Inventory Beacons

FlexNet Manager Suite 2019 R1 (On-Premises Edition)

The inventory beacon collects hardware and software inventory, using either (or both) of two strategies:

  • It can connect to other products that have gathered the inventory, such as Microsoft SCCM or IBM ILMT or others
  • It can gather inventory directly from computers either by remote execution or by installing inventory agents.

It also collects information from Active Directory and from other business systems that you connect to it.

All the information it collects is then transferred to FlexNet Manager Suite to help with calculation of your license position for software used within your enterprise.

Starting the inventory beacon

While some tasks for your inventory beacons are controlled from the web interface for FlexNet Manager Suite, others require management on each individual inventory beacon. This separation is primarily for security reasons.

Start the FlexNet Beacon software from the Windows start menu on the appropriate computer.
Tip: Starting the FlexNet Beacon interface requires that you are logged in with administrator privileges.

Understanding the inventory beacon layout

The inventory beacon presents a multi-page interface.

On the left side is a navigation menu, with page titles organized into collapsible groups (Data collection, Discovery, and Beacon configuration). Make sure the groups are expanded to see the page names.

Clicking a page name in the navigation menu opens the corresponding page in the right-hand work space.
Tip: The page name in this navigation menu shows a trailing asterisk character (*) when the page contains unsaved changes.

Top right above the work space is a help button that opens the help file (located on the central application server) for the inventory beacon.

In the top left corner is a small system menu with options for Save, Help, and Exit (all of which are also duplicated elsewhere in the interface), and Open log file folder.

Immediately below the work space on the right are actions you can take in the currently displayed page. Typical controls include New..., Edit..., Delete, Schedule..., and Execute Now.

And in the bottom line on the right are global controls to Save all current changes in any page of the interface, and to Exit the FlexNet Beacon software.

For detailed information, choose one of the tabs from the inventory beacon interface listed below.