[BESAdmin-Announcements] IBM BigFix Inventory and IBM License Metric Tool application update 9.2.11 is now available.

[Announcements for BES Administrators]

This update contains features that extend software discovery and enhance 
license reporting. The key features include:
·       Improved license planning and prevention of security risk by 
setting up and monitoring end of support dates for selected software 
products
BigFix Inventory provides the end of support dates for selected IBM 
software products and components for which the information has been 
announced. Additionally, both License Metric Tool and BigFix Inventory 
provide the possibility of manually adding end of support dates for 
products and components that are not available out of the box.
Benefits: You can use information about end of support to easily define 
license demand for the future. You can also use it for security purposes. 
For example, to determine whether software installed on a computer that is 
under investigation is still supported or could be exposed to security 
vulnerabilities.

·       Extended reporting capabilities for Virtual Processor Core (VPC) 
license metric
BigFix Inventory and License Metric Tool measure utilization of the 
Virtual Processor Core (VPC) metric. The metric is based on the number of 
virtual cores (vCPUs) that are available to the product. VPC consumption 
is reported on the physical server level as well as across servers 
similarly to what is available for other license metrics such as PVU. 
Benefits: You can measure virtualization capacity that is used within a 
physical server as well as across servers for VPC licenses to properly 
monitor usage of resources as well as perform adequate license management 
control.

·       Introduction of the Package Data Summary report (BigFix Inventory 
only)
The Package Data report lists software packages that are discovered on the 
computers in your infrastructure. You can find out what is the name of 
every package, its version, vendor, description, and type. Every 
occurrence of the package is listed as a separate row on the report. 
This application update introduces the Package Data Summary report. The 
report provides an aggregated view of the discovered packages with a 
number of times each package appears in the infrastructure. This number is 
a hyperlink that brings you to the detailed list of computers where the 
package is deployed.
>From the Package Data Summary report, you can generate software signatures 
with one click. You can also select multiple packages and create 
signatures in bulk. 
Benefits: The process of creating signatures from package data is 
simplified. You can easily create software signatures for up to 20 
components at once. Additionally, the report provides information about 
which packages were already used as signatures, so you can focus only on 
the remaining ones.

·       Reporting information about the detailed version of Windows 
applications (BigFix Inventory only)
Installed software components that are detected based on the presence of 
specific files are reported with a detailed version which is the same as 
the file version. The information is shown in the Component Detailed 
Version column on the Software Classification report. 
Benefits: The information can help you decide whether versions of 
installed software components are covered by your entitlements and are in 
line with the company policy. It can also be used for security purposes. 
For example, to check whether the latest security patches are installed or 
whether versions with vulnerabilities exist in the infrastructure.

·       Updates of the software catalog will be delivered in the form of 
content packs 
Until now, the software catalog was versioned, published and updated 
separately. From the following release, the software catalog will be 
delivered in the form of a content pack that is versioned along with the 
version of the application. 
Additionally, the process of updating the software catalog is simplified. 
You simply need to run the Software Catalog Update task that downloads the 
software catalog, and automatically uploads it to the BigFix Inventory 
server during the next import of data. 
Benefits: Manual upload of the software catalog through the BigFix 
Inventory user interface is no longer needed.

·       Discovery of new components from Windows, Corel, Adobe, Symantec 
and SAP  (BigFix Inventory only)
The software catalog is extended to discover new components from Windows, 
Corel, Adobe, Symantec and SAP. To discover the components, ensure that 
you upgrade BigFix Inventory to version 9.2.11.
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 Windows products
o       Windows Defender 
·       Added discovery capability for Corel products
o       CorelDraw Graphic Suite
·       Added discovery capability for Adobe products
o       Adobe Flash Player
o       Adobe Lightroom CC
o       Adobe Lightroom Classic
·       Added discovery capability for Symantec products
o       Altiris Deployment Solution Agent
o       Altiris Patch Management Agent
o       Symantec Encryption Desktop
o       Veritas Enterprise Vault
·       Added discovery capability for SAP products
o       Sybase Central

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

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_9211 
License Metric Tool: http://ibm.biz/lmt_update_9211 

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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