Using BigFix Inventory to calculate license for BigFix products

BigFix Inventory can calculate licenses for products from BigFix portfolio, BigFix endpoints are correctly classified to appropriate products and metrics. To automate that process, a few fixlets are introduced into BES Support site. This document provides you information on how to use these fixlets. The document also describes some additional steps to be followed in BigFix Inventory. For more information, see also Activating the license counting process (hcltechsw.com).

Prerequisite: Before performing any step, check the prerequisites at Prerequisites (hcltechsw.com).

Most of the process is executed by generating components in BigFix Inventory. Components are generated using tags that are put on the endpoints by using Generate BigFix license tags fixlet. After the components are generated, a user must manually assign a product with correct metric to it.

Tags are generated by Generate BigFix license tags fixlet according to the following table:
OS type OS name example Default metric
Supported UNIX Solaris, HP-UP, AIX RVU
Supported LINUX SLES, RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Cent OS RVU
Supported Microsoft Windows Server Windows 2008, Windows 2012 RVU
Supported Microsoft Windows non-Server Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 ClientDevice

For example, on Windows 10 the default metric for all BigFix products is ClientDevice.

Based on the license agreement between the customer and HCL, the actual licensing may differ from the default table. For example, a customer can use the ClientDevice licensing for servers instead of the default RVU if they have such agreement.

In that situation, it is possible to override the default metrics by using the Categorize RVU/MVS/ClientDevice clients fixlet.

The following topics explain the process of license counting. Step 1 is optional and it explains how to override default metrics. Start from step 1, if you want to override default metrics. Else, begin with step 2.