Endpoint Group assignment from single external file

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Hello, I’m looking for a way to be able to set endpoint group assignments via the entries in an excel spreadsheet (or .csv). The spreadsheet would have the hostname in one column and the group assignment name in the other column,

Here’s the scenario:
We need to patch some AWS machines that are TURNED OFF the majority of the time, and can’t be powered on except for a patch window (4 hours a month)

The Challenge:
We cannot use a local file or setting on the machine (which works perfectly BTW), as a large number of these will be turned off except for patch windows or when needed (AWS machines). They would only be able to receive updates to the file or group assignment when online. We’d like to have the group assignment set so that when the machine does come online, it just drops into the group needed…based off the single spreadsheet/.csv file.

Theoretically the machines group assignments could change daily. Realistically, we will have approx. 10 out of 2000 servers change group memberships monthly (which will be updated on that single spreadsheet/.csv file.)

Our Goal:
Client is wanting to see if possible to base BigFix group assignment off an external Excel or .csv file, that would be stored on a remote system/endpoint/server/webshare.

I’ve used the method of creating a setting, based off of line in a text file that is on the local machine, to determine group membership, but haven’t figured out how to do it this way yet.

Has anyone tried this, or know how this might be accomplished?

We’d prefer automatic groups, but would use manual if we had to. Any advice is appreciated!

Thank you,

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There are a few different ways of achieving this, some more involved than others depending on your requirements, but if you are OK to update things on a monthly basis or so, I’d suggest that the easiest way to achieve this is via the Location Property Wizard in the BigFix Console (it’s in the BES Support Site). It allows you to create not just Location by subnet/IP, but also an arbitrary property based on some relevance expression (in your case, it seems you can just use something like computer name) as the key which then maps to some value.

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You would then be able to paste in the 2 columns (computer name, group assignment) in the key-value pairs step from your spreadsheet.

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You may want to investigate the use of REST API to create computer groups, and to add computers to a manual group. This solution involves some programming steps such as parsing the cvs file and using the BigFix REST API to create the group (POST) and/or add computers to an existing group (PUT).

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