Expanding the custom software catalog

To ensure that all software items that are installed in your infrastructure are discovered, create custom signatures. You can create them from scratch or directly from the Package Data and Scanned File Data reports. You can also create extended signatures to discover software that is not detected by using file or package signatures.

The custom catalog is fully independent from the catalog that is provided by IBM. If you create a custom signature to discover a product and then a signature for that product is delivered in the BigFix catalog, the two signatures are not merged. If the same product is discovered by both signatures, the number of discovered instances might be higher than the number of instances that are installed. In such case, delete the custom signature. For more information, see: Catalog problems.

Before you create custom signatures, check the signature community. It is a place where you can find custom signatures that are created by members of the community. You can download such signatures and import them to BigFix Inventory. After you create your custom signatures, consider contributing the community.