interface.)

The date and time of the last successful download of the rules collection to this inventory beacon are normally displayed next to the Update Rules button.

Quick troubleshooting for rules downloads

If there is no download time displayed for rules, and no forthcoming rules shown in the list:
  • Check that the Enable parent connection check box (on the Parent connection page in the Beacon configuration group) is set.
  • Use the Test connection button on the Parent connection page to check that communications to the application server are working.
  • In your compliance browser (web interface for FlexNet Manager Suite), navigate to Discovery & Inventory > Discovery and Inventory Rules, and check the Rules tab to ensure that you have one or more rules established. If not, create your targets, actions, and rules ready to download.
  • Also in the compliance browser, navigate to Discovery & Inventory > Network > Beacons, and check the subnets assigned to this inventory beacon are correct.

When all these conditions are met, you can use the Update Rules button (in this Rules page) to force an immediate download of the current rule set from the application server.

Trigger a rule

Rules normally execute automatically on the schedule set in the web interface. You may need to trigger a rule for a first-time update or for debugging.

You can trigger the immediate execution of a rule by selecting its name in the list (a pointer on the left shows the selected row), and clicking Run.

Current scheduled rules list

This list shows only the rules which this inventory beacon has selected to apply, along with the next scheduled run (and last attempted run) of the rules displayed. These notes may help explain:

  • Selecting the rules: The rules specified on the central application server are not specified to directly apply to particular inventory beacons; instead, they are linked indirectly through the subnets assigned to the inventory beacon. A beacon assesses all the rules in the complete rule set, and chooses those which it can apply. For example, if a rule sets a target by an IP range which has not been assigned to the inventory beacon, the beacon does not attempt to apply the rule to that target. (If the rule includes multiple targets, the beacon still applies the rule to any targets that are in its scope.) Therefore, if you have multiple inventory beacons in your enterprise, you should find that each has a distinct subset of rules-to-targets that it will apply. In this page of the inventory beacon interface, only those rules that this beacon selected to apply are listed.
  • Future based: Rules are only listed when they are scheduled for a future execution, or repeated execution. For example, if you had a "run once" rule that this beacon has already executed, it is no longer included in the list.
    Tip: Execution times for rules are scheduled in the web interface for FlexNet Manager Suite, and cannot be changed here on the inventory beacon.
  • Last attempted run: The Last run columns shows the date and time of the last attempted execution of the rule. It takes no account of the success or failure of that attempt. If you are trouble-shooting, you may need to examine the log files.
  • Detailed log files: Use the menu button (top left in the inventory beacon interface) to access the log files. Rules are managed by the beacon engine service, so be sure to check the correct log file.