[BESAdmin-Announcements] IBM BigFix Patch: CentOS Download Plug-in and other CentOS patching enhancements released 2017-05-31

[Announcements for BES Administrators]

BigFix is pleased to announce the release of the new download plug-in for 
CentOS called, CentOS Plug-in R2, in the Manage Download Plug-ins 
dashboard. This enhanced version of the download plug-in for CentOS Linux 
retrieves the package data directly from the vendor's website when 
downloading the patches to the BigFix server. By doing so, the accuracy 
and reliability of the package dependency resolution and repository 
support is improved.

The enhancements to the download plug-in make it highly extensible and 
robust, enabling such possibilities:
* Customize available repositories through a user extensible repository 
list.
* Installation and dependency resolution can easily be extended to all 
repositories, not just those that are shipped out of the box.
* Improved performance related to downloading large numbers of packages, 
which consequently shortens the turnaround time for patching.

The following new Fixlet sites, which work with the new Download plug-in, 
are made available:
* Patches for CentOS6 Plugin R2 site
* Patches for CentOS7 Plugin R2 site

These sites do not contain the CentOS content that have been superseded 
for over a year because they have been archived.

Note: The original CentOS download plug-in is still available and still 
works for the patch Fixlets in the 'Patches for CentOS 6 Native Tools' and 
'Patches for CentOS 7' sites. However, note that the said download plug-in 
and sites will be deprecated in September 2017.

Along with this release, BigFix Patch provides several other enhancements 
and features:
* A solution that can combine the installation of updates for multiple 
packages into a single task, effectively reducing the execution time of 
the baseline and improving patch performance.
* Enhanced download cacher that uses the CentOS mirror repositories to 
download patches.
* Improved logging messages for better troubleshooting.
* Patching using the CentOS Plug-in R2 and the Multiple-Package Baseline 
Installation feature can lead to improved reliability and faster 
deployment (about eight times faster than the previous solution). This 
data was determined in a controlled environment and may vary across 
environments.

Highlights:
CentOS Plug-in R2 v1.0.0.0
CentOS  Download Cacher R2 v1.0.0.0
Patches for CentOS6 Plugin R2 site, version 6
Patches for CentOS7 Plugin R2 site, version 5
Enable the Multiple-Package Baseline Installation feature - CentOS 6 (ID 
#201)
Enable the Multiple-Package Baseline Installation feature - CentOS 7 (ID 
#201)
Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - CentOS 6 - x86_64 (ID #102)
Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - CentOS 6 - x86 (ID #101)
Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - CentOS 7 - x86_64 (ID #101)
Delete CentOS 6 Package List File for Multiple-Package Baseline 
Installation (ID #200)
Delete CentOS 7 Package List File for Multiple-Package Baseline 
Installation (ID #200)
TROUBLESHOOTING: CentOS 6 Patching Deployment Logs – Cleanup (ID #300)
TROUBLESHOOTING: CentOS 7 Patching Deployment Logs – Cleanup (ID #300)
Import RPM-GPG-KEY-centos-release - CentOS 6 (ID #301)
Import RPM-GPG-KEY-centos-release - CentOS 7 (ID #301)

Published sites:
Patching Support site, version 752
Patches for CentOS6 Plugin R2 site, version 6
Patches for CentOS7 Plugin R2 site, version 5

Actions to take:
* Review your current baselines and create new baselines using the content 
found on the new sites. Ensure that the best practices for baselines 
listed at https://ibm.biz/Bdsc8D2 are followed.
* Subscribe to the Patches for CentOS6 Plugin R2 site or Patches for 
CentOS7 Plugin R2 site from the License Overview dashboard.
 Note: If the site is not showing in the License Overview dashboard, 
update your license from the dashboard by clicking Check for license 
update, then run the BigFix Administration Tool.
* Register the CentOS Plug-in R2 from the Manage Download Plug-ins 
dashboard, available from the 'Patching Support' site.
* If you need to access the sites for the superseded content, contact your 
IBM Technical Sales Representative to obtain the mastheads for these 
sites.

Additional Resources:
For the product documentation, refer to https://ibm.biz/BdigEB.

Application Engineering team
IBM BigFix Patch

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