When you first setup your Tivoli Endpoint Manager (BigFix) deployment, you will want to enable a few analyses. These analyses will collect data that can be very helpful when managing your infrastructure as well as troubleshooting and adding customizations.
First up is to activate the BES Component Versions analysis… You can find a shortcut to this under BigFix Management->Deployment Overview
Simply Activate this analysis…
And the data will start pouring in. This information will then be read by various dashboards within the product which help you manage your deployment.
Another analysis to be activated is the BES Health Checks Analysis. This will help you analyze the health and configuration of your deployment. It provides basic information on the components that make up your infrastructure. You can find the shortcut to this under BigFix Management->Deployment Health Checks
Activate this as well…
and you’ll start to see data from this analysis as well. Just like the first analysis, this one will pull in data and feed that to dashboards within the product.
Further down on the Deployment Health Checks dashboard in the Deployment Optimization section is a Warning about activating the BES Relay Status Analysis. Click that shortcut to activate that as well…
Just as the others, the data will be pulled in for use by various dashboards.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.
Occasionally your BigFix deployment will receive a notice that it has gathered an update to your license. Then it will ask you to propagate that license to your endpoints. It notifies you with the following screen:
This private key will require your master password…
Once the tool opens, it will immediately notify you that a propagation is required. Simply hit YES to this box.
Nothing to do once the tool itself opens, so simply hit OK to close it.
All done. Return to the console, hit the refresh button in the upper right and the licensing message should be gone.
Office Web Controls is a Microsoft Office Components requirement which allows us to display charts and graphs within the console. It can be found here.
The installation of this requirement is relatively easy… here are my screen shots of the process:
Once the components are installed, you will need to restart your console. But once you do, the console fills with beautiful shapes and bars.
If you have any questions about the process or would like to share your comments, please do so below.
Launching the installation is pretty easy… unlike the initial installation, there is basically one “step”. Launch the installer:
Typical license agreement stuff.
Since this is an upgrade, we are good about warning you that no one will be able to access the GUI interface at this point.
We’ll need to confirm the user account that is being used for the services here.
I ran into one little problem where but it was due to service account permissions to the database. After adjusting them for the duration of this install, the installation continued.
The installation went well with just the one permissions based hiccup. To confirm installation was successful simply log into the GUI and look at the bottom right for version and catalogue numbers.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.
I’ve chosen to setup SUA on a physical computer with modest capabilities due to the tiny deployment I’m using. See the Install guide for details on system requirements. My server has an Intel E7200 Core 2 Duo processor with 4Gb of RAM. It is running Microsoft Windows 2008r2 with SP1. This should work perfectly for my deployment of <50 endpoints.
I will also be using a centralized SQL server that all of my applications are using including the TEM server itself. It is a Virtual running under Hyper-V but should service my needs. It too is a Microsoft Windows 2008r2 with SP1 installed and has MS SQL 2008r2 SP1 as well.
Everything is attached to my Microsoft Active Directory domain to make authentication easy. The SUA services will be running under a special svBigFix account I have setup with appropriate permissions within my domain.
Very simply the installation procedure is as follows:
Subscribe/Activate to DSS SAM Content Site
Install SUA
Configure the services that run SUA and connect to the databases
Create the SUA BFEnterprise Database Connections
Let’s begin!
1. Subscribe/Activate to DSS SAM Content Site
Look under the BigFix Management->License Overview for the “DSS SAM” available site.
Activate and subscribe the appropriate computers. For my tiny deployment, I’m going to subscribe all computers.
Next, we’ll need to activate the three required analyses.
Activate our Installation task for the SUA Scanner that runs on our endpoints.
Then schedule that scanner to run…
And schedule the uploads to occur immediately upon scan completion.
2. Install SUA
Now we’ll install the initial components of SUA… this is pretty straight forward. Just remember if you are configuring the service as I am with a domain service account.. log into the desktop of this server using that account.
3. Configure the services that run SUA and connect to the Databases
The configuration wizard will automatically open upon completion of step 2.
Specify the domain level service account that SUA will be configured to “Run As”.
Indicate if you have WebReports installed so SUA can have access to it.
Specify the details surrounding connection to that WebReports server.
Now specify the details of where you want your SUA database.
If this is not a dedicated server, you may want to change the default port. And even install an SSL certificate if you have one.
The installer will automatically launch the catalogue updater which populates the database with the latest catalogue entries which is published monthly by IBM TEM Headquarters.
The various services are configured and started.
4. Create the SUA BFEnterprise Database Connections
The last stage of installation is to pull up the user GUI and make the connection to BFEnterprise and run a full ETL.
If you have any questions regarding the installation of SUA, leave them below and I’ll respond.
I’ve put together a video guide of this process over on YouTube…
My office has a very simple and square design. When working out details on how to light it I always came back to one problem… where to mount the lights?
In the end I decided another construction project was needed. This time it was to design the perfect lighting rig, connected to my Broadcasting Screens 4-point mounting system so I didn’t have to put any more holes in my office walls.
The rig had to hold the 8 lights I needed for the 2 broadcasting stations as well as the wiring and dimmers. At the same time I wanted to upgrade the lighting to LED’s.
Heat emission had a lot to do with the decision to go to all LED. Previously I was using CFL’s in all my lighting fixtures but even that was causing too much heat to accumulate in a closed room, fans on low and the afternoon sun freshly set after heating two walls of this office ALL DAY!!!
Construction for this rig was simple after the design work was done. I’m using the same type of 2” boards I used previously for the broadcasting screens and at $1 each it fit the budget (had to leave lots of money for the dimmable LED bulbs).
Cut 4 of them down to size and the painting began. Two coats and 3 days later I was able to assemble the entire rig and mount using steal cables…
The mounting system was easy… I used eye bolts and wing nuts to assemble the rig. Using the bungee cords from my broadcasting screens I was able to hang the rig while I bolted the cables to the appropriate length.
This rig will let me leave all of the lights in place between shows. It is mounted high in the room and with the room being so tall, no one runs into the rig or lights.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below…
During the setup of my broadcasting studio, I found the need to hide the backgrounds behind the two people on the show. I wanted to provide a way to have multiple screens of different colors, including chroma-key Green. Then mount those screens so they are kept stretched and smooth for the broadcast. What I came up with was a four point mounting and an innovative Indie screen system.
Using cheap hardware from Lowe’s, building these screens was a breeze!
Required Parts (for 4-point mounting):
(4) Eye hooks (1) Drill with properly sized bit (1) Stud finder
First locate where you plan to mount your screens, and use the stud finder to help you find the perfect spot. Drill your holes and screw in the Eye hooks.
Required Parts (for one screen):
(4) bungee cords of appropriate length which depends on where your wall mounting points are. (4) Eye hooks (1) Bed Sheet, Twin bed size was perfect for my needs (2) 2”x1”x96” boards (6) Carpet tack strips (for mounting the bed sheet)
Spread the sheet out and position the 2” boards on either side. Roll the sheet around the 2” boards for one or two turns and use the carpet tacks to hold everything in place. Lastly, drill pilot holes into both ends of both 2” boards and screw in the eye hooks.
Roll the rest of the sheet around one of the 2” boards and wrap with Velcro straps for storage.
Mounting this is very easy and done within minutes by one person.
Clip one of the 2” boards across the top to the bungees attached to the upper two mounting points.
Then unwrap the Velcro and unfurl the screen slowly… don’t let it drop since you may damage the carpet tacks.
Lastly attach the lower bungees so the screen is nice and stretched.
Once your all stretched it should look like the image at the top of this article.
I built multiple screens of various colors. They store very easily in my closet and I pull out the appropriate one depending on topics of our show.
TIP: Spray Downy wrinkle eliminator onto the screens when they are stretched before your show. It puts a pleasant smell in the air and smooth’s your screen out very nicely.
If you have any questions or suggestions on other broadcasting equipment, please comment below.
