WebUI Fast Update Announcement

[dexdexdex]

Hello friends -

We’re keeping the WebUI fast update trains rolling. Today’s update is pretty straightforward: we’re expanding coverage in WebUI patch to include Patches for Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04.

Additionally, we’ve fixed a bug in the SWD app to allow the creation of SWD packages from a custom site with non-ascii characters in its name.

As always any questions about any of this feel free to poke us here.

Application Engineering Team
IBM BigFix

[dexdexdex]

Today’s fast release push resolves the following issues:

• Device Target Limits set by the Permissions app are now respected by the Patch App
• Discrepancies between device groups in the WebUI and thick console for baseline applicability have been resolved (APARs IJ0812, IJ02762)
• There’s a fix for “Show-non-relevant” buttons in certain spots in device lists in the WebUI
• A fix to the TakeAction application makes SWD packages deployable in the WebUI
• The following predefined queries inside of the Query app have been fixed to return results properly:
  • Does specific file by MD5 hash exist (Windows)
  • Running processes with MD5 hash (Windows)
  • Running processes with SHA256 hash (Windows)

As always any questions about any of this feel free to reply to this thread.

Application Engineering Team
IBM BigFix

[dexdexdex]

This week, in addition to WebUI SWD, we also published the following:

• Takeaction, site version 5
• Query, site version 14
• Framework, site version 5
• Common, site version 48

Reason for Update

Takeaction was published to handle new metadata that the new version of Software Distribution requires. For more information see: Earlier this week we pushed out WebUI content to enable additional functionality in the Self Service Application: BigFix Self-Service Application and Software Distribution have been updated (December 2018)

Query was published to remove event-stream as one of it’s dependencies.

Framework was published to resolve an issue with login where successful authenticated users would be stuck in the cache loading page.

Common was published to bring WebUI’s node dependency to 6.15.1 from 6.14.0.

Actions to take:
None

Application Engineering Team
IBM BigFix

[dexdexdex]

Today’s WebUI Fast Release pushes two new features in Patch Policy version 8, based on user feedback:

• A new “Day After” option allows users to control auto-refresh updates and patching schedules relative to a monthly event, such as Patch Tuesday
• An “Only show selected” filter shows selected devices in the device targeting model

For questions and feedback, feel free to reply to this post.

Application Engineering Team
IBM BigFix

[dexdexdex]

We are pleased to announce a fast release for WebUI. This release includes the following new features and improvements:

• New Patch Policy Deployment Type - Enables admins to identify and filter Patch Policy deployments for easier auditing and troubleshooting of Patch Policies
• Configuration Updates – Extended MSSQL configuration options to remove restrictions on simultaneous use of instance naming, encryption and domain name
• WebUI Optimizations – Reduction of the overall size of the WebUI and the number of background processes running

This update is published as:

• WebUI Framework version 6
• WebUI Patch Policies version 9
• WebUI Common version 49
• WebUI Datasync version 5

For questions and feedback, feel free to reply to this post.

Application Engineering Team
IBM BigFix

[dexdexdex]

We are pleased to announce a fast release for WebUI. The release includes the following new features and improvements:

• Additional Windows OS support in Patch Policy - Enables admins to specify Windows Server 2019 when creating an OS Update Patch Policy
• Custom Content Creation Wizard in WebUI - Enables users to create custom content inside the WebUI directly
• WebUI database configuration wizard - Enables administrators to directly address the “WebUI is initializing” and “Unable to establish connection to the BigFix database” errors directly within the WebUI. Administrators will be able to test database credentials and reset them without going to the BigFix Console
• A bug in the overview dashboard that prevented certain device / deployment lists from showing up properly has been addressed.

The update is published as:

WebUI Common version 50
WebUI Framework version 7
WebUI Custom version 23
WebUI Patch Policies version 10

For questions and feedback, feel free to reply to this post.

Application Engineering Team

IBM BigFix

[Austin4778]

I really like the forward movement on the WebUI front! Patch policies is something we could greatly benefit from, but the current structure is not feasible for us at this point due to overwhelming confusion with the way applicable patches show within Patch Policies as well as the timing schedule format.

• Targeting/Patch Relevance Confusion: When you target a device or group of devices then look at the patches tab it’s not showing what is actually applicable to those targeted devices. Per conversations with IBM and WebUI Engineers it seems this is expected. What occurs is you see the relevant content for the user you are logged into and since you can only create patch policies with a MO account that is all endpoints so it’s very confusing. The same applies for the timing of an action and how this is displayed from the highlevel view of patch policies once set. For example, you may set the targeted policy for a group a servers that are all in CST, but the next run time view shows it 10+ hours ahead of schedule due to it accounting for all timezones for all endpoints the MO sees.

All in all, it makes it appear that the targeting of endpoints is not meaningful since I would only want to see what is relevant or set for items in that target and not for everything outside of the target. One thing I will note is that the policy runs as scheduled for those endpoints, but is very confusing if you are not aware of all of the above.

[Austin4778]

Here is a screenshot from what I was mentioning before hand. I have one server targeted that is in CST timezone and set to run daily at 5:00pm client time. Next deployment is reflecting today at 9pm. Again, just seems silly that I would want Patch Policies to account for other various time zones outside of the devices I am exclusively targeting

[dexdexdex]

Sorry for the late reply Austin, but yeah we’ve definitely heard feedback from the community that it’d be really nice to target a certain set of time zones when you’re attempting to deploy. This is definitely on our list!

[Austin4778]

Thanks for the update! Do you have any ETA on any of the following being released for the WebUI?

[dexdexdex]

Not yet! But stay tuned we’ll be posting here (either as a fast release or as a normal WebUI release) as soon as we have something to announce.