Product:
IBM BigFix Inventory application update 9.2.10
Features:
This update contains features that extend software discovery and enhance license reporting. The key features include:
-
Reporting usage of products such as Microsoft Office at suite level aggregated per computer
The Usage per Computer report shows product usage aggregated per computer so that you can easily identify where the product is deployed and how frequently it is used. For product suites such as Microsoft Office, the usage is reported for the entire suite rather than separately for Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other components. By default, the report is calculated regularly after every import, but you can also configure it to be calculated on demand.
Benefits: You can easily verify whether the product is used and how often. Based on this information, you can decide whether you want to extend the license for this product or not. -
Enhanced capability to generate and retrieve reports of SAP license metrics utilization
This application update provides an end-to-end automation process for scheduling generation and retrieval of SAP license utilization reports by leveraging the provided ABAP plugin. Once the SAP license utilization reports are processed by BigFix Inventory, the related SAP license usage data is available on the Resource Utilization report.
Benefits: The process of measuring utilization of SAP license metrics can be handled entirely by the Administrator of BigFix Inventory. -
Information about imported part numbers that influenced the initial classification is visible on the Software Classification panel
Part numbers that are available on Passport Advantage represent products that you purchased and license metrics that these products use. When you upload part numbers to BigFix Inventory they affect the default assignment of components. Information about part numbers which caused that a component was assigned to a product is now displayed on the Software Classification panel.
Benefits: You can see which part numbers caused that a component was assigned to the particular product. It gives you a better understanding of rationale behind the default classification that was proposed. -
New REST API for advanced integration and data sharing
A new REST API makes it possible to retrieve utilization of supported license metrics, query and set license threshold values as well as query and set values of custom fields. The new REST API is located at api/sam/v2/license_usage.
Benefits: The new REST API facilitates integration with CMDB and Asset Management Systems. -
Extending license coverage by adding products to the software catalog
You can easily add a custom product and the license metric that it uses to the software catalog. You can then assign the relevant components to this product so that your software classification is correct.
Benefits: You can facilitate the process of software classification by assign components to the product-metric pairs according to your license terms. -
Discovery support for Docker containers under Red Hat OpenShift
BigFix Inventory supports software discovery on Docker containers under the Red Hat OpenShift container application platform.
Benefits: You can use BigFix inventory to discover software in one of the emerging cloud technologies. -
Introduction of the Outdated VM Manager Data status to provide a warning that outdated capacity data might affect license usage reports in the future
When hardware inventory data is not retrieved from a VM manager for more than 30 days, default PVU counting is applied and higher utilization might be reported. To allow the Infrastructure Administrator to troubleshoot problems with VM manager connection before they affect the reports, the Outdated VM Manager Data status is introduced. The status indicates that there are problems but license metric utilization is not yet affected.
Benefits: You are notified about problems with VM manager connections before they affect the reports which gives you more time for investigation and troubleshooting. -
Discovery of new components from HP, SAP, BMC and other
The software catalog is extended to discover several new components HP, SAP, BMC and other. To discover the components, ensure that you upload the software catalog published in December 2017, and upgrade BigFix Inventory to version 9.2.10.
Benefits: More visibility into deployed products and components and better license management without the need to develop custom signatures.
Deprecated content
The IBM Software Classification panel was deprecated and substituted by the Software Classification panel. Application update 9.2.10 is the last update in which the deprecated panel is still available. It will be entirely removed in the next update.
Published site:
IBM BigFix Inventory - version 100.
Action to take:
To learn how to get the application update and deploy it as well as to view the full list of new features and APARs that were fixed in this application update, see the following link: http://ibm.biz/bfi_update_9210.
During the upgrade, new versions of the software catalog and PVU table are uploaded. The versions that are uploaded are the newest ones that were available during the release of the application update to which you are upgrading.
BigFix Inventory Team