Manual Fixlet creation via commandline

Tips
1

Hello Folks,

Just feeling curious about a topic like is it possible that we can create a fixlet manually for a software with the help of any scripting knowledge so that this can be done automatically every month without manual intervention. Inside the fixlet I want to have the same replica as the fixlet looks in Bigfix console.

Below are the requirements that i have for creating the fixlet manually:

  • Auto updating the Fixlet name every month with new Version details, Month & year.
  • Prefetch to be updated automatically inside the fixlet for each consecutive months.
  • I have an active fixlet in my Console which I used to create every month to avoid manual intervention I like to automate it with all the scripts that I’m currently using on my existing fixlet whether it’s relevance condition or the success criteria, even the site in which I need to add the new fixlet.

Let me know if someone can help me finding my solution.

2

Yes, it is entirely possible. However, before automating the process, it is essential to perform each step manually on your local system to ensure everything works as expected. Once you have verified the process, you can consult a scripting expert within your organization or use a coding tool to automate the desired steps effectively.

However you can follow below steps to achive this, I hope this will help.

  • Download the XML of Your Existing Fixlet
  • Log in to the BigFix Server:
    Use the iem CLI tool to authenticate with the server. Refer to the official documentation for detailed steps:
    BigFix IEM CLI Login
    Example Command:
iem LOGIN --server <bigfix_server> --user <operator_name> --password <operator_password> [--masthead <path_to_masthead>]
  • Download the Fixlet XML:
    Retrieve the XML of the existing Fixlet using the appropriate site and Fixlet ID. Reference documentation:
    BigFix IEM CLI - Get Fixlet
    Example Command:
iem get fixlet/custom/sitename/FixletID >> MasterFixlet.xml
  • Prepare the Downloaded XML
  • Replace the content of the downloaded XML with placeholders (e.g., #ActionScript#, #Relevance#). These placeholders will be dynamically replaced with new content based on the specific inputs for the new Fixlet.
  • Validate the modified XML to ensure it follows the BigFix schema and structure.
    Create Fixlet | BigFix Developer
    RESTAPI Fixlet | BigFix Developer
  • Insert New Content
  • Use your script to replace placeholders in the XML with updated content, such as the new relevance expression or action script.
  • Ensure all customizations align with your requirements.
  • Create a Child XML
  • After confirming that the placeholders are correctly replaced, save the modified XML as a new file (e.g., ChildFixlet.xml).
  • Upload the New Fixlet
    Use the iem CLI tool to upload the new Fixlet XML to the BigFix server.
    Example Command:
iem post childxml_file fixlet/custom/sitename

Last step, schedule your script to run monthly using task scheduler (if you dont want to use task scheduler this can be implemented as fixlet policy action also :wink: ) & its done.

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3

You could also create a fixlet to build XML for a fixlet then post it to the same ID as an existing custom fixlet. This is a method I used for automating Defender updates. Slight different to the approach @vk.khurava suggested in that for my case the fixlet XML is build via the fixlet action, but the concept of formatting the XML and uploading it to the server via API call is the same. Maybe its methods are of some help for your case. This one does upload a fixlet and then deploy it so maybe further than you may be wanting to go.

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