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Configuring
After you install BigFix Inventory, configure the application. Create accounts for the users who need access to the application and set up scans to collect software and hardware inventory data from your environment.
Setting up scans to discover software and hardware inventory
The scanner is an independent, well-defined component that is used by BigFix Inventory. It is installed and managed through the BigFix client, and it enables the software and capacity scans. Software and capacity scans collect data that is later on displayed on the BigFix Inventory reports. For environments with up to a few thousand computers, you can enable the default scan configuration. In this case, the analyses are activated and software and capacity scans as well as uploads of their results are scheduled automatically on the computers that are subscribed to the BigFix Inventory site. For larger environments, it is advisable to divide the computers into groups and manually configure a separate scan schedule for each group to avoid performance issues.
Discovering software and hardware on IBM i
Available from 9.2.5. You can discover software and hardware inventory on IBM i systems by using disconnected scans that do not require direct connection between the scanned computers and the BigFix server. Scripts that are provided in the disconnected scanner package initiate software and capacity scans, and prepare scan results that you later on upload to BigFix Inventory.
(Optional) Manually installing the scanner and running the scans
Available from 9.2.5. scripts that automate the scans are not appropriate for your environment, and you need to customize the execution of scans without changing the required scan frequency, refer to this appendix. The appendix describes how to run each scan, how to collect the results, and finally how to create the final package that can be uploaded to BigFix Inventory manually. The automated scripts, however, remain a recommended way of discovering on IBM i systems.
(Optional) Manually installing the scanner
Available from 9.2.5. If the automated scripts are not appropriate for your environment, you can manually install the scanner. You will also need to run the initial capacity scan, create the computer.yml file, and schedule regular capacity scans. These tasks are optional and can be completed with the automated scripts.
Scheduling regular capacity scans
Available from 9.2.5. The capacity scan must be initiated every 30 minutes to gather current results for virtualized environments, in which capacity can dynamically change depending on allocated resources. After you run the script, the scan will be run with such a frequency automatically. The results do not have to be imported to BigFix Inventory with such a high frequency. You can import only those that are already available, and include the rest in the next imported package.

Configuring
After you install BigFix Inventory, configure the application. Create accounts for the users who need access to the application and set up scans to collect software and hardware inventory data from your environment.
- Creating users and groups
  Each user who has access to BigFix Inventory must be assigned a role and a computer group. The role defines which reports and panels the user can view. The computer group narrows down the scope of these reports and panels to computers that meet certain criteria.
- Setting up scans to discover software and hardware inventory
  The scanner is an independent, well-defined component that is used by BigFix Inventory. It is installed and managed through the BigFix client, and it enables the software and capacity scans. Software and capacity scans collect data that is later on displayed on the BigFix Inventory reports. For environments with up to a few thousand computers, you can enable the default scan configuration. In this case, the analyses are activated and software and capacity scans as well as uploads of their results are scheduled automatically on the computers that are subscribed to the BigFix Inventory site. For larger environments, it is advisable to divide the computers into groups and manually configure a separate scan schedule for each group to avoid performance issues.
  - Frequency of scans and uploads of data
    By default, software and capacity scans are scheduled with a frequency that meets auditing requirements. If you want to change the default frequency, ensure that the new setup fulfills the minimal requirements and all considerations.
  - Default scan configuration
    Default scan configuration is advised for environments with up to a few thousand computers. It ensures that the required analyses are activated and software and capacity scans as well as uploads of their results are scheduled automatically. These actions are necessary to collect data from the computers in your infrastructure and to display it on the BigFix Inventory reports. You can enable the default scan configuration during the configuration of BigFix Inventory connections to the databases or when adding another data source.
  - Manual scan configuration
    Manual scan configuration is advised for environments with more than a few thousand computers. It requires that analyses are activated and software and capacity scans as well as uploads of their results are scheduled manually after the installation. These actions are necessary to collect data from the computers in your infrastructure and display in on the BigFix Inventory reports. Flexibility of the manual scan configuration allows for avoiding performance issues that might occur when you scan too many computers at the same time.
  - Advanced scan configuration
    After you successfully schedule software and capacity scans and the scan data is displayed on the BigFix Inventory reports, you can further customize the scans. For example, you can exclude directories from software scans or scan remote shared file systems.
  - Discovering software and hardware on IBM i
    Available from 9.2.5. You can discover software and hardware inventory on IBM i systems by using disconnected scans that do not require direct connection between the scanned computers and the BigFix server. Scripts that are provided in the disconnected scanner package initiate software and capacity scans, and prepare scan results that you later on upload to BigFix Inventory.
    - Disconnected scanner requirements
      Available from 9.2.5. The list of disk space requirements, the supported IBM i version compatible with the disconnected scanner and other relevant requirements.
    - Adding a new data source for disconnected scans
      Available from 9.2.5. All scan results are imported to BigFix Inventory from a directory dedicated to disconnected scans. You must add this directory as a data source to allow BigFix Inventory to check its content and import all packages that are stored within. The packages are imported during each data import.
    - Preparing installation files for disconnected scans
      Available from 9.2.5. After you add the data source, prepare the installation package and distribute it to IBM i endpoints. The package should contain the disconnected scanner and configuration files used to initiate the scans. These files are downloaded from the BigFix console. The package should also contain the software catalog that is downloaded from BigFix Inventory.
    - Installing the scanner and gathering initial data
      Available from 9.2.5. After you copied the installation files and the software catalog to your IBM i systems, start the installation and the initial scans.
    - Running software scans and gathering scan results
      Available from 9.2.5. The script that is responsible for the software scan collects the results of the catalog-based, package data, and software ID tags scan as well as retrieves results of the capacity scan and the computer.yml file. All these results are combined and compressed into a common ZIP package that can be imported to BigFix Inventory.
    - Importing scan results to BigFix Inventory
      Available from 9.2.5. To import new scan results to BigFix Inventory, copy the package to the disconnected scans directory that you added as a data source.
    - Disconnected scanner maintenance and troubleshooting
      Available from 9.2.5. You can use the maintenance and troubleshooting tasks related to the disconnected scanner to monitor the scan progress, optimize the processor usage during the scan, understand and fix the most common issues, or learn more about the log files.
    - (Optional) Manually installing the scanner and running the scans
      Available from 9.2.5. scripts that automate the scans are not appropriate for your environment, and you need to customize the execution of scans without changing the required scan frequency, refer to this appendix. The appendix describes how to run each scan, how to collect the results, and finally how to create the final package that can be uploaded to BigFix Inventory manually. The automated scripts, however, remain a recommended way of discovering on IBM i systems.
      - (Optional) Manually installing the scanner
        Available from 9.2.5. If the automated scripts are not appropriate for your environment, you can manually install the scanner. You will also need to run the initial capacity scan, create the computer.yml file, and schedule regular capacity scans. These tasks are optional and can be completed with the automated scripts.
        Installing the scanner
        Available from 9.2.5. Install the scanner on each of your IBM i systems to be able to initiate the software and capacity scans.
        Running the initial capacity scan
        Available from 9.2.5. The initial capacity scan is needed only to gather detailed information about the scanned IBM i system. You will use this information to create the computer.yml file that describes your IBM i system, and is required for each import of new scan results. All subsequent capacity scans will be initiated from a script that schedules them to run automatically every 30 minutes.
        Creating the computer.yml file
        Available from 9.2.5. The computer.yml file contains information about the scanned IBM i system, and is used to catalog scan results and correctly display them in the user interface. Each package with scan results must contain this file, but you can reuse the file as long as it is unique for each IBM i system.
        Scheduling regular capacity scans
        Available from 9.2.5. The capacity scan must be initiated every 30 minutes to gather current results for virtualized environments, in which capacity can dynamically change depending on allocated resources. After you run the script, the scan will be run with such a frequency automatically. The results do not have to be imported to BigFix Inventory with such a high frequency. You can import only those that are already available, and include the rest in the next imported package.
      - (Optional) Manually running the scans and preparing the results
        Available from 9.2.5. After you install the scanner, you use the QSH to initiate the software and capacity scans. Each type of scan creates a different output that must be copied to the final package that is imported to BigFix Inventory.
      - Creating the final package
        Available from 9.2.5. Gather all scan results and compress them into a ZIP package that can be imported to BigFix Inventory.
- Performing optional configuration
  You can perform optional configuration tasks to further customize the application.
- Classifying the BigFix client used by multiple BigFix products
  BigFix client is a component that is common for all products from the BigFix family. If you have a number of BigFix products installed, the client must be classified as used by these products. Because the client is usually installed on all computers in the enterprise, its manual classification can be time-consuming. To reduce the amount of time and resources that are needed to perform this task, you can generate license tags. The tags mark the client as used by the BigFix products that are installed in your infrastructure. The information is later on reflected in BigFix Inventory without the need of manual classification.

Scheduling regular capacity scans

Available from 9.2.5. The capacity scan must be initiated every 30 minutes to gather current results for virtualized environments, in which capacity can dynamically change depending on allocated resources. After you run the script, the scan will be run with such a frequency automatically. The results do not have to be imported to BigFix Inventory with such a high frequency. You can import only those that are already available, and include the rest in the next imported package.

Note: This task is optional, because it can be completed by an automated script. Use it only for advanced scenarios.

Procedure

Go to /cit, and run the schedule_scans.sh script.

After you run the script, the capacity scan will be initiated every 30 minutes, each time creating two output directories:

hw_scan_all: All capacity scan files and their signatures. They are required for audit purposes to prove that the capacity scan was initiated every 30 minutes.
hw_scan_unique: Unique capacity scan files that contain only changes to the capacity.

Additionally, 48 instances of the BFI-HW job that run the run_hw.sh script are created. Since the capacity scan must be run every 30 minutes, two jobs are created for each hour.

All capacity results will be automatically copied from their directories and included in the common package with all scan results after you run the software scan.