Combining duplicate license servers under a single server

When you are monitoring a server for realtime usage and you also import denial logs for that server, the data may be shown in License Statistics under two separate servers. This occurs because the denial log contains only the hostname of the machine, but the realtime server is known under an IP address or different hostname. Therefore, the realtime data will be shown under the server's IP address, while the denials data will be shown under the hostname contained in the log file. 

To see the server's usage information reported under one server name, you can use an alias and/or merge the server data. Assigning an alias essentially instructs License Statistics that the two hostnames refer to the same server instead of two different servers. (See also Merging databases with xfeditdb.) 

• If you currently have only realtime data for the server in License Statistics and plan to also import denials data into License Statistics, you can create an alias for the server before importing the denials data. Thereafter, all denials data and realtime data will be shown under one server. 
• If you currently have both realtime data and denials data for one server that is being shown in License Statistics under two separate servers, you can merge the data under one server. When you merge the data, you have the option of creating an alias automatically, so both realtime and denials data will be shown under one server for all future monitoring and imports. This is usually the recommended option, unless you are certain that no data will be imported for the server in the future. Otherwise, you will need to create an alias for the server before importing data in the future.

Rules for successful merging of license servers

A server can be successfully merged with another server only if the following conditions listed below are met. (Note that the source license server refers to the server that is a donor of data, whereas the destination license server refers to the server that is a recipient of data.)

1. The source license server is not a member of a License Server Group (see Creating and managing groups).
2. Neither source license server nor destination license server is alias created for another license server (see Assigning and editing server aliases).
3. The source license server has the same vendor as the destination license server.
4. The destination license server gathering type is always Realtime. 
5. The source license server can be either Realtime or Imported. If the source license server is Imported, it can include only denials data in order to be successfully merged. If it includes realtime usage data, the merging will fail.

For example, say you have a FlexNet server for which you want to track both realtime usage and denials data. The realtime server uses the IP address 192.123.45.123, but the denial log for the same server uses the hostname, "ServerHostname1." If you haven't yet imported the denials log, you can avoid having the data show up under two servers by editing the license server in License Statistics and assigning "ServerHostname1" as an alias for that License Server. Then, when you import the denials log that uses the hostname "ServerHostname1," the denials data will be shown under the same server as the realtime data.

However, if you already imported the denials log and have the realtime and denials data shown under separate servers, you must merge the existing data to resolve this. When you merge the data stored under "ServerHostname1" with the realtime server, "ServerHostname1" is removed from License Statistics. By default, an alias will be created at the same time as merging, so you will not need to merge data again in the future, or take an extra step to make an alias for the server.

For detailed instructions on assigning aliases, see Assigning and editing server aliases.

For detailed instructions on merging license servers, see Merging license server data.