Coexistence of BigFix Inventory and License Metric Tool in the same infrastructure

License Metric Tool and BigFix Inventory can coexist within the same infrastructure. They can be connected to the same BigFix server but monitor different sets of computers. You can then use BigFix Inventory to discover non-IBM software and measure its license metric utilization on selected computers, and use License Metric Tool to monitor computers on which only IBM software is installed. Thanks to connecting both applications to a common BigFix server, you can manage them by using one console. It makes monitoring the environment much easier.

Although License Metric Tool and BigFix Inventory are connected to a common BigFix server, they work as separate applications and must be installed on separate computers. Each application manages a separate set of computers that can report to only one application at a given moment. The applications also use different fixlet sites and dedicated sets of fixlets for installation and configuration. Apart from the common BigFix server, all other aspects, such as software and capacity scans or the software catalog, are specific to each application.

11.0.0Adjusting reports to not include License Metric Tool only computers

To have licensing reports limited to computers subscribed to BigFix Inventory Site use Computer Group mechanism to narrow the computer set. Use the Computer Health: Is Subscribed flag to define the group. See Lesson 2: Creating computer groups that define the scope of reports.

Limitations

  • 11.0.0 BigFix Inventory will show also computers subscribed only to License Metric Tool site. Those computers will have Computer Health: Is Subscribed flag set to No.
  • 11.0.0 BigFix Inventory Will shown License Metric Tool based discovery as well. There is no guarantee that detection based on LMT Software Catalog will be completely reporting. IBM Software discovered though ISO tags will be reported also in BigFix Inventory.
  • Separate installation

    BigFix Inventory and License Metric Tool must be installed on separate computers.

  • VM managers

    You can add VM managers through the user interface only for the application that has the BigFix server subscribed to its fixlet site. It happens because VM managers added through the user interface must be managed by the VM Manager tool that is installed on the BigFix server. For the other application, use advanced VM management. For more information, see: Advanced VM management (distributed).

    If you collect VM manager data directly from virtualization hosts by using the Run Capacity Scan on Virtualization Hosts fixlet, the coexistence is possible only if all endpoints from this host report to the same application. For more information about the fixlet, see: Collecting capacity data from virtualization hosts for Xen and KVM.

  • Many re-subscriptions

    You might encounter problems with the missing software catalog or scan results if you often re-subscribe endpoints between the two applications. These problems occur only if you re-subscribe endpoints more than once. For example, if you re-subscribe an endpoint from BigFix Inventory to License Metric Tool, and then subscribe it back to BigFix Inventory