Configure agent-based browser extensions for on-premises plus SaaS

Learn how to configure agent-based browser extensions for Snow SaaS Management in Snow Atlas when you have an on-premises Flexera environment.

This functionality requires locally installed Snow Inventory Agents and browser extensions to collect and process SaaS application usage data, and Snow Extenders to import the data into SaaS on Snow Atlas.

The addition to the regular flow in your on-premises environment, is that the snowpack files from Snow Inventory Agents are copied in Snow Inventory Server. The browser data from your environment is then sent to both Snow License Manager and to the Snow Atlas platform through a Snow Extender. The figure shows the process for the snowpack file data.

Prerequisites

This configuration is applicable to existing Flexera customers who have an on-premises environment, but also Snow SaaS Management on Snow Atlas.

note

You may need help from Flexera to install and configure the required technologies.

Procedure

1. Configure Snow Inventory Server.

   1. Upgrade Snow Inventory Server to version 6.8.3 or later. For more information, see Snow Inventory Server.

   2. Configure Snow Inventory Server to start copying snowpack files to a folder where Snow Extender can pick them up. This is done in the ModuleConfiguration in the snowserver.config file:

      <ModuleConfiguration>
          <Module typeName="FileProcessorModule">
          <Setter propertyName="Interval">"00:00:05"</Setter>
          <Setter propertyName="CopyProcessedFiles">true</Setter>
          <Setter propertyName="CopyProcessedFilesPath">"C:\\extender"</Setter>
          </Module>     
          <Module typeName="AnnouncementsProcessingModule">
          <Setter propertyName="CopyProcessedFiles">true</Setter>
          <Setter propertyName="CopyProcessedFilesPath">"C:\\extender\\announcement"</Setter>     
          </Module>
      </ModuleConfiguration>

      For more information, see File processing.

2. Install Snow Inventory Agents in your local environment, unless you already have them.

   You are recommended to have the latest version installed.

   • Snow Inventory Agent for macOS
   • Snow Inventory Agent for Windows
   • Configuration of Snow Inventory Agents

3. Configure Snow Inventory Agents to install browser extensions in your local environment, unless you already have it configured. The browser extensions collect SaaS application usage.

   For more information and configuration, see Cloud application metering.

   note

   Collection of SaaS application usage requires that your organization's users work in one of the browsers supported by a browser extension. For a list of browsers, see Browser extensions.

4. Install and configure a Snow Extender to get the collected data into SaaS on Snow Atlas.

   1. Install Snow Extenders version 2.0.8 or later.

      For more information, see Snow Extenders.

   2. Optional: Configure the AD Discovery in your extender, and select to inventory users.

      This configuration is recommended but not required. For more information and configuration, see Add Active Directory domains.

      note

      When AD discovery is configured, it ensures the exact mapping of your organization's users to the collected browser data. When it is not configured, the mapping is instead done between the display name of the users signed in on their machines and the user information received from other discovery sources in SaaS. Mapping based on display name may decrease the accuracy of the user mapping in the case when multiple users have the same display name in the system. For more information, see Data consolidation.

   3. In the File Elevator settings, enter the path C:\\extender to match what you configured in Step 1.ii.

      For more information, see Configure settings for File Elevator.