Product:
BigFix Inventory application update 11.0.6.0
Published site:
BigFix Inventory version 11
Features:
Key features in HCL BigFix Inventory 11.0.6.0:
-
User Interface navigation change - the main menu component has been moved to the left-side. Original menu structure and options are preserved. Import status and action are now under a dedicated icon in the main bar.
-
Idea BFINV-I-195: Software reports offer new Standard End of Support, Extended End of Support and Release Date attributes on top of the original End of Support information. In this release, data is available for Broadcom, Microsoft, Micro Focus (Open Text), Oracle, RED HAT, SAP, SAS, Veritas and VMware (Broadcom) software. For the future updates refer to catalog update announcements.
-
License Optimizer: A ready-to-use dashboard delivering AI-powered pricing insights and essential tools to optimize licenses and reduce costs for a set of desktop applications. With future product releases, the License Optimizer will be expanded to include additional desktop and datacenter products. For more details, refer to License Optimizer
-
Cached dashboard data for Inventory, Reports and Spend dashboards New mechanism implemented to cache data on the server side to eliminate unnecessary database queries and provide quick dashboard response time in big environments. Automatic cache refresh is aligned to data imports (both regular and continuous discovery processing) and additionally can be triggered on demand.
-
Management: Data Imports panel has been reorganized
-
Import history and import log are now located under a new Import History tab
-
Import schedule and notifications are now located under a new Import Settings tab
-
New Continuous Discovery Processing statistics for the last 24 hours are available now under a dedicated tab.
-
-
Data Import performance improvements
-
Optimized import time for environments with Microsoft SQL Server (30% observed in lab environment)
-
Continuous Discovery Processing mode when enabled additionally optimizes the standard import time (by 25% in lab environment).
-
-
Software scan process update
-
Metering Data and Package Data are no longer dependent on analyses. These data scans are now part of the standard scanning lifecycle. Data is generated by the Initiate software scan and uploaded using upload or reupload Fixlets.
-
Installed Windows Applications, Installed UNIX Packages and Application Usage Statistics analyses are available in the site for backward compatibility for the scenario where the previous BigFix Inventory server version is still used.
-
-
Enhanced Application Usage detection
-
The new usage detection algorithm significantly improves monitoring coverage for desktop applications and extends coverage for enterprise applications. It is applied on top of catalog and catalog-less discovery methods.
-
The Metering Data report offers additional details like file path and software instances matched to a specific process. The previous data is no longer valid and it is removed during the upgrade to offer new usage statistics based on a fresh and complete data set collected from the endpoint.
-
The Software Classification report offers more granular usage statistics per software instance and additional Usage Facts section in the Details panel.
-
The usage data collection is controlled now by the Initiate Software Scan and activation of Application Usage Statistics analysis is no longer needed (it is deprecated starting from this version and valid for previous server versions only).
-
-
Regular import calculates Component Evidence and new Details for the Software Classification report. In the previous release this information was available for software discovery covered by the Continuous Discovery Processing mode only.
- In case of environments with DB2 the import time is extended by 10% to cover this new data processing. It is optimized if continuous Discovery Processing mode is enabled.
-
The Continuous Discovery Processing enhancements
-
Support for hardware discovery - capacity data and VM Manager tool data processing
-
Default frequency changed for Schedule VM Manager Tool Scan Results Upload Fixlet from 12 to 6 hours to process more frequently smaller data sets.
-
Support for Metering Data processing and software usage calculation
-
If Continuous Discovery Processing mode is enabled then regular import time is reduced (25% observed in a lab environment).
-
New Continuous Discovery Processing statistics in the Data Imports panel help to optimize scan schedules to achieve near real time reporting.
-
-
BigFix Inventory 11.0.6 is an equivalent to IBM License Metric Tool 9.2.41 for IBM Virtualization Capacity reporting:
Note:
1.The scanner equivalent - BigFix Scanner v11.0.41.0 is available under the BigFix Scanner site. For details refer to the scanner release notes
2.RVU Managed Activated Processor Cores metric is unified. The full name is used instead of the RVU MAPC abbreviation.
3.The new version is under certification process by IBM on the release date. To view the status of IBM validated releases, refer to https://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/passportadvantage/SubCapacity/BFI_and_HCL_FAQ.pdf
-
Usability and serviceability enhancements
-
Server installation and upgrade procedure has been reviewed and specific findings are addressed - for details refer to the release notes
-
Software Classification performance is improved for out of the box and custom reports filtered by Software Component Publisher in set
-
The ToDo List is now present in each dashboard. Idea BFINV-I-262: ToDo list can be hidden for non-administrative users if needed
-
Idea BFINV-I-472: API to decommission computers from disconnected scans and container images
-
Dedicated timeout setting for the Get Oracle Database Measurements Fixlet
-
Improved logging for the Get Oracle Database Measurements Fixlet.
-
-
Catalog 20251128 is included in the server package
- Catalog extended with Standard EOS, Extended EOS and Release Date attributes.
-
Support for new systems and platforms
-
Debian 13 on x86 by using the disconnected scanner
-
Virtualization - Nutanix PRISM Central Ideas BFINV-I-251 and BFINV-I-305.
-
-
Security enhancements
-
IBM WebSphere Liberty was updated to version 25.0.0.11
-
A number of other libraries have been updated.
-
Note: The BigFix Scanner version 11.0.41.0 covers 7za binary update to version 25.01
-
To view the complete list of new features and defects that were fixed in this application update, refer to the release notes.
Actions needed:
To upgrade the BigFix Inventory server to application update 11.0.6.0, run the Upgrade to the latest version of BigFix Inventory Fixlet from the BigFix console and the BigFix Inventory site.
Important! It is recommended to restart the BigFix Inventory Server after successful database schema upgrade to ensure proper initialization of internal information about current database schema.
Note: The Central VM Tool on Linux cannot be upgraded independently. It should be updated only when the BigFix Inventory server is upgraded.
The complete upgrade procedure and post-upgrade steps are available in the product documentation:
Upgrading BigFix Inventory Server
Upgrading the Scanner
For more information about how to install, maintain, and use the BigFix Inventory application, refer to the user documentation: BigFix 11 Inventory Documentation
To find out more about Software Asset Management at BigFix, visit the BigFix page
----------------
– The BigFix Inventory Team