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Integrating
External systems integration is one of the key features of BigFix Inventory. Business logic is enabled for integration and interfaces are provided for common integration points.
REST API
Managing large amounts of information by using the application user interface can be time-consuming. You can use the REST APIs as an alternative to the graphical user interface to reduce the time that is needed to manage your software inventory and the content of your software catalog.
REST API for retrieving raw scan results
Available from 9.2.2. Retrieving raw scan results through REST API is intended to improve the monitoring of your environment by allowing you to quickly discover software that was installed or modified recently. By using shortened data imports, data about your software reaches the server much quicker, and at the same time allows you to increase the number of imports that you can run each day.

Integrating
External systems integration is one of the key features of BigFix Inventory. Business logic is enabled for integration and interfaces are provided for common integration points.
- REST API
  Managing large amounts of information by using the application user interface can be time-consuming. You can use the REST APIs as an alternative to the graphical user interface to reduce the time that is needed to manage your software inventory and the content of your software catalog.
  - Software Products and Software Components
    BigFix Inventory detects software components which are bundled with the product.
  - REST API resources and HTTP methods
    The operations of the BigFix Inventory REST API protocol are defined as HTTP methods on certain REST resources.
  - Common REST API elements
    You use connectors and operators to build query segments that filter on matching conditions and values.
  - Mapping REST API versions
    Available from 9.2.8. For some REST APIs, version 2 is created to provide improved functions or experience. In such cases, the original API becomes deprecated with time and only version 2 is further developed. If you have custom tools or internal processes that are based on such REST APIs, it is best to adjust the tools to use the new version of the APIs.
  - REST API for retrieving authentication token
    You use the POST operation on the api/get_token element to request your unique token that is required to authenticate the REST API requests.
  - REST API for retrieving the BigFix Inventory version
    You use the GET operation on the api/sam/about element to request information about the version of BigFix Inventory.
  - REST API for retrieving raw scan results
    Available from 9.2.2. Retrieving raw scan results through REST API is intended to improve the monitoring of your environment by allowing you to quickly discover software that was installed or modified recently. By using shortened data imports, data about your software reaches the server much quicker, and at the same time allows you to increase the number of imports that you can run each day.
    - Running data imports
      Available from 9.2.2. You can use this REST API to check the status of a data import, or to run a Raw Data Only, or a Complete data import. All these actions are completed through a common API request. You distinguish between them by appending the request with specific parameters. To work with this API, you use the GET operation on the api/import_status.json element, or its alias api/management/imports.json.
    - Retrieving raw scanned file data
      Available from 9.2.2. You use the GET operation on the /api/sam/raw_file_facts element to retrieve information about all files discovered on the computers in your infrastructure. The API returns details of existing files as well as historical data about files that were removed. By default, raw data is preserved for 7 days. To change this period, go to Management > Advanced Server Settings and change the value of the raw_data_api_history_keep_days parameter.
    - Retrieving raw package data
      Available from 9.2.2. This API retrieves raw package data, which contains information about all packages discovered on your computers. This information is retrieved from the Windows registry. Unlike in the UI, through this API you can retrieve all historical data that is stored in the database.
    - Retrieving raw UNIX package data
      Available from 9.2.2. This API retrieves raw UNIX package data, which contains information about all packages discovered on the UNIX operating systems. Unlike in the UI, through this API you can retrieve all historical data that is stored in the database.
    - Retrieving raw metering data
      Available from 9.2.2. This API retrieves raw metering data, which contains information about the use of software items that are installed on your computers. Unlike in the UI, through this API you can retrieve all historical data that is stored in the database.
  - REST API for software inventory management
    You can reduce the time needed to manage your software inventory in a large environment by using REST API instead of the application user interface. You can use REST API to get a list of software products, releases, and release instances. You can also find out how your software can be bundled.
  - REST API for software classification
    You can reduce the time that is needed to manage your software instances in a large environment by using REST API instead of the application user interface. You can use REST API to share instances, include or exclude instances from a pricing calculation, confirm and assign instances, and reassign instances.
  - REST API for managing VM managers
    You can use REST API requests to add and change VM managers in your infrastructure.
  - REST API for changing advanced server settings
    Available from 9.2.3. You can change the parameters of the BigFix Inventory server by using REST API.
  - REST API for retrieving computer systems, clusters, software instances, and license usage
    You can use this REST API to quickly retrieve large amounts of data related to your computer systems, clusters, software instances, and license usage. Once the data is retrieved, it can be passed to other applications for further processing and analysis.
  - REST API for retrieving software inventory and metric utilization and classifying software (v2)
    Available from 9.2.8. You can use REST API requests to quickly retrieve large amounts of data related to license metric utilization as well as your software inventory, including historical data about uninstalled software. You can then pass this data to other applications for further processing and analysis.
  - REST API for hardware (v2)
    Available from 9.2.8. You can use REST API requests to quickly retrieve large amounts of data related to hardware inventory, including historical data about removed computers. You can then pass this data to other applications for further processing and analysis.
  - REST API for setting and deleting the end of support date
    Available from 9.2.11. You can set and delete the end of support date for any software component by using REST API.
  - REST API for adding and removing tags
    Available from 9.2.14. You can add and remove tags for any software component by using REST API.
  - REST API for export and import of saved report views
    You can use REST API requests to export a saved report view from one instance of BigFix Inventory and import it to another instance of the application.
  - REST API for import of contracts
    You can use REST API requests to import contracts from a csv file.
  - REST API for updating the Oracle core factor
    Available from 9.2.8. You use the PUT operation on the api/v1/servers element to change the processor core factor that is applied to a group of servers for the purpose of calculating utilization of the Oracle Processor Core metric.
  - REST API associations
    Available from 9.2.8. For REST APIs in version 2, you can use associations to retrieve additional data as part of API requests. For example, you can retrieve detailed information about computer hardware as part of the software_instances API request.
- Integrating with IBM Control Desk
  IBM Control Desk is an integrated service management solution that helps you manage a comprehensive range of IT processes, services, and assets. You can use one of its components, Integration Composer, to import and then process data from external applications, like BigFix Inventory.

REST API for retrieving raw scan results

Available from 9.2.2. Retrieving raw scan results through REST API is intended to improve the monitoring of your environment by allowing you to quickly discover software that was installed or modified recently. By using shortened data imports, data about your software reaches the server much quicker, and at the same time allows you to increase the number of imports that you can run each day.

A data import consists of several steps, out of which the most important ones are the retrieval of raw scan results, aggregation of this data, and finally calculation of your license consumption. In big environments, a complete data import can take up to several hours, which increases the time that is required for BigFix Inventory to show information about recent changes.

When using REST API to retrieve raw scan results, you can run a Raw Data Only type of data import that retrieves raw scan results, but omits later steps, such as aggregation and license calculations. This data import is much shorter, but the imported raw data can only be retrieved through REST API. Since the data is not aggregated, it is not displayed in the BigFix Inventory UI. The UI still shows the state of your environment from the last successful complete data import.

Before you start retrieving raw scan results, ensure that you enable the storing of raw scan results, because not all such data is stored by default. You can then run a Raw Data Only import and retrieve the results through REST API.