Upgrade recomendation for old versions BigFix, ILMT Lite, and agents for AIX and HP-UX

Usage and Config
1

Hi.

We have an environment with BigFix Server 9.2 on a Windows 2017 Server and SQL Express.

The levels of the agents if ILMT are 9.2.28, and HP-UX agents are 9.2.22.23

All the WAS (Websphere Application Server) applications are going to be migrated from the HP-UX to IBM AIX.

Reviewing the v9.2 documentation says that the BigFix versions to use are v10 or v11. Also says that we can upgrade the ILMT.

We know that we can download the ILMT and BigFix (11) from the Pasport Advantage portal, but we don’t know were we can download the previous versions (10, 9.5, and fixes) that are indicated on the manual procedure “Upgrading from old versions on Windows (BigFix scenario)”

Can someone told us where can we obtain those versions?

Also, is there posible to use the LMT Lite version for the new AIX partition and still be compatible with the HP-UX agent?

Or what are your recommendation for this environment and be in compliance.

Thanks in advance for your time, and we appreciate any help you can provide.

2

It might be helpful if you could provide some details, eg. how many agents do have etc.

Personally I could imagine 2 scenarios with pros and cons:

  1. Apply inplace upgrade from 9.2 to 11.0.x
  2. Install BES Root and ILMT from scratch and migrate agents

Did I get it right that you use BigFix only for ILMT? In this case, a third option using ILMT without Bigfix might also be a possible way to go.

I would prefer option 2. It would provide a clean, fresh BigFix installation and keep your existing server as a backup running in parallel. You would need a new, additional license.

After installing the new Server (and databases of course) you can migrate the clients using a fixlet which just replaces the masthead file and restarts the agent. In case of need I can provide a code snippet for this.

If you prefer option 1 I would strongly recommend to open a support case to be on the safe side. And as much backups / VM Snapshots as possible.

3

HP-UX is EOL OS and as such BigFix dropped support of it (not supported on agent 9.5 and above), so there is nothing more you can go up-to. That said, you do not need to stay on ILMT version 9.x - you can upgrade to latest version of it and still have 9.2.x agent communicate to it. AIX is supported OS, so you can easily run agent 11.x running on those machines.

4

For the number of agents, there are 18 AIX agents, and 10 agents of HP-UX are being migrated and is estimated that 4 must be mantained for an undeterminated time.

For the scenarios, yes, we are using BigFix only for ILMT.

We are new to all related to BigFix, so the documentation has been confusing because are sections where it is assumed that we already know what it must be done or be configured. So we are not confident enough to to the “inplace upgrade”.

For the second scenario, “"Install BES Root”, we don’t remember reading about it in the documentation we are consulting, could you tell us where can we find that information so we can understand the scenario you are mentioning?

Also, for the clean, fresh BigFix installation and keep the existing server (BigFix 9.2) as a backup running in parallel, the new additional license in this case, does it have a cost?

The via we have being evaluating is the ILMT Lite. We don’t know is that it is permited to have two ILMT, one ILMT that is the actual BigFix 9.2 installed just for the HP-UX, and install one ILMT Lite just for the AIX.

5

In my opinion, looking at IBM Installing - IBM Documentation ILMT installation overview is a good starting point.

My feeling is that using BigFix for less than 30 managed server is not the best way.

The mentioned ILMT with disconnected scanner might be the easier way.

I would suggest to get in touch with IBM and check the possible options. This would also allow a discussion about the remaining HP-UX Server as @ageorgiev mentioned, this OS is not supported anymore:
License Metric Tool plans to remove support for HP-UX at the end of 2022

1 Like
6

Hi Matthias,

We have been trying to configure the ILMT Lite 9.2.42.

For the ILMT server is one computer with Windows 11 and SQL Express 2022.

For the agents of the disconnected scanner are another Windows 11 and an AIX 7.3 TL4.

At the beginning it was working well, it even create and send the automatic uploads. It was with the version 9.2.41. But when I tried to test the upgrade to 9.2.42 instead of delete and made a fresh installation, the disconnected scanner stopped to automatically create and send the scans.

We have tried to find and understand the error, analize the logs, even tried to uninstall and reinstall all the environment following step by step.

When reinstalling either the Server or the Agents the logs say that the installation and configuration is succesful, and the ping assigned to the ILMT Server responds on either Windows and AIX.

The config_setup.ini file has assigned the data_upload_url with the IP:port_9081, has the data_token sequence, has the path where the curl file is, the DAILY scan parameter and the hour on a 24hr format. - All the configuration assigned until now was working fine, until the upgrade trial.

The log says “tar.gz created in the output directory - upload it to ILMT”, even after the parameters on the config_setup.ini file were assigned, the setup.sh run, and the automation/configure.sh run.

The files are uploaded to the ILMT server only if the upload_results.sh is run.

I have been searching on the ILMT logs, on the Windows logs, on the SQL server logs, on the AIX logs, following every step on the manual… and we can’t find something that give some sense on what’s is blocking the upload task, because the agents of the disconnected scanner can upload the files on either Windows or AIX, but only if the upload_results.sh id run.

Configuring the ini file isn’t working even if the logs say that the installation and configuration is succesful and the comunication is working.

What do you believe can be the issue?