Product:
IBM BigFix Inventory application update 9.2.9
Features:
This update contains features that extend software discovery and enhance license reporting. The key features include:
-
Reporting of SAP license usage with integration of SAP License Administration Workbench (SLAW) and SAP USMM (BigFix Inventory only)
This is the first delivery of a capability that allows for managing SAP license usage in BigFix Inventory. It is now possible to have SAP license usage reports consolidated into BigFix Inventory by integration with the SLAW and USMM tools. The measurements from all SAP systems in the SAP landscape are transferred to the central SAP and combined into one SLAW report. You can integrate the report into BigFix Inventory so that utilization of license metrics for SAP products is shown on the Resource Utilization report. The capability is available for all SAP products that can be measured by SAP USMM and SLAW tools.
Benefits: Centralized management of gathering SAP license usage data and single pane of glass reporting of license usage information. -
Adding custom fields to license metric reports
You can extend the All Metrics report and its derivatives by adding custom fields in which you can add information related to software products. The information can be of any type and therefore can help you better identify ownership and purpose of the discovered products as well as additional license management information such as purchase orders, product owners or other. Once the information is added, you can use it to create filtering and grouping criteria such as contract name, placement, allocation, date, or other.
Benefits: Reporting is enhanced with more powerful filtering criteria and information. You can also enable notifications that are triggered when specific criteria are met. -
Extending discovery of Oracle Databases to Solaris (BigFix Inventory only)
Reporting of Oracle Databases is extended to Solaris 10 and 11 operating systems for all discoverable versions. You can retrieve granular information about the edition (Standard or Enterprise), options, Management Packs (including Oracle Real Application Cluster, RAC), and user concurrent sessions of Oracle Databases that are deployed in your environment.
Benefits: You can manage licenses of Oracle Databases across a wider set of operating system in your environment. -
Stand-alone scanner for monitoring isolated systems is extended to AIX
The stand-alone scanner available for computers that cannot be connected to the central management servers due to security reasons is extended to AIX operating system. It is now possible to 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 AIX servers that cannot have the BigFix client installed. -
Information about packages that can be used to create software signatures
Package Data report is enhanced by adding information about which of the packages that are discovered in your infrastructure are already used as software signatures.
Benefits: It is easier to identify which packages can be used to extend software discovery as they do not form software signatures. -
Improved security of storing VM manager passwords
You can overwrite the default key that is used to encrypt VM manager passwords or change the default password to the VM Manager Tool keystore.
Benefits: Security of storing VM manager passwords is improved. -
Discovery of new components from Oracle, SAP, and Red Hat (BigFix Inventory only)
The software catalog is extended to discover a number of new components from Oracle, SAP, and Red Hat. To discover the components, ensure that you upload the software catalog published in September 2017, and upgrade BigFix Inventory to version 9.2.9.
Published site:
IBM BigFix Inventory - version 95.
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_929.
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