Archived Inventory

This page is relevant only when you are authorized by IBM to use IT Asset Management in place of ILMT for sub-capacity calculations of PVU points on IBM PVU licenses, and have configured IT Asset Management for that purpose (placing it in 'PVU mode' or 'high frequency mode', for which see IBM High-Frequency Scanning). At all other times, the Archived Inventory page remains empty (and the balance of this help topic does not apply).

When active, the Archived Inventory page lists all inventory devices that have a status value of Archived, which is a temporary value as described below. These archived devices do not appear in other management views of inventory devices — they remain visible only:

• In this page

• In any IBM PVU License Consumption report covering any reporting period within which the archived inventory device was active

• In the Consumption tabs of any IBM PVU licenses that have been allocated to the device (and to repeat, this is true only when IT Asset Management is in 'PVU mode') — and, as for all devices whether archived or not, in the Search results for inventory devices to which you may now want to make a new allocation.

  tip

  Making a license allocation to an Archived device is certainly not required, and does not change either the current consumption shown in the license Consumption tab (where historical consumption does not count) or the historical consumption shown in relevant license consumption reports. An allocation to an archived device includes the device in the Consumption tab listing, but does not change the current total consumption because the archived device cannot currently consume.

note

The Archived status can be assigned only to devices that appear in FlexNet inventory (that is, in inventory returned from the FlexNet Inventory Agent or FlexNet Inventory Scanner, or from the ndtrack executable that was otherwise installed on the device). Historical details for IBM license consumption are not saved for inventory imported from other sources.

Why a device becomes archived

A device is archived when it currently has, or has ever had, an installation of any software that is, or was at any point, covered by an IBM PVU or VPC license. This refers to licenses that are actually configured in IT Asset Management, not theoretical licenses that could apply but have not been created in IT Asset Management.

It—s often assumed that a device must be actively consuming from an IBM PVU or VPC license to be considered for archiving. This is not true. The only requirement is that the device has, or has had, an installation of software that could be covered by one of these license types (or would have been covered in the past).

A device that is not currently consuming from a PVU license, for example, due to a restriction preventing consumption, may still be archived.

If all installations that would normally be covered by a PVU or VPC license are instead covered by a non-PVU or non-VPC license at the time the device would otherwise be archived, the device will not be archived.

Example: Some IBM software may typically be covered by a PVU license but can also be licensed under an IBM Authorized User license for development use. If a device has one installation of this software and that installation is currently covered by an IBM Authorized User license, the device will not be archived.

Delete or ignore the inventory device record

The attempt to delete or ignore the inventory device record may happen either automatically or through an operator's manual action:

• Automatically in any of these cases:

  • When the asset record that is linked to the inventory device has its status changed to either Disposed or Retired — the normal result in this case is to set the status of the inventory device to Ignored, unless it is still required for its historical impact on a linked IBM PVU license, when instead its status is set to Archived

  • When the inventory device has disappeared from all inventory sources (most critically, from the FlexNet inventory that must be uploaded from the locally-installed FlexNet Inventory Agent in order to fulfil IBM's conditions on the extended IBM PVU license agreement)

  • When the (last) compliance connection from which inventory for this device is imported is deleted from the Inventory Data tab of the Data Imports page through the system menu ( in the top right corner). The normal process when an inventory device 'disappears' is to delete its record. Only in the case when the same inventory device is also linked to an IBM PVU license (either because of its installed software known from earlier inventory or because of a license allocation or exemption), the deletion may be deferred and the special Archived status assigned instead. Similarly, an inventory device that is still required for its impact on consumption of an IBM PVU license in the current data retention period cannot be automatically set to Ignored, but is instead set to Archived.

• Manually by selecting the device in a listing, and clicking Delete. Although discovered devices and inventory devices are separate records, the normal process when you delete a discovered device is to also delete its linked inventory device record (as long as it is not restored by future inventory imports). In the special case where the linked inventory device is also linked to an IBM PVU license, the two linked records are treated differently:

  • The discovered device record is deleted, as is your intention

  • The inventory device record is set to Archived so that it remains available for historical consumption recalculations.

There are other behavioral similarities and differences between deleting a device and archiving a device.

• Deletion: When an inventory device that is a virtual host is deleted, all its guest virtual machines are also deleted. In the inverse case, when an inventory device that is a virtual machine is deleted, its link to the virtual host is lost (although the host record itself is not deleted).

• Archiving: When an inventory device that is a virtual host is archived, all its guest virtual machines are also archived. In the inverse case, when an inventory device that is a virtual machine is archived (but its host is not), its link to the virtual host is maintained, so that it can continue to contribute to the licensing calculations for the host.

When an inventory device is archived, all records of current installed applications are removed from it, and only historical records of applications linked to IBM PVU licenses are retained. An archived device cannot have licenses other than IBM PVU allocated to it.

While an inventory device is Archived, it takes no part in any license consumption calculations other than its historical impact on IBM PVU consumption. To all intents and purposes, it is as if it has already been deleted (or ignored), except for its historical contribution to IBM PVU license consumption.

Archived devices are reassessed at each full inventory import and compliance calculation, which by default occurs nightly. The assessment compares two things:

1. Each piece of inventoried evidence that previously identified an installed application linked to a PVU license is checked for its "Valid to" date, which is the date when it first went missing. The latest of these dates is used for further assessment.

   tip

   This may not be the same as the Last inventory date for this device. For example, if the application was uninstalled from the device on January 30, but other inventory was collected and imported for the same device until June 15, the imported evidence is only valid until January 30, while the Last inventory date is 136 days later.

2. The hero date is tested against the "data retention period". This is a rolling window which finishes at the most recent compliance calculation, and stretches back in time for 180 days (or two reporting cycles, by default — the number of days can be adjusted in Keep historical data for nn days, on the IT Asset Management Settings General page, under Licensing > IBM sub-capacity calculation settings, as further described in IT Asset Management Settings: Licensing Tab).

As soon as the latest evidence "valid to" date falls outside the data retention period, the historical PVU details are removed, and the inventory device record is itself finally and automatically deleted (or ignored, if its original trigger was having its linked asset disposed of or retired).

tip

If an inventory device that is Archived is unexpectedly matched in incoming inventory — that is, the device somehow reappears — then its status is automatically switched from Archived back to Active, and it disappears from this listing and is once again available in the All Inventory page. Most of the time, though, a device disappears from this listing because it has finally been deleted (or ignored).

In summary, then, inventory devices with a status of Archived are scheduled for deletion/being ignored as soon as their historical records are no longer required for IBM PVU license consumption calculations.

This page enables you to perform the following actions:

• View or change the properties of an archived inventory device: click the hyperlinked name of the device, or select the appropriate row and click Open. The properties of the inventory device remain editable (other than its Status) so that you may correct any device settings that influence PVU points consumption when the reporting period is reassessed (as happens with each full compliance calculation).

  tip

  This is the only view that allows you to open the properties for an archived device. Also notice that the Status column available in other views of inventory devices is not present in this listing, since every device here by definition has a status value of Archived.

This page displays the following columns (listed alphabetically). Some columns are displayed by default and others can be displayed through the column chooser. To manage columns and other UI options, see the topics under Managing Columns in a Table.

Field	Description
Assigned user	The user assigned to this inventory device. This assignment overrides the Calculated user. Editable in the Assigned field in Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.
Calculated user	The name of the most frequent user of this inventory device, over the previous 10 inventory collections. This value is calculated as follows: If there is only one primary user linked to the inventory device, this user is recorded If there are multiple primary users linked to the inventory device, the most frequently logged in user is recorded If there is no primary user associated with the inventory device, the last user to logon is recorded. The value of this field is automatically generated by IT Asset Management. Not available when any of the following is true: You are manually creating a new record for an inventory device The inventory device is a VDI template There is no inventory source (or the inventory source is Manual) reporting this inventory device.
Category	The category of this device. IT Asset Management enables you to create customized categories to group inventory devices logically. These categories are additional to Inventory device type and Device role categorization. For example, you can create categories to differentiate database servers, network servers, or firewalls. The custom categories have no impact on license consumption. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Clock speed (MHz)	The maximum clock speed (in MHz) of the processor that is installed in the inventory device. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). If the value is gathered from inventory, it cannot be edited; however, it can be overridden.
Cluster Name	The name of the cluster to which a host or virtual machine (VM) is associated. Editable in the Hosts tab of the Cluster properties.
Compliance status	The compliance status of an inventory device. It can have any of the following values: Changed — Indicates a change in the compliance status of an inventory device. This value is changed automatically when the following conditions are met: The inventory device has a linked asset. You have defined the device compliance settings to track any changes in the hardware properties of this device. There is a change in the hardware properties for which the device compliance settings have been defined. This change can be manual or a result of a new inventory import. Compliant — The inventory details reported in the last inventory import match those of previous imports, or any changes to those details have been approved. For details about reviewing or approving changes to assets, see Viewing and Accepting the Changes to a Device Asset New — The default value for all newly imported devices. This value is not changed until there is a change in the hardware configuration or an asset is linked to this device. Not tracked — Indicates that the device is no longer tracked for compliance. This may happen when an inventory import leads to a duplicate device record with some change in its properties. The value is calculated by IT Asset Management and can be manually set on the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Connection name	The name of the connection through which IT Asset Management received the last inventory for this inventory device. Not editable.
Cores	The total number of processor cores available in a physical inventory device; or the number of cores assigned to an inventory device that is a virtual machine. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, the number of Cores can be manually overridden in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (see Hardware Tab).
Corporate unit	The corporate unit responsible for the inventory device. Editable in the Corporate Units page under the Enterprise tab.
Cost center	The cost center responsible for all costs incurred for this inventory device. Editable in the Cost Centers page under the Enterprise tab.
Created	The date when this inventory record was created in IT Asset Management. Tip: New inventory device records are created during a full import to the compliance database, as new inventory is identified. Therefore it's quite possible to have a creation date that is later than the inventory date, with the difference being due to scheduling, such as the scheduling of imports from third-party tools, or delays between the upload of FlexNet inventory and the full import and compliance calculations (for example, if your full imports are scheduled weekly, or the like). Not editable.
Creation method	The method used to create the inventory device record. The possible values: Automatic — the inventory device was discovered in incoming inventory Manual — the inventory device was manually created VM Host — the inventory device is a virtual machine that was discovered while taking inventory of a host server. IT Asset Management generates the value of this field.
Disk (GB)	The total space of all hard drives installed on the inventory device, in Gigabytes. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only. Not editable for existing inventory devices.
Display adapters	The total number of display adapters installed in the inventory device. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only. Not editable for existing inventory devices.
Domain name	The name of the domain to which the computing device belongs. Tip: Records fabricated for special purposes display special values: A dummy device record created for imports through your connector to Flexera One SaaS Management displays flexera.com A record representing an Oracle Database running in Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) shows the full DNS alias (excluding the actual machine name), such as clv8xj7busyg.eu-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties for manually created records. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.
Hard drives	The total number of hard drives installed in the inventory device. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only. Not editable for existing inventory devices.
Host	The name of the host server where this VM is a guest. Editable in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties. Note: As long as incoming inventory does not identify the host for this virtual machine, your manual entry is preserved (that is, a null value in inventory never overwrites a manually-entered value). However, once inventory returns a known host for this virtual machine, your value is overwritten with the data from inventory. Should it happen that future inventory again returns no value for the host name, the previous inventory value in this field is cleared, matching the current inventory data.
Hosted in	Shows whether the inventory device is on-premises (the default, meaning the device is within your enterprise), or in a cloud operated by a particular service provider. For some cloud service providers (like AWS and Azure), the Hosted in value is set automatically through inventory. For other cloud service providers, you must make a selection manually. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Hosted in cloud	Indicates No if the inventory device is hosted on-premises (within your enterprise). Indicates Yes if the inventory device is hosted in the cloud by a cloud service provider. Most inventory devices hosted in the cloud are virtual machines; but this value is available for all inventory devices, because some cloud service providers also rent entire machines (for example, AWS provides dedicated hosts and bare metal instances). This is a convenience column for grouping/filtering inventory devices that are hosted in the cloud. The name of the cloud service provider for each inventory device is available in the Hosted in column. Not directly editable; but the cloud service provider can be specified in the Hosted in field in the General tab of the inventory device properties for a virtual machine. When that property is set to any value other than On-premises, this Hosted in cloud column displays Yes.
IBM region	Shows, for each device, the region in which its license points are included (or, if the device is not yet assigned to a region, Unknown region is displayed, and this should be corrected as soon as practical). This is one of the three regions of the world that IBM makes mandatory for reporting points consumption on IBM sub-capacity licenses. Tip: In any list of inventory devices, a virtual machine shows the IBM region linked to its host server. This is because an IBM sub-capacity license licenses the host, and therefore the total consumption for the host is rolled up into the IBM region that is linked to the host (through its owning location). This total consumption includes both software installed on the host and/or on any guest VMs running on that host. (In contrast, if the host for the VM is unknown, the VM displays its own properties, so that in this case, the location and its mapped IBM region are those from the orphan VM.)
Inventory chassis type	The chassis type for an inventory device, as reported by the inventory process. This value cannot be edited, however you may override it with the Assigned chassis type setting.
Inventory device type	Specifies the type of the inventory device, which may be any of the following values: Cluster — A cluster of several computers, typically managed by Kubernetes and with consumption reported by the IBM License Service (which does not allow for further breakdown, for example to individual hosts or VMs within the cluster) Computer — A computing device like a desktop, laptop, workstation, or a non-virtualized server. Mobile Device — A mobile device like a tablet or smart phone. Product — Not a device type, but a pseudo-value used only in IBM VPC licenses to identify rows showing the licensed IBM product. This value may appear only if the Bundle consumption rules (in the license properties Use Rights & Rules tab, under License consumption rules) have the option Consume for each product on a device selected. Remote Device — The device is a remote device (not appearing in inventory) known to have accessed virtualized applications. This value is created automatically. VDI Template — The VDI template used to create the virtual desktop instance that was accessed from an inventory device (see Virtual Desktop Templates). This value is created automatically. Virtual Machine — A virtual machine running on a physical host machine. A physical host can run multiple virtual machines using virtualization technologies from VMWare, Oracle, Microsoft, and so on. Note that this value is also used for a record fabricated to represent an Oracle Database running on Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). VM Host — A physical virtual host running one or more virtual machines using any virtualization technology, such as VMWare. Editable in the Inventory device type field in the General tab of the inventory device properties. The value may be overwritten by incoming inventory.
IP address	The IP address of the inventory device. For inventory devices with multiple IP addresses (for example, those with multiple network cards), a comma-separated list (up to 256 characters) is shown. IP addresses in the IPv6 address family are not reported in FlexNet inventory for devices running UNIX-like operating systems. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Last inventory date	The date when the most recent inventory information was collected by the Last inventory source for this inventory device. Note: This date does not determine when the Archived device will be automatically deleted (or ignored). The date actually used for testing is the latest date that any relevant evidence disappeared from inventory imports. For various reasons, this may be different than the Last inventory date. For example: If the related application was uninstalled but inventory collection continued for some time afterwards, the test date is considerably earlier than the Last inventory date If the device was deleted manually, the test date is the date of the following compliance calculation, which may be later than the Last inventory date. However, in the normal course of events, the test date and the Last inventory date may be coincidentally the same, or close. By default, the device remains Archived for six months (180 days) after the test date, after which it is automatically cleaned up (see IT Asset Management Settings: Licensing Tab). The inventory process generates the value of this field.
Last inventory source	If you have multiple overlapping inventory sources that report on the same device, it is possible for some inventory details to come from one source and other details from another source. This column identifies the most recent source of inventory for this device, so that the value may change as uploads from different sources are imported. Tip: Although this inventory source provided the most recent inventory import, it does not follow that every recorded hardware property value came from this source. One of your inventory sources may be nominated as 'primary', and any values imported from the primary source cannot be updated by other inventory sources (although those non-primary sources can fill the gaps and update properties that are missing from your primary inventory source). The inventory source names are system-provided, and cannot be modified. Most values are self-explanatory; some less obvious ones include: Data Platform — The inventory was imported from Flexera Normalize (previously BDNA Normalize, part of BDNA Data Platform) Flexera SaaS Manager — This is a dummy device created for linking with imports through your Flexera One SaaS Management connector ManageSoft — The inventory was collected by legacy versions of the FlexNet Inventory Agent, and saved in a separate inventory database Manual — You created this inventory device record manually, and no matching inventory has been received yet. SMS — The inventory was imported from Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (previously Microsoft SCCM). Tivoli Endpoint Manager — Inventory was imported from IBM Big Fix, or one of its earlier renamings (IBM Endpoint Manager, Tivoli Endpoint Manager). Tip: If you have custom inventory adapters, entries for these may also appear in this column as appropriate. Not editable.
Last logged on user	The name of the user that was discovered to be the last logged on user on this device. Click the linked full name to open the General tab of the user properties pages, and for details see General Tab. Not available when any of the following is true: You are manually creating a new record for an inventory device The inventory device is a VDI template The inventory device is a UNIX-like device other than one running macOS The inventory device is a Windows device that is not a member of an Active Directory domain, or cannot access the domain controller The Windows device is an old version, earlier than Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008 There is no inventory source (or the inventory source is Manual) reporting this inventory device.
Linked asset	The name of an asset, if any, that the device is linked to. Tip: If the status of the linked asset is set to Retired (in the asset properties), the linked inventory device remains visible in the All Inventory list, but is suppressed in the Out-Of-Date Inventory list, regardless of how long it is since the device reported inventory. The link between an inventory device and an asset is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Location	The location within your enterprise that is responsible for the device. Editable in the Ownership tab of the inventory device properties.
MAC address	The Media Access Control (MAC) address of the inventory device. If a device has multiple network interface cards, this field displays a comma-separated list of MAC addresses. Tip: This field is deliberately empty for discovered device records created automatically by the Amazon connector to represent installations of Oracle Database within Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Manufacturer	The manufacturer of the inventory device. Tip: If the device is a virtual machine (such as Linux KVM), this column may display the publisher of the software that is running the VM. Editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Model	The manufacturer's model name or number for this device. Editable in the Model field in the General tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records). If the value is gathered from inventory, it cannot be edited, but it can be overridden by entering a new value in the Overridden field in General tab of the inventory device properties. The original value continues to display on the General tab, alongside the overridden value, and may be restored at any time.
Name	The name of the inventory device. The compliance calculation updates this field with the machine name returned in inventory (matched by several properties, including serial number). Tip: The name displays as Flexera SaaS Manager if this is a dummy device record created for imports from your Flexera One SaaS Management connector.
Network cards	The total number of network cards installed in a physical inventory device; or the number of network cards accessible by the virtual machine. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Operating system	The operating system running on this device. Tip: This value may be blank because: The device is recently discovered — the operating system can only occasionally be populated during first discovery, and is often backfilled once inventory is returned for this device. The device is a VM host that is a hardware frame that may not be running its own operating system. In this case, the computer Name field is set to a serial number associated with the hardware (because, without an operating system, there is no host name). In fact, no inventory of any kind is possible without an operating system, so IT Asset Management synthesizes the VM host record from common data reported by its guest VMs. The virtual machines in these cases may typically be partitions like: LPARs running on IBM PowerPC servers Solaris zones on either x86 or SPARC architectures nPar or vPar partitions running on HP Integrity servers. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Overridden	Indicates whether the operator has manually changed one or more properties discovered in inventory, or if the inventory details are unchanged for this inventory device. IT Asset Management generates the value of this field.
Partial number of processors	The equivalent number of full-time 'processors' set by the time-sharing controls on the hardware console. These 'processors' are vCPUs, and this corresponds to the maximum number of cores that may be used by the virtual machine. Some virtualization technologies (such as on IBM's AIX operating system) report this setting in inventory. You may override an incorrect inventory value for this field. Populated and (by default) updated on virtual machines by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (only for virtual machines) can be overridden with a manually entered value. An overridden value is no longer updated by incoming inventory.
Pool	The name given to the pool of resources to which this virtual machine belongs. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports.
Processor type	The type of processor installed in the inventory device. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this value can be manually overwritten in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (see Hardware Tab).
Processors	The total number of processors installed in a physical inventory device, or logical processors assigned to a virtual machine. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties can be overridden with a manually entered value (see Hardware Tab). Overridden values are no longer updated by incoming inventory.
RAM (GB)	The size of Random Access Memory (RAM) installed in the inventory device, in gigabytes. For manually-created records, this is editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.
Recommended asset link	Displays a link to an asset that is recommended for this inventory device. If you click the link, IT Asset Management connects this inventory device to the recommended asset. Not editable.
Role	The role assigned to the inventory device, such as Development, Test, and Production. Device roles (where permitted by the product use rights on a license) can exempt devices from consuming entitlements on a license to which they are (and remain) attached. For example, some license agreements may grant an exemption for devices used exclusively for testing. For more details, see Allocations and Exemptions. Editable in Device role field in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Serial number	The serial number of the device, attempting to uniquely identify either the hardware (for a stand-alone device) or the virtualization container (for a virtual machine), as reported in inventory. Tip: This displays Flexera SaaS Manager with a numerical suffix in the special case where the inventory device is a dummy record created for linking with imports through your Flexera One SaaS Management connector. For manually-created inventory device records, this value is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties. This value is not editable for records created or updated from collected inventory.
Service pack	The service pack number or ID reported by the operating system. For manually-created records, this is editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. The value is overwritten (permanently) by incoming inventory, and thereafter is read-only.
Sockets	The total number of mounting sockets for central processing units (CPUs) available in a physical inventory device. For a Virtual Machine, this may be the number of virtual sockets assigned to the VM. Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties. If it is not available from your inventory, or if the value is inaccurate, you can permanently override with a manual value.
Threads	The total number of threads available in a physical inventory device; or the number of logical processors (virtual processors in a virtual machine, or threads assigned to a partition) assigned to an inventory device that is a virtual machine. Populated and (by default) updated by inventory imports, this field in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties can be overridden with a manually entered value (see Hardware Tab).
VM name	The name of the virtual machine that is recognized by the host server. This value is visible in the properties of the VM host, in the Virtual Machines tab, in the VM name column. Editable in the Friendly name field in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties for the virtual machine. The compliance calculation updates this field with the machine name returned in inventory (matched by serial number).
VM type	The type of the virtual machine. Editable in the VM properties tab of the inventory device properties for the virtual machine (for manually-created records). The value may be overwritten by incoming inventory. Applicable only to inventory devices of the type Virtual Machine.