Consistency Issues with Mac Fixlets

Ideas
1

:angry: I would like it if the BigFix content creators would use the same structures and styles for the meta data.

As I try to work with multiple OS’s in my BigFix environment, I am noticing time and time again that the Mac sites are NOT treated like the other sites… I am considering opening a RFE for this, but wanted to get some input from the community first. For the record I did bring up the source date with our AVP, but nothing came of it.

My issues with the way IBM handles the Mac site and fixlets:

  1. Inconsistent Pre-Fetching.
    – Some fixlets for Macs use prefetching, some of them just use “softwareupdate”. Each time you get an update you have to check how it is going to run.

  2. Inaccurate Meta Data for download size
    – The fixlets that use “softwareupdate” say there is no download related to it. That is because it is downloaded directly from apple (or your ASUS server). There is a download requirement, it just isn’t used by BigFix.

  3. Bad Meta Data for Source Release Date
    – The source release date isn’t there for any of the Mac content. Good luck creating reports that are based on how long the patches have been available, cause that data is not included.

  4. Inconsistent Data separators
    – When the Mac Fixlets list the CVE ID’s associated with the update, they are separated by a comma. Every other site that uses the CVE ID field uses a semi-colon.

Is there something I missed? Does anyone else see the differences between the sites that throws off their creation of custom reports and analysis?

1 Like
2

I agree, this has been an issue for quite a while. Mac doesn’t get enough love in many areas.