9.2 Patch 6 for IBM BigFix Platform

[steve]

The IBM BigFix team is releasing 9.2 Patch 6 (9.2.6.94) of the BigFix Platform. The main features of this release are:

• Platform rebranding to IBM BigFix
• SAML 2.0 authentication support for Web Reports and WebUI (Documentation)
• WebUI enablement
• Agent support for Mac OS 10.11 “El Capitan”
• Server upgrade performance and progress feedback improvements
• APAR and bug fixes
• Updated to OpenSSL 1.0.1p to address vulnerabilities in previous versions

All Platform components are being released in this patch.

Downloads and release information are available at:

http://support.bigfix.com/bes/release/9.2/patch6/.

The full technical changelist is available at:

https://support.bigfix.com/bes/changes/fullchangelist-92.txt

Upgrade fixlets are available in BES Support version 1233 (or higher).

[steve]

[atlauren]

Congratulations, team!

[selimgoksu]

wondering webui!..

[atlauren]

I just tried the upgrade action on a server clone, from 9.2.2 -> 9.2.6. Being as it was the action route, it ran BESAdmin.exe as a silent install. Much to my surprise, it took only 12 minutes.

That’s… surprising.

[steve]

Much to my surprise, it took only 12 minutes.

See…we were serious about upgrade performance improvements

[Raja]

i expected APAR IV65334 will be fixed in this release but it didn’t happen

[mfuglem]

I have version 1 233 of BES Support, but I can’t seem to find the upgrade fixlets. Is there anyone who has experienced this problem?

[brunow]

Great news guys, excited!

[AlanM]

What version might you be trying to upgrade from? Fixlets are only available to upgrade servers from 9.1 and above.

[clugo]

I cannot login after the upgrade on the console, before the upgrade it says something about syncmastheadandlicense in Linux.

Can you point to some documentation of the process after the upgrade.

I cann access to the Web UI as usual.

[mtrain]

The fixlet “IBM BigFix - Updated Platform Server Components Version 9.2.6 Now Available” description says: “After upgrade, you are required to run the IBM BigFix Administration tool on the server to complete the setup of the Server. For the Linux platform, please include the “-syncmastheadandlicense” flag when running the tool.”

–Mark

[mtrain]

One other question about the Linux upgrade - will the fixlet “IBM BigFix - Updated Platform Server Components Version 9.2.6 Now Available” automatically upgrade the console on the separate Windows machine, or is there something else I need to do after running the flxlet on the console machine?

(This will be my first time upgrading BigFix so I apologize for what some may see as a trivial question).

Thanks.
–Mark

[gearoid]

“IBM BigFix - Updated Platform Server Components Version 9.2.6 Now Available” automatically upgrade the console on the separate Windows machine

For Linux - you’ll need to upgrade at least one of you consoles manually so that you can connect to the server.
The updated console installer will be on the Linux server in the /var/opt/BESInstallers/Console directory. This will upgrade you to 9.2.6

From then on you can use the Upgrade Console Fixlet Updated Platform Server Components fixlet to upgrade any others.

[mtrain]

Glad I asked! Thanks! --Mark

[AlanM]

The description of the fixlet does state the best pattern. If you target the Server Components fixlet at all endpoints it will upgrade all remote consoles (that have clients on them) and remote Web Reports servers after the root server has upgraded and the clients relay select again.

[cmcannady]

Kudos to the BigFix team! @steve, I upgraded our DEV environment this evening and was pleasantly surprised. Our BFENT and BESREPOR DB2 databases total about 15GB in DEV and we have a fair amount of BFI data reporting up through the server. Took 23 minutes and 18 seconds to backup the databases and 21 minutes and 31 seconds to apply the 9.2.6.94 software updates. Now comes the fun of regression testing and validation.

On to WebUI. I did have to airgap our DEV environment post platform upgrade to pickup “BES Support” site version 1234 to then install the LONG awaited WebUI. @AaronBauer, I’m really hoping that the next WebUI release will include support for CentOS and SLES endpoints.

@gearoid, for future BES platform releases I would very much like to see improved process/state reporting from BESAdmin (RFE#80161). It would be beneficial to be able to tail a BESAdmin.log during the upgrade to have better overall insight into the process/progress. Currently there’s not much detail from BESAdmin while the upgrade is processing.

Again, kudos to the BigFix team!

[cmcannady]

@mfuglem, you may need to airgap your environment to pick up the changed. You can tail the BESRealy.log and GatherDB.log on your root BES server to see why your environment may not be importing the latest version of an external site.

[mfuglem]

I am upgrading from 9.2.5 so they should be relevant. Looked after them this morning and found them. Site version is now 1234.

[mfuglem]

Looked after them this morning and found them. Could i ask how air gap would help. If i understand the term correctly it means the enviroment is not connected to internett or to a computer/server that is connected to internett. Thanks for the tips for looking at the log files. It seems that the site got updated to 1233 but i did not find them before it updated to 1234.