Installing the scanner

The scanner collects hardware information as well as information about files and packages that exist on the computers in your infrastructure. Install the scanner on every computer on which you want to detect software. If you enabled the default scan configuration, the scanner is installed automatically and this configuration is not required.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that the BigFix client is installed and running on the computers on which you want to detect software and that the computers are subscribed to the IBM BigFix Inventory v9 site.
  • To install the scanner on a WPAR, you must install it on the LPAR first.
  • 9.2.17 AIX Ensure that on AIX the xlC.rte library version 13.1.0.0 or higher is installed on the target computer.
  • Linux Ensure that on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 the libnsl.so.1 library is installed on the target computer. The last version of the scanner for 32-bit Linux x86 with the libstdc++.so.5 library is 2.8.0.3000.
  • UNIX Ensure that the libstdc++.so.6 library is installed on the target computer.
  • Mac OS X Software discovery on Mac OS X does not require installing the scanner nor scheduling regular uploads of scan results. To enable the discovery, it is enough to run the package data scan.

About this task

The scanner can be used by multiple IBM applications. By default, the scanner that is delivered with BigFix Inventory is installed in the single user mode. It means that if it is used by other applications, it must be run by root (UNIX) or SYSTEM (Windows). If any of the applications requires that the scanner is run by a different user, install it in the regular mode. For more information, see: Using CIT deployed by LMT/BFI 9 by other IBM products.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the BigFix console.
  2. In the navigation bar, click Sites > External Sites > IBM BigFix Inventory v9 > Fixlets and Tasks.
  3. In the upper right pane, select Install or Upgrade Scanner.
  4. 9.2.5 Select the installation directory. You can choose the default directory, or an alternative one. In the latter case, the scanner is installed in the same path as the BigFix client.
    Note: The setting applies only to new installations, you cannot change the path if you are upgrading the existing scanner.

    Scanner installation directory
  5. Click Take Action.
  6. Select the computers on which you want to install the scanner, and click OK.
    Note: To install the scanner on a WPAR, install it on the LPAR first.

    The image shows how to select computers on which to install the scanner.
    Tip: To ensure that the action is applied on all computers that are added in the future, select Dynamically target by property.

Results

You installed the scanner on the computers in your infrastructure. To view information about the installed scanner, for example its version, activate the Scanner Information analysis, and open the Results tab.

What to do next

After you install the scanner, schedule software scans.