Troubleshooting

Validation of the connector API calls

The HCL BigFix Inventory connector does several REST API calls to the BigFix Inventory/ILMT and BigFix Server (Console) when retrieving inventory data. The API calls can be manually run in a web browser to verify that a connection can be established to the BigFix servers and that inventory data is returned.

Token can be copied by starting the BigFix Inventory/ILMT web interface, and then browsing to the settings of the API user.

note

The REST APIs for retrieving Computer systems, Clusters, Software instances, and License usage have been deprecated in the ILMT version 9.2.34, and are disabled by default.

• Version info

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about the version of BigFix Inventory/ILMT.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/about?token=token

• Computers (V2)

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about computers from BigFix Inventory/ILMT. This API call uses version 2 of BigFix Inventory API and is available from BigFix version 9.2.8.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/computers?token=token

• Software Instances (V2)

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about installed software from BigFix Inventory/ILMT. This API call uses version 2 of BigFix Inventory API and is available from BigFix version 9.2.8.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/software_instances?token=token

• License usage (V2)

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about license usage from BigFix Inventory/ILMT. This API call uses version 2 of BigFix Inventory API and is available from BigFix version 9.2.10.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/license_usage

• License usage per server (V2)

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about license usage per server on a specific day from BigFix Inventory/ILMT. This API uses version 2 of BigFix Inventory API and is available from BigFix version 9.2.24.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/license_usage_per_server?date=date

• Product releases

  This API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about the releases of a software product from BigFix Inventory/ILMT.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/swinventory/product/{product_id}/releases?token=token

• Release instances

  This API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about the instances of a software product release from BigFix Inventory/ILMT.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/swinventory/release/{release_id}/instances?token=token

• Raw UNIX package data

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about all packages discovered on the computers with a UNIX operating system from BigFix Inventory. This API call is not utilized when only ILMT is being used.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/raw_unix_package_facts?token=token

• Raw file facts for Windows devices

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about all files discovered on the devices with a  Windows operating system from BigFix Inventory. This API call is not utilized when only ILMT is being used. Prerequisites are described in section Windows Raw File Information.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/raw_file_facts?token=token

• Detailed operating system info

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about the operating system on the scanned computer from BigFix Inventory. This API call is not utilized when only ILMT is being used. Prerequisites are described in section Detailed Hardware Information.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/detailed_hw_operating_systems?token=token

• Detailed SMBIOS info

  The API call uses the GET operation to retrieve information about the SMBIOS on the scanned computer from BigFix Inventory. This API call is not utilized when only ILMT is being used. Prerequisites are described in section Detailed Hardware Information.

  Format of the URL: https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/detailed_hw_smbios?token=token

• Computers

  This API call queries the BigFix Server (Console) to retrieve the list of computers administered by the API user.

  Format of the URL: https://<bigfix_server>:52311/api/computers

For more information about the API resources, refer to the following links:

• ILMT:

  Deprecated: REST API for retrieving computer systems, clusters, software instances, and license usage

• BigFix Inventory:

  REST API for retrieving computer systems, clusters, software instances, and license usage

• BigFix Server (Console):

  BigFix REST API Tutorial

Missing inventory data

In case VM Manager data cannot be retrieved by ILMT, inventory data will be missing in Snow License Manager. For example, when the correct host name cannot be retrieved, the virtual machines will be shown as TLM_VM_* in Snow License Manager. The TLM_VM_* entry is an identifier that ILMT automatically assigns an endpoint with unknown virtualization topology details.

When looking in ILMT, the VM Manager connections show the No VM Manager data status. The administrator needs to find out why this is the case, and the two main reasons that have been observed are:

• there is no connection to the host at all

• there is a connection to the host, but for some reason it fails.

In both cases, further investigations need to be made to ensure that data coming from ILMT is complete before it is passed on to Snow License Manager. The recommendation is to solve this kind of data quality issue before the integration connector is configured.

Refer to the troubleshooting steps described in the following link from HCL: Troubleshooting No VM Manager data