BFI Console-Limiting users from seeing specific discovered software

Usage and Config BFI
1

Hi.
We have been asked to configure the BigFix Inventory console as follows:

There are 2 groups of Software Asset Manager role users.

One group of users may see ALL software installed in the environment.
Another groups may only see a limited list of software installed in the environment.

So far, I have been unable to find information on

  • whether this is even possible (without programming enhancements to the product)
  • if it is, how can one go about configuring BigFix Inventory console to achieve this.

Not sure if anyone has faced this requirement before. Looking for ideas/guidance.

Thanks,
-nb

2

This is not possible with BFI. You cannot create groups of softwares and restrict them this way. You can only do that for computers.
What are you trying to achieve here? Maybe there is another way to accomplish what you are asking.

3

Thanks, Rohit.

Basically, the requirement is that on the same BFI console:

  • One set of users can see ALL software products discovered by BFI
  • Another set of users cannot see SOME of the software products discovered by BFI

Rgds,
-nb

4

I don’t see anything under BFI roles that would help with this. Software inventory is by default available for everyone to view.
Having said that, I am curious to know why you want to do that? You can try opening an RFE for this case
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=changeRequestLanding

Closest i can think of achieving this is by spinning up a new BFI instance and then removing the softwares you want to hide from the catalog. Again there is no easy way of doing this and I would not recommend this path.

5

Thanks Rohit.

The request has come from the Client. I was just checking if there was an out-of-the-box way of doing this. I did consider the 2 BFI console scenario but yes, it is not recommended and could get messy.

I will inform the Client and see how they would like to proceed.

Rgds,
-nb

6

Are they trying to hide software (from a security perspective) or just filter to products of interest? I think perhaps a custom report could meet their need, if they just have a group of people who care only about a subset of the software.

7

Jason,
The client wants their employees to be able to see all installed software. However, they do not want us ( a third party who manages BFI for them ) to see some of their proprietary software.

Rgds,
-nb