Manually creating bundling tags

Available from 9.2.5. You can facilitate the process of software classification by manually creating bundling tags. When a bundling tag is placed on the computer where a component is installed, the component is automatically assigned to the product that is specified in the bundling tag.

About this task

Creating bundling tags is most effective when your company uses a process of packaging software installers. In this case, you can add a bundling tag to the packaged installer, and automatically place it on the computers during the installation.

Procedure

  1. Find the SWID tag that is used to discover the component.
    1. In the top navigation bar, go to Reports > Software Installations.
    2. Find the component, and click the link in the Details column. Information about the SWID tag and its location is displayed at the bottom of the page.
  2. Go to the computer where the component in installed and open the SWID tag.
    To create a bundling tag, you need the following information from the SWID tag.
    • name
    • version
    • persistentId

    BigFix Inventory supports SWID tags in the 19770-2:2014-CD1 and 19770-2:2015 schemas. The information necessary to create the bundling tag is available in SWID tags in both schemas. The following example shows SWID tag in the 19770-2:2014-CD1 schema.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SoftwareIdentity name="IBM Control Desk" 
    uniqueId="0ecd37302a7648a5aca7a26aec76731d-7.6.0" 
    version="7.6.0" 
    versionScheme="multipartnumeric" 
    xmlns="http://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2014-CD1/schema.xsd" 
    xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2014-CD1/schema.xsd 
    swid.xsd">
    <Meta persistentId="0ecd37302a7648a5aca7a26aec76731d"/>
    <Meta taxonomyCode="SSWT9A"/>
    <Meta taggingProcess="4-1-20150603"/>
    <Entity name="IBM" regid="regid.1986-03.com.ibm" role="licensor publisher tagCreator"/>
</SoftwareIdentity>
  3. Open a text editor and create a bundling tag according to the following template. 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SoftwareIdentity name="IBM Control Desk" 
    uniqueId="0ecd37302a7648a5aca7a26aec76731d-7.6.0" 
    version="7.6.0" 
    versionScheme="multipartnumeric" 
    xmlns="http://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2014-CD1/schema.xsd" 
    xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2014-CD1/schema.xsd 
    swid.xsd">
    <Meta persistentId="0ecd37302a7648a5aca7a26aec76731d"/>
    <Meta taxonomyCode="SSWT9A"/>
    <Meta taggingProcess="4-1-20150603"/>
    <Entity name="IBM" regid="regid.1986-03.com.ibm" role="licensor publisher tagCreator"/>
</SoftwareIdentity>
    Where:
    • COMPONENT_NAME is the name of the component as specified in the SWID tag
    • PERSISTENT_ID is the persistent ID of the component as specified in the SWID tag
    • VERSION is the version of the component as specified in the SWID tag
    • PART_NUMBER is the part number that represents the product to which the component is to be assigned and its license metric
    • CUSTOMER is the name of your organization
    • CUSTOMER.COM is the registration identifier of your organization in the URI format. For more information, see: Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax.
    A bundling tag that is created based on the SWID tag presented in step 2 looks as follows. 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <SoftwareIdentity name="BigFix Control Desk"
      tagId="ibm.com-0ecd37302a7648a5aca7a26aec76731d-D0LKPLL"
      version="7.6.0"
      versionScheme="multipartnumeric"
      supplemental="true"
      xmlns="http://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2015/schema.xsd" 
      xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://standards.iso.org/iso/19770/-2/2015-current/schema.xsd 
      swid.xsd">
      <Meta productId="PN:D0LKPLL" />  
      <Link rel="parent" href="swidpath://SoftwareIdentity[Meta/@persistentId='0ecd37302a7648a5aca7a26aec76731d']" />  
      <Entity name="IBM" regid="ibm.com" role="licensor softwareCreator" /> 
      <Entity name="MyCompany" regid="mycompany.com" role="tagCreator"/>
</SoftwareIdentity>
  4. Save the bundling tag. Name it according to the following template: 
    <Tag_Creator_Regid>-<Component_Name>-<Part_Number>.swidtag
    For example, mycompany.com-IBM_Control_Desk-D0LKPLL.swidtag.
  5. Place the bundling tag in the same location as the SWID tag.
    Place the bundling tag on all computers on which the component is to be assigned to the product specified in the bundling tag.
  6. Wait for the next software scan and import of data.
  7. Confirm the assignment of the components.
    Note: You can easily assign all components that are bundled based on the bundling tag when you use the Software Classification panel.
    1. In the top navigation bar, go to Reports > Software Classification.

      To filter out the report to components that were bundled by using bundling tags, hover over Configure, and click Configure View. Then, specify the following filter: Bundling Tag Used, equal to, Yes.

    2. Press CTRL + A to select all components.
    3. To confirm the assignment, hover over Confirm, and click Confirm.