License Metric Tool infrastructure with BigFix

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A complete deployment of License Metric Tool consists of the License Metric Tool server and its database, the BigFix server and its database, and a BigFix console. Depending on the environment size, you can install all components on a single computer, or distribute them among multiple computers. Additionally, a BigFix client must be installed on every computer from which you want to collect software inventory data.

Primary components

The following components exist in every License Metric Tool infrastructure.

BigFix client: The BigFix client is common for all products that are based on the BigFix platform and should be installed on every computer, including backup and recovery machines, to ensure audit readiness. It provides information about computer properties, and is used to perform tasks such as installing the scanner on the computers. The BigFix client runs on all operating systems supported by License Metric Tool, except for IBM i that uses disconnected scans instead of the client.
BigFix console: The BigFix console provides a system-wide view of all computers in the infrastructure and their configuration. It is used to target computers with specific actions such as installing the scanner or scheduling software and capacity scans.
BigFix server: The BigFix server forms the heart of the BigFix infrastructure. It coordinates the flow of data to and from individual computers. The server stores the results of capacity scans for up to five days, and thus should not be stopped for a longer period. It also stores the results of the last successful software scan from each computer. If new software scans are run more than once during server maintenance, not all of them are processed after the restart.
Databases: BigFix server and License Metric Tool server require their separate database instances. Depending on the size of your environment, these can be two database instances running on a single database engine, or two separate database engines. The data is extracted from the BigFix server database and imported to the License Metric Tool database during the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) import process. For more information, see: Import or Extract, Transform, Load (ETL).
License Metric Tool server: The License Metric Tool server provides a reporting interface for the inventory data that is collected from the computers in your infrastructure. To process the data in real time and to ensure reporting accuracy, the License Metric Tool server should run all the time. Users access the application server through a web user interface. The web user interface is accessible at https://host_name:port, where host_name is the host name of the computer where the License Metric Tool server is installed, and port is the port that you specified during the installation, by default: 9081.
Scanner: Apart from the BigFix client, a scanner should also be installed on every monitored computer. The scanner is an independent component that is used by License Metric Tool to collect information about the hardware, as well as the software that is installed on the computers in your infrastructure.
VM Manager Tool: To collect data from VM managers, License Metric Tool uses the VM Manager Tool. The tool connects to VM managers and gathers data about their capacity, focusing on processors, their type, and usage. The data is then imported to License Metric Tool and utilization of license metrics is calculated. For more information, see: VM Manager Tool.
Web Reports: Web Reports is a high-level web application that allows for visualizing data collected from the BigFix infrastructure. It is required by License Metric Tool to connect with the VM Manager Tool that collects data from the VM managers in your infrastructure.

Additional components

The following components exist if you use disconnected scanners to collect data from computers on which you cannot install the BigFix client.

Disconnected data source: A directory on the License Metric Tool server where packages with disconnected scan results are uploaded.
Disconnected scanner: Disconnected scanner is an independent component that is used by License Metric Tool to collect information about the hardware, as well as the software that is installed on the computers in your infrastructure. It is installed on computers on which the BigFix client cannot be installed due to technical, legal, business, or security reasons. For more information, see: Installing and configuring disconnected scanners for Lite.