Managing External Inventory Connections

You can view and manage all the external inventory connections from the External Inventory Connections page (Data Collection > Common Inventory Tasks > External Inventory Connections).

• Viewing External Inventory Connection Status

• Viewing External Inventory Connection Details

• Disabling, Enabling, and Deleting External Inventory Connections

• Managing Cloud-Based Connections

Viewing External Inventory Connection Status

To view information about all external inventory connections, go to the External Inventory Connections page (Data Collection > Common Inventory Tasks > External Inventory Connections). The Connections tab opens by default.

The Connections tab lists the following properties of connections. Some of these properties are visible by default whereas others are available through the column chooser.

Column	Description
Beacon	Name of the inventory beacon where the import runs.
Beacon Status	Displays whether the inventory beacon is active or not.
Connection Status	Determines how the data from this connection is processed: Enabled—The connection is turned on, and any fresh data available from this connection is included in the future imports and subsequent license consumption calculations. Disabled—No new data is imported from this connection. However, existing data from prior imports through this connection are maintained in the database, and still affect the calculations. Deleted—No new data is imported from this connection and any inventory data imported exclusively through that connection (and not duplicated in any other source) has been removed from the operations databases.
Devices / Users	Number of users or devices that the connection is bringing in before normalization.
Last Import	Date of the last import from this connection. This can be a successful or failed import.
Name	The name of the connection.
Type	The type of the data source declared when the connection was created.

Viewing External Inventory Connection Details

You can view the details of a connection.

To view details of a connection:

1. Go to the External Inventory Connections page (Data Collection > Common Inventory Tasks > External Inventory Connections). The Connections tab opens by default.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Click the connection name to open the Details view of that connection.
   • Click the three-dot menu button in the connection row and select View Details . The Details tab opens, displaying the details of the connection.

Disabling, Enabling, and Deleting External Inventory Connections

You can disable, enable, or delete a connection.

Disabling and Enabling Connections

You can disable an external inventory connection, so that no new data will be imported from this connection in the future imports. However, existing data from prior imports through this connection are maintained in the database, and still affect the calculations.

You can also enable a disabled external inventory connection, so that any fresh data available from this connection will be included in the future imports and subsequent license consumption calculations.

To disable a connection:

1. Go to the External Inventory Connections page (Data Collection > Common Inventory Tasks > External Inventory Connections). The Connections tab opens by default.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Click the three-dot menu button in the connection row and select Disable .
   • Click the connection name to open the Details view of that connection, and click Disable in the upper-right corner of the page.

   • If the connection type is Jamf, ServiceNow, or FNMS, the Disable button does not appear on the Details view of that connection.

   • In either scenario, the Disable Connection dialog box opens, asking you to confirm if you want to disable the connection.
3. Click Disable . The connection is disabled.

To enable a connection:

1. Go to the External Inventory Connections page (Data Collection > Common Inventory Tasks > External Inventory Connections). The Connections tab opens by default.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Click the three-dot menu button in the connection row and select Disable .
   • Click the connection name to open the Details view of that connection, and click Disable in the upper-right corner of the page.

   • If the connection type is Jamf, ServiceNow, or FNMS, the Disable button does not appear on the Details view of that connection.

   • In either scenario, the Disable Connection dialog box opens, asking you to confirm if you want to disable the connection.
3. Click Disable . The connection is disabled.

Deleting Connections

If you delete a connection, all the associated data will no longer be available. The deletion action cannot be undone.

note

Consider the following:

• To be able to delete external inventory connections, you need the explicit permission granted in IAM.
• You cannot delete a Jamf, ServiceNow, FNMS, or Microsoft Intune connection.

To delete a connection:

1. Go to the External Inventory Connections page (Data Collection > Common Inventory Tasks > External Inventory Connections). The Connections tab opens by default.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Click the three-dot menu button in the connection row and select Disable .
   • Click the connection name to open the Details view of that connection, and click Disable in the upper-right corner of the page.

   • If the connection type is Jamf, ServiceNow, or FNMS, the Disable button does not appear on the Details view of that connection.

   • In either scenario, the Disable Connection dialog box opens, asking you to confirm if you want to disable the connection.
3. Click Disable . The connection is disabled.