[BESAdmin-Announcements] BigFix Lifecycle Server Automation V9.5 Application Update 4.5 is now available

[Announcements for BES Administrators]

Site version: 62 - March 2016

The Server Automation team is pleased to announce that SA Application 
Update 4.5 is now available.

As well as supporting the latest Bigfix platform release 9.5 this release 
also includes;

Major new features and enhancements

The following 3 features will help customers optimize their patching 
maintenance windows: 
 
Accelerate Automation Plan Execution by excluding ?non-reporting 
endpoints?
·       You can configure the system to exclude non-reporting endpoints 
from the plan targets list, allowing your plans to run more efficiently. 
Computers are considered non-reporting if they have not reported to the 
BigFix server as seen in the Computers view in the All Content domain. To 
configure Server Automation to exclude non-reporting endpoints, you 
specify a non-reporting threshold at a global level when you configure the 
Automation Plan Engine. For each automation plan, you can configure 
whether endpoints that have exceeded the non-reporting threshold are 
excluded from the target list for each plan step.

Ensure that your applications are back up and running during critical 
business hours by specifying and Automation Plan ?stop time?
·       You can set a plan stop time to control when your Automation Plans 
stop. This enables you to set a specific time window during which your 
Automation Plans run. For information about the expected behavior, Please 
refer to the documentation link below.

Schedule pre-fetch downloads during Off-Peak hours to minimize network 
bandwidth impacts and accelerate execution time during maintenance windows
·       From the Take Automation Plan Action screen, you can schedule a 
time and date on which to pre-fetch downloads. 

More granular control over baseline step execution
·       You can now control whether or not the remaining components of a 
baseline are executed when one component in that baseline fails. Two new 
global settings, one controlling the behavior for standard steps and one 
controlling the behavior for failure steps, can be configured to allow the 
remaining members of a baseline to be executed or not, when a member of 
that baseline fails.

Ease of Use Enhancements: 

Automation Plan Engine configuration
·       You can now easily configure the Automation Plan Engine using a 
Task. This has expanded the configuration functionality available and 
simplifies the configuration of the Automation Plan engine. 

User interface improvements
·       The Take Automation Plan Action user interface has been 
streamlined and improved.

Sample plans
·       A number of new sample plans have been added to help you get up 
and running quickly with new content

Other Enhancements: 

Save Admin time and effort by automating the patching of your VMware 
templates
·       Now you can automatically patch VMware templates on Windows and 
Linux. To patch the templates you use a sample automation plan. Please 
Read the documentation carefully before using the plan as the targeting 
requirements for this sample plan are different than other sample plans.

Memory optimization and improvements
·       Memory usage by the Automation Plan Engine has been further 
optimized when processing Automation Plans that use the "Dynamically Run 
Baselines from a Site" fixlet.

Quality Improvements and enhancements
·       A number of defects have been fixed and quality enhancements have 
been included in this release.


For more information please consult our updated documentation here
 

Regards,
Martin
--------------
Martin Feeney, Software Development Manager, IBM Bigfix Lifecycle Server 
Automation, IBM Ireland, Tel : +353 (0)91 570632, Email : 
martin.feeney at ie.ibm.com
Start here for any information you need on Server Automation and let me 
know if theres something missing
IBM Ireland Product Distribution Limited registered in Ireland with number 
92815. Registered office: IBM House, Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 
4.
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