Part numbers

Part numbers represent software products that you purchased and license metrics that these products use. Part numbers are used to increase the accuracy of bundling assistant by narrowing down the number of possible products to which a discovered component can be assigned.

Example

Bundling assistant assigns a database component to one of the products that were discovered in your infrastructure. However, the database component can also be potentially assigned to another product.


A graphic that shows the potential assignment of a database component.

Before you confirm the assignment of the database component or change it manually, you can import the part numbers file to BigFix Inventory. Based on the file, and the component-product relations that are defined in the software catalog, the initial assignment of the database component is more accurate.


A graphic that shows the assignment of the database component that is based on the imported part numbers list.

Types of part numbers

There are three types of part numbers:
  • Catalog part numbers - Catalog part numbers are provided by BigFix Inventory together with the IBM software catalog and cover only IBM products. Each part number represents a product and a license metric that the product uses.
  • Custom part numbers - 9.2.7 Custom part numbers are user-defined part numbers that are not included in the software catalog by default. They might be assigned to non-IBM products, or IBM products with custom deals, or any additional software you wish to add to the software catalog.
  • Uploaded part numbers - Uploaded part numbers are part numbers of products that you purchased. You can download the uploaded part numbers list from the Passport Advantage website or create it manually, and upload the file on the Part Numbers Upload panel. Part numbers that represents products that you purchased and their license metrics are matched against the part numbers that are provided with the software catalog to improve the results of bundling assistance.
BigFix Inventory considers part numbers that start with the following letters:
  • D - part numbers that represent License Entitlements
  • E - part numbers that represent Support and Subscription

Limitations

Following are the limitations with which part numbers can improve bundling assistance:
  • Part numbers influence the assignment of only those components whose assignment is not confirmed.
  • Part numbers that were purchased before 2010 are not contained in the software catalog.
  • Part numbers that represent products that have limited availability are not contained in the software catalog.
  • Part numbers that represent products that are available only outside of the United States are not included in the catalog.
    Note: 9.2.7 You can add a custom part number to the software catalog for any existing product-license metric pair. This solution allows you to customize the software catalog, and ensure that non-IBM products or IBM products that were purchased before year 2010, or are specific to your business and geographical location, are additionally considered during bundling assistance. For more information, see: Adding custom part numbers.