Catalog Overview

This section provides information about catalog updates available with every release.

Catalogs are signatures created manually to discover software installed on your devices. The signatures help in managing the software licenses by identifying and differentiating between the software licenses installed in your environment. Catalog discovery also ensures that the software installed in your environment is compliant, the latest, and accurate.

The different types of signatures are file signatures, registry signatures, package signatures, and template-based signatures.

To create signatures, BigFix Inventory runs the scanner to collect data from endpoints, and the collected data is matched against the catalog signatures. The identified software is then reported under the Software Classification reports.

Signatures created as part of BigFix Inventory are integrated with the existing catalog, and the latest catalog is generated.

Regular updates to the catalog are necessary to include new software products and versions. The Server Software Catalog Update (version) fixlet ensures that the BigFix Inventory system remains up-to-date and accurate in identifying and managing software assets. For more information on the fixlet, refer to Server Software Catalog Update (version).

The Catalog provided by HCL contains signatures for a range of software from various vendors, such as Microsoft, Oracle, and many more. It also includes license information for IBM products and template signatures.