IBM BigFix Inventory: Content Release: Application Update 9.2.8 published 2017-06-29

Product:
IBM BigFix Inventory application update 9.2.8

Features:
This update contains features that extend software discovery and enhance license reporting. The key features include:

  • Reporting of the Single and Dual Physical Processor license metrics for Microsoft Windows Server operating systems
    BigFix Inventory measures utilization of the Single Physical Processor and Dual Physical Processor metrics for Microsoft Windows Server. You can use the information to calculate the license demand for this product. The feature is supported for Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2012 Datacenter, and Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter.
    Benefits: You can calculate the demand for Microsoft Windows Server licenses.

  • Enhanced reporting for Oracle Database servers with additional support for the Oracle Processor Core metric
    Reporting of Oracle Databases is enhanced by processing the core factor and measuring utilization of the Oracle Processor Core metric. You can use the information to calculate the license demand for Oracle Databases. The feature is supported for all versions of the Oracle Database that is discovered by BigFix Inventory.
    Benefits: You can now use reports provided by BigFix Inventory to calculate the demand for Oracle Database licenses without the need to manually calculate core factors and tires.

  • Reporting software installed on shared disks based on software templates
    To ensure completeness of software discovery, it is necessary to collect data from shared disks. The solution that was available in the previous application updates was in place for some time. However, it could be resource-consuming when shared disks were used extensively.
    The new solution is based on creating software templates - one of the computers on which the disk is mounted is scanned to create a software template. Then, the template is replicated within a computer group that contains other computers on which the same disk is mounted.
    Benefits: Discovery of software that is installed on shared disks is done without impacting performance of the infrastructure.

  • Collecting executable files based on application usage
    To improve software discovery on Linux and Solaris systems, you can now use files associated with processes that have been run on the computers in your infrastructure, regardless of the file extension. These files, with supplementing information such as their path and size, are available on the Scanned File Data report and can be used to create custom discovery and usage signatures for software components.
    Benefits: Improved discovery of software on Linux and Solaris.

  • Enhanced REST APIs for software and hardware inventory
    New REST APIs for software inventory (api/sam/v2/software_instances) and hardware inventory (api/sam/v2/computers) provide complete information about software classification, including product to which the component is assigned and its license metric as well as the status of confirmation, exclusion, and suppression. The REST APIs provide historical information about uninstalled software and removed computers. They also provide associations that allow for retrieving additional hardware inventory information, computer health or usage data with a single REST API call.
    The REST APIs are planned to substitute the following existing APIs: software_inventory and computer_systems.
    Benefits: You can retrieve complete information about software and hardware inventory through REST API for integration or automation of processes.

  • Automatic decommissioning of computers that are inactive for a specified period
    When infrastructure management policy makes a process of deleting the clients decommissioned in BigFix difficult or impossible, you can enable automatic decommissioning of inactive computers directly in BigFix Inventory or License Metric Tool.
    Benefits: Inactive computers are decommissioned after a specified period, and are no longer included in metric calculation.

  • Configuration of user account lockout
    To increase BigFix Inventory security, you can set conditions under which user account is locked. You can set the maximum number of failed login attempts, the period within which these attempts must occur for the account to be locked, and the period for which the account is locked.
    Benefits: BigFix Inventory and License Metric Tool can be configured to follow the account security policy of the company.

  • Stand-alone scanner for monitoring isolated Solaris computers
    If some of your Solaris computers cannot be managed from a central location due to security reasons, you can discover software and hardware inventory by using disconnected scans. Scan results are placed in files that can be later on used to import the collected data to the BigFix Inventory or License Metric Tool server.
    Benefits: You can collect software and hardware inventory data from computers that cannot have the BigFix client installed.

  • Assigning a new license metric to an existing product
    When your license terms define that a product uses a specific license metric but such a relation is not available in the software catalog, you can assign any of the license metrics available in BigFix Inventory or License Metric Tool to any of the products.
    Benefits: More flexibility to accommodate the assignment of license metrics to products in accordance with contract terms and, when available, to also get related license metric utilization reports.

  • Support for new operating systems and public clouds
    You can install the application server on Windows Server 2016. You can also identify computers as running on Google Compute Engine public cloud.
    Benefits: You can calculate PVU demand for software that is installed on computers that run on the Google Compute Engine public cloud.

  • Discovery of new components from Oracle, SAP, and Red Hat
    The software catalog is extended to discover a number of new components from Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle. To discover the components, ensure that you upload the software catalog published in June 2017, and upgrade BigFix Inventory to version 9.2.8.

Published site:
IBM BigFix Inventory - version 89.

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_928.

  • 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