Lesson 3: Managing software and generating audit snapshots per customer

Available from 9.2.2. After you create computer groups in BigFix Inventory, you can manage software and generate audit snapshot separately for each customer.

About this task

Depending on your business model, you can perform these actions on your own or provide each customer with credentials to their dedicated user. In the latter case, customers can manage the software that they use and generate audit snapshots on their own.

Procedure

  1. Log in to BigFix Inventory.
    • If you manage customer software, log in as any user that has access to the computer group that represents Bank ABC, for example the Administrator.
    • If you give customers access to BigFix Inventory or when each customer account is managed by a separate person, log in as the user with access only to the computer group that represents Bank ABC.
      User login
  2. If you have a file with part numbers related to the software that is used by this customer, upload the file.
    1. Click Management > Part Numbers Upload.
    2. Select the computer group for which you want to upload the part numbers. In this case, select Bank ABC.
    3. Browse for the file with part numbers and provide a comment to the uploaded file. Then, click Upload.

      Part Numbers Upload window
    4. To make the part numbers available in BigFix Inventory, wait for the scheduled import or run it manually.
  3. To bundle the software, click Reports > Software Classification. The panel contains software from all computer groups to which the user that you used to log in has access. Assign each component to a product, exclude, or suppress the instances that should not be included in the metric calculation, and confirm your actions. For more information, see: Software classification.
  4. Optional: If some of the products are not used by the customer but by the service provider, filter out these products from the report to avoid charging the customer for products that he does not use.
    Restriction: All instances of the product that you filter out must be used by the service provider.
    1. Open the All IBM Metrics or IBM PVU Subcapacity report.
    2. To filter out the report, hover over the Manage Report View icon Manage Report View icon, and click Configure View. Then, add a filter to the filter that is already defined in this report.
      For example, choose Product, does not contain, and provide the name of the product. Then, click Submit.

      Configure View window
    3. Optional: You can set the filtered report as the default report view for this customer. To do this, hover over the Manage Report View icon Settings icon, and click Save As. Then, provide the name of the report, and select Set as default. Then, click Create.
  5. Generate the audit snapshot for the customer.
    • If you logged in as a user with access to multiple computer groups, open the Computer Groups report, and click the computer group that represents Bank ABC. Then, in the upper left corner, select All IBM Metrics or IBM PVU Subcapacity.
      Selecting report for a computer group.

      The report that opens contains information only about software that is installed on the computers that are used by Bank ABC. Click Audit Snapshot. Provide a comment to the generated snapshot and upload any related files. Then, click Generate.

    • If you logged in as a user with access only to the computer group that represents Bank ABC, open the All IBM Metrics or IBM PVU Subcapacity report, and click Audit Snapshot. Provide a comment to the generated snapshot and upload any related files. Then, click Generate.

Results

You generated the audit snapshot with information about license consumption in Bank ABC.