Merging two different Bigfix environments

1

Hi,

I am new to BigFix and been given a task to add already existing BigFix environment into a newly configured one. So far I have been exporting the Computer Groups, Baselines off old one and importing into new one. It is a tedious and time consuming job, hence mundane.

Could someone please help me with the procedure to perform this activity more efficiently and quickly?

Thanks in advance
Sujay

2

Having had the pleasure (?!?) of doing this with several environments, I’m willing to try and help.

  • How many Custom Sites exist in the “Source” environment?
  • Are these sites going to be replicated in the “Destination” environment?
  • Do you need to migrate Custom SCM Checklists?

Since you refer to the process as “mundane”, I assume you are exporting the objects individually. Did you know that you can export multiple objects into the same .BES file?

You can export all of the Baselines into one .BES, then all of the Fixlets/Tasks into another .BES file, etc. If you need to, you can do this based on the Source site.

Where things always got tedious for me was when trying to migrate Manual Groups. There is no way to export them from the Console itself. Yet another reason NOT to use them in the first place!

Once you have your Fixlets/Baselines/Analyses/Groups objects imported into the “Destination” environment where you want them, you can start to think about the Migration of the Endpoints.

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3

Hi Tim,

Many thanks for getting back.

Thank you very much for getting back to me. As suggested I tried to bulk export which didn’t work. I chose multiple Automatic Computer Groups and on clicking export it displayed a single file. I went ahead hoping that all computer groups will get exported into a Single file which wasn’t the case.

If what i did was not the right procedure, could you please help me with the right procedure?

and to answer your questions

  1. Custom Sites: 94 (Here I am trying migrate Groups, Baselines, Actions, etc… not only sites)
  2. Yes.
  3. Yes

Thanks
Sujay

4

You can export multiple groups into a single .BES file. I just tested it to make sure I wasn’t remembering incorrectly.

Try this from your Console …

  • Under “All Content” expand the “Sites” section.
  • Expand the “Custom Sites” section.
  • Expand one of your Custom Sites, I’ll refer to it as “CustomSite1”.
  • Inside “CustomSite1” click on the “Computer Groups” section. You should now see all of the Automatic Groups in that site. (Assuming you picked a site with Groups in it).
  • Click a group name and press CTRL-A to select all the Groups in the upper right frame.
  • Right Click one of the Groups and choose “Export”
  • I recommend using a name like “CustomSite1-Automatic Groups.bes” for the file. Save it.

Now let’s verify that everything exported correctly.

Use a text editing program (Notepad++ works well for this), open the .BES file you just created. It’s just an XML Text File. It should contain the definitions for all of the groups you just exported.

One thing to keep in mind, if your Groups rely on Properties that are defined in Analyses that have not yet been Imported, the Groups may not import properly into the new environment. I’ve never tried to import a Group that used a property that didn’t already exist. You might need to make sure that the Analyses have been exported/imported into their new sites (and been activated).

With the migration/mergers I’ve done, I always did them in this order …

  • Manually create the Custom sites in the new Environment.
  • Bring over any files that may have been added to the Custom Sites. (For example, I use one to define Geographical Locations based on IP Subnets since we have over 3000 subnets).
  • Analyses
  • Activate the appropriate Analyses.
  • Fixlets/Tasks
  • Groups
  • Baselines
  • Migrate Endpoints

Time for me to learn something …

  • I’ve never tried to migrate Actions.
  • I always just asked the Console Operators to re-issue the Actions as their computers were Migrated.
  • If you Import “exported” actions, who then is the Action “Issued By”?
  • Or does it import the “Issued By” field but sign the action with your credentials?
  • How does it handle Actions that were in the Console Operator sites (and they targeted “All Computers”)?
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5

When you try to Export/Import an Action, it loses both the Target Settings and the Source Site / Source Fixlet information. You basically get the same thing as if you had clicked the “Take Custom Action” dialog, but with the Relevance and Action Script filled in from the source action. I don’t recall whether any of the Constraints (start / stop time, reapply, etc.) come with it.

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