[BESAdmin-Announcements] LMT and BFI application update 9.2.10 is now available!

Announcements for BES Administrators besadmin-announcements at bigmail.bigfix.com
Tue Dec 19 02:31:57 PST 2017



IBM BigFix Inventory and IBM License Metric Tool application update 9.2.10
is now available.
This update contains features that extend software discovery and enhance
license reporting. The key features include:



   ·	Reporting usage of products such as Microsoft Office at suite level
      aggregated per computer (BigFix Inventory only)


      The Usage per Computer report shows product usage aggregated per
      computer so that you can easily identify where the product is
      deployed and how frequently it is used. For product suites such as
      Microsoft Office, the usage is reported for the entire suite rather
      than separately for Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other components.


      By default, the report is calculated regularly after every import,
      but you can also configure it to be calculated on demand.


      Benefits: You can easily verify whether the product is used and how
      often. Based on this information, you can decide whether you want to
      extend the license for this product or not.


   ·	Enhanced capability to generate and retrieve reports of SAP license
      metrics utilization (BigFix Inventory only)


      This application update provides an end-to-end automation process for
      scheduling generation and retrieval of SAP license utilization
      reports by leveraging the provided ABAP plugin. Once the SAP license
      utilization reports are processed by BigFix Inventory, the related
      SAP license usage data is available on the Resource Utilization
      report.


      Benefits: The process of measuring utilization of SAP license metrics
      can be handled entirely by the Administrator of BigFix Inventory.

   ·	Information about imported part numbers that influenced the initial
      classification is visible on the Software Classification panel



      Part numbers that are available on Passport Advantage represent
      products that you purchased and license metrics that these products
      use. When you upload part numbers to BigFix Inventory or License
      Metric Tool, they affect the default assignment of components.
      Information about part numbers which caused that a component was
      assigned to a product is now displayed on the Software Classification
      panel.


      Benefits: You can see which part numbers caused that a component was
      assigned to the particular product. It gives you a better
      understanding of rationale behind the default classification that was
      proposed.


   ·	New REST API for advanced integration and data sharing


      A new REST API makes it possible to retrieve utilization of supported
      license metrics, query and set license threshold values as well as
      query and set values of custom fields. The new REST API is located at
      api/sam/v2/license_usage.


      Benefits: The new REST API facilitates integration with CMDB and
      Asset Management Systems.

   ·	Extending license coverage by adding products to the software catalog
      (BigFix Inventory only)



      You can easily add a custom product and the license metric that it
      uses to the software catalog. You can then assign the relevant
      components to this product so that your software classification is
      correct.


      Benefits: You can facilitate the process of software classification
      by assign components to the product-metric pairs according to your
      license terms.


   ·	Discovery support for Docker containers under Red Hat OpenShift


      BigFix Inventory supports software discovery on Docker containers
      under the Red Hat OpenShift container application platform.


      Benefits: You can use BigFix inventory to discover software in one of
      the emerging cloud technologies.


   ·	Introduction of the Outdated VM Manager Data status to provide a
      warning that outdated capacity data might affect license usage
      reports in the future


      When hardware inventory data is not retrieved from a VM manager for
      more than 30 days, default PVU counting is applied and higher
      utilization might be reported. To allow the Infrastructure
      Administrator to troubleshoot problems with VM manager connection
      before they affect the reports, the Outdated VM Manager Data status
      is introduced. The status indicates that there are problems but
      license metric utilization is not yet affected.


      Benefits: You are notified about problems with VM manager connections
      before they affect the reports which gives you more time for
      investigation and troubleshooting.

   ·	Discovery of new components from HP, SAP, BMC and other (BigFix
      Inventory only)


      The software catalog is extended to discover several new components
      HP, SAP, BMC and other. To discover the components, ensure that you
      upload the software catalog published in December 2017, and upgrade
      BigFix Inventory to version 9.2.10.


      Below is the list of the newly added components. To learn about their
      exact versions, use the Software Catalog widget in BigFix Inventory
      to browse the catalog content.


      ·	Added discovery capability for HP products
            o	HP Application Lifecycle Management
            o	HP Business Process Monitor
            o	HP GlancePlus
            o	HP OpenView Internet Services
            o	HP OpenView Performance Agent
            o	HP-UX Image Viewer Subsystem
            o	HP-UX LAN Link Product
            o	Mercury Business Availability Center
            o	Mercury Interactive Quick Test Professional
      ·	Added discovery capability for SAP products
            o	BusinessObjects Enterprise
            o	Crystal Reports .NET Server
            o	SAP BusinessObjects WebIntelligence
            o	SAP Crystal Reports
            o	SAP SQL Anywhere Network Database Server
            o	Sybase PowerDesigner
            o	Sybase Software Developer Kit
      ·	Added discovery capability for BMC products
            o	BMC Atrium Orchestrator
            o	BMC Batch Impact Manager
            o	BMC BladeLogic RSCD Agent
            o	BMC Control-M Agent
            o	BMC Control-M CM For Advanced File Transfer
      ·	Added discovery capability for CA products
            o	CA Erwin Data Modeler
            o	CA Application Management .NET Agent
            o	CA ARCserve Backup Diagnostic Utilities
            o	CA Clarity and Portfolio Management
            o	CA ControlMinder
            o	CA eHealth
            o	CA Erwin Data Modeler License Server
            o	CA Erwin Mart Server
            o	CA Plex
            o	CA Process Automation Orchestrator
            o	CA SiteMinder
            o	CA SiteMinder Web Agent
            o	CA Spectrum
            o	CA Unicenter CA-XCOM Data Transport
            o	CA Unicenter DSM Agent + Remote Control Plugin
            o	CA Unicenter NSM
            o	CA Unicenter Software Delivery
            o	CA Universal Job Management Agent
      ·	Added discovery capability for Tibco products
            o	Tibco ActiveMatrix Adapter for Database
            o	Tibco ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks Service Engine
            o	TIBCO Designer
            o	Tibco Hawk
            o	TIBCO iProcess Workspace
            o	TIBCO Spotfire
            o	TIBCO Third-Party Core Libraries
      ·	Added discovery capability for Veritas products
            o	NetBackup Bare Metal Restore
            o	NetBackup for Microsoft Exchange Server
            o	NetBackup for Microsoft SQL Server
            o	NetBackup for SAP
            o	NetBackup for Vmware
            o	NetBackup Remote Administration Console
            o	Symantec System Recovery

      Benefits: More visibility into deployed products and components and
      better license management without the need to develop custom
      signatures.




Deprecated content


The IBM Software Classification panel was deprecated and substituted by the
Software Classification panel. Application update 9.2.10 is the last update
in which the deprecated panel is still available. It will be entirely
removed in the next update.





Action to take


To learn how to get the application update and deploy it as well as to view
the full list of new features and APARs that were fixed in this application
update, see the following links:


BigFix Inventory: http://ibm.biz/bfi_update_9210


License Metric Tool: http://ibm.biz/lmt_update_9210


During the upgrade, new versions of the software catalog and PVU table are
uploaded. The versions that are uploaded are the newest ones that were
available during the release of the application update to which you are
upgrading.





Questions


If you have any product-related questions, please post them on one of the
following fora:


http://ibm.biz/BFI_Forum


http://ibm.biz/ILMT_Forum
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