C3 - Free BigFix Community Content Libraries

Hello!

I am pleased to announce the public availability of C3, a free set of content libraries for use in your environments. This content is provided by my organization, an IBM business partner, and is maintained by me and anyone who contributes to the repositories on github. This is not IBM provided or supported content.

Inspiration

C3 exists to provide a large collection of content that is general enough to be applicable everywhere but specific enough to solve problems organizations face today without modification or advanced coding.

The best part about C3 is that it is currently used in production! C3 is made up primarily of content I have created but also relies heavily on other community contributors.

This post outlines the best of C3 but feel free to peruse the C3 Homepage here.

Available C3 Sites

C3 Inventory - BigFix.Me - GitHub

The goal of C3 Inventory is to provide expansive inventory capabilities for organizations to inventory and assess their endpoint and server environments.

C3 Patch - BigFix.Me - GitHub

C3 Patch is both a set of tools and a content site. The C3 Patch Content Site hosts patches for more than 80 third-party applications covering software on both macOS and Windows.

  • Accessibility
  • Jaws
  • Browsers
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Opera
  • Development
  • Atom
  • Eclipse
  • Scratch
  • etc.
  • Plug-ins
  • Adobe Air
  • Silverlight
  • Productivity
  • NotePad++
  • Security
  • Microsoft EMET
  • MalwareBytes
  • Systems Management
  • Dell Command | Configure
  • Dell Command | Update
  • Utilities
  • Putty

C3 Protect - BigFix.Me - Github

C3 Protect is a set of content related to the various aspects of securing workstations. From Application Whitelisting to Anti-Virus management and Endpoint Encryption, C3 Protect lets organizations use IBM BigFix for things that would typically require engaging with a third-party vendor.

C3 Platform Kickstart - BigFix.Me - Github

C3 Platform Kickstart focuses on providing all of the infrastructure-related content you need to properly configure you’re environment.

  • Client Audit
  • Issues
  • Performance
  • Settings
  • Client Configuration
  • Cache Settings
  • Command Polling
  • CPU Usage
  • Log Retention
  • Relays
  • Relay configuration
  • Cache Settings

C3 Power Management - BigFix.Me - Github

C3 Power Management is all about managing and reporting on the power policies defined and in-use on managed devices.

Supported Power Management tools include:

  • 1E NightWatchman
  • macOS Power Management
  • Windows Power Management

C3 Software Usage - BigFix.Me - Github

C3 Software Usage uses AppLocker in Audit-Only mode on Windows to provide application usage tracking including usage count and last use date for various applications.

C3 Remote Control - BigFix.Me - Github

C3 Remote Control provides content for reporting on remote access usage in your organization.

Supported remote access tools include:

  • Microsoft Remote Assistance
  • Microsoft Remote Desktop
  • TeamViewer

Using C3 in your environment

The C3 content is put on BigFix.Me in a slightly interesting way so I will try to explain how you can utilize the content in your environment.

Automatic Syncing with the BigFix.Me Sync Tool

BigFix.Me Sync Setup Walkthrough and Troubleshooting.pdf (541.5 KB)

For Customer’s using C3 in production we highly recommend the BigFix.Me Sync Tool. All you have to do is setup the tool, subscribe to the C3 sites you’re interested in, create a custom site for each C3 site you’re syncing, and tell the tool to sync those sites locally. You will always have the latest versions of content distributed and you can start benefiting from the content right away!

Feel free to contact me directly for issues with the sync tool.

Manually downloading content

You can always just view the content on BigFix.Me too! That being said, the content is in private sites which means you can’t “Download” it unless you subscribe first! You can always view the relevance and actionscript of every piece of content without downloading it though!

Support

You can post issues directly on the content on BigFix.Me, in the repository on GitHub, or you can contact me directly.

Let me know if you’re using C3 in Production and I’ll make sure you receive a direct support email address so you don’t have to request support over the forums :slight_smile:

13 Likes

Hi @strawgate

Seems very nice! I do have a small question:

Any idea why? And how can I troubleshoot that? Is there somewhere a log or anything?

But again, it’s very nice!

Greetings

2 Likes

Hi!

There is a new version of the sync plugin on bigfix. I’d recommend:

  • Making sure you’re running the latest version
  • Re-enter your BigFix.me credentials in the console
  • Try to access BigFix.me website from an internet browser on your BigFix server

There are logs in the applications folder of the bigfix server directory on your server that might provide additional guidance.

Hi @strawgate

My proxy settings where gone on the server so… fixed it :wink: i’ll play around today with it!

Thanks.

1 Like

Hi @strawgate

One more question:

How can I subscribe to the C3 content?

Do I need to request it to you for every site?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings

Hello!

Normally you would click into the site and request access but it’s actually easier for me to just add you.

I’ve gone ahead and added you!

Change your sync frequency to 1 X hourly and you’ll see the sites say the next sync!

1 Like

Testing right away, thank you!

Thanks for sharing all valuable resources related to BigFix.

I have requested for access in Bigfix.me
Can you please grant me access.

1 Like

Granted!

Thanks,
Bill

2 Likes

Hi @strawgate

Couple of thinks. First of all, is it logical that I don’t see any content when I double click a BigFix.me site in the Sync BFME dashboard?

Secondly: I’ve started my console and saw something about 97 fixlets and tasks in the My BigFix.me content. Now I see 31 and then 4 and now 7 …? Did you change something or? The only thing I changed was my sync scheduled. Does it delete everything and resync everything? I saw a couple of anti virus and now i don’t see them anymore :smile:

third one:

Finally, I’m currently working on tools for inventorying Cisco network
devices and was hoping to find a pilot user or set of users to provide
feedback on this functionality!

You can write me and my colleague (@Wouter) down for it if you want. We do have some questions about regarding business impact etc, so feel free to contact us.

Greetings

@steini44 – that particular page isn’t working for me either.

Are you syncing each BigFix.me site to a different custom site? Something like this:

You should have a 1:1 pairing of BigFix.me sites to local sites if that makes sense!

Do all of the sites appear in the dropdowns?

If you want to private message me screenshots I can take a closer look!

@strawgate, I ran the “Install/Upgrade BigfixMeSync Plugin to v1.1.5” fixlet (results are “fixed”) but no site has been created that I can see.
I’ve restarted my Console twice now, and still no site.

Suggestions?

Hey Tim!

On your BigFix server there is a logs directory you can check here:

Drive:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server\Applications\bigfixMeSync

The logs should shed light on what’s going on.

Some initial thoughts:

  • The plugin relies on the REST API credentials to be entered for the BES Server Plugin Service… BES Support Fixlet #1294

  • You may need .Net 4.0 (installed by default on Server 2012+) on your root server for the plugin service to work. You can verify if you meet this requirement by just running “bigfixMeSync.exe” out of the directory listed above. If it throws a prompt indicating you need .Net 4.0 then you’ll need to meet that requirement.

You know, it’s always the little things!

I had an entire reply typed out, and was about to click “Reply” and decided, maybe I should check to see if the account I was using for the RestAPI process was still a Master Operator. One of my habits, when I disable an account is to reduce it’s permissions. Sure enough, the account I was using was not a Master Operator.

Troubleshooting STEP 1 : Read The Foundation Material!

Do the RestAPI queries run through the WebReport service? My WebReport server is on a second computer.

Tim,

The Sync tool is made by @lattanas so she may have a better idea than I do but my understanding is that it gets the REST URL, Username, and Password from the BES Server Plugin Service.

These are configured by BES Support Fixlet #1294 so as long as you configured the correct URL with that fixlet the server plugin service will hand the URL and credentials to the sync tool which should then connect to the specified instance with the specified credentials.

@lattanas. When I run the bigfixMeSync.exe from the command line, I’m not getting what I would expect.
I’ve run all the setup Tasks, but the utility is showing the following error …

Incorrect args passed - Index was outside the bounds of the array. -    at Sync.Program.Main(String[] args) in c:\MyWork\EclipseWorkspaces\Bigfix.Me\BigfixMeSync\SyncBFMEPlugin\Sync\Program.cs:line 59
Cleaning up the following log files:
201605120848.xml
Cleanup Failed:  Access to the path '*:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BESServer\Applications\bigfixMeSync\201605120848.xml' is denied.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 bigfixMeSyncPlugin v1.1.5.18243
  For more information email me at l~~~~~~~~~~~~~o@it.ibm.com
  Processing the following incoming arguments:
    restUrl:
    restUser:
    restPass: XXXX
    debugLevel: 0
    keepLogs: 15
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
restUrl is blank!
restUser is blank!
restPass is blank!
Exiting Application
Error:  Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
First run : create History dash value
ERROR:  (DashboardData:122)------------
Error Result
Invalid resource URL

Tim,

The BigFixMeSync requires a certain set of command line parameters to run – they are passed to it by the BigFix Server Plugin service when the plugin service kicks off the sync (I think once every ten minutes).

If you let the server plugin service run the sync tool, what appears in the log file?

If you want to run the sync tool on the command line the parameters are:
bigfixMeSync.exe %RESTURL% %MOUSERNAME% %MOPASSWORD%

The format of RESTURL is just: “https://bigfix.domain.com:52311”

I’ll let it run for a bit and see what the last file indicates.

Still no joy on the site showing up in my Console.

201605121518.xml

<entries>
  <entry function="Add" filename="Log.cs" linenumber="0">
    <timestamp>05/12/2016 19:18:51 PM</timestamp>
    <errorstate>False</errorstate>
    <message>Cleaning up the following log files:
        *:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server\Applications\bigfixMeSync\201605121248.xml</message>
  </entry>
  <entry function="Main" filename="Program.cs" linenumber="187">
    <timestamp>05/12/2016 19:18:51 PM</timestamp>
    <errorstate>False</errorstate>
    <message>bigfixMeSyncPlugin v1.1.5.18243
  For more information email me at luisa_attanasio@it.ibm.com
  Processing the following incoming arguments:
    restUrl: https://server.domain.com:52311
    restUser: RestUser123
    restPass: XXXX
    debugLevel: 0
    keepLogs: 15</message>
  </entry>
  <entry function="Main" filename="Program.cs" linenumber="255">
    <timestamp>05/12/2016 19:18:51 PM</timestamp>
    <errorstate>False</errorstate>
    <message>Read all Dashboard Datastore Variables.</message>
  </entry>
  <entry function="ImportBFMESynchFiles" filename="Program.cs" linenumber="807">
    <timestamp>05/12/2016 19:18:51 PM</timestamp>
    <errorstate>False</errorstate>
    <message>Installing necessary files</message>
  </entry>
  <entry function="createBigfixMeSyncSite" filename="Install.cs" linenumber="39">
    <timestamp>05/12/2016 19:18:51 PM</timestamp>
    <errorstate>False</errorstate>
    <message>Check if site Bigfix.me Sync exists.</message>
  </entry>
</entries>

Can you try running it manually on the server?
bigfixMeSync.exe %RESTURL% %MOUSERNAME% %MOPASSWORD%

Another thing you could try is to create the site: “BigFix.me Sync” and see if it gets to the next step!

Bill