Steps in BigFix Discovery

Step details of Big Fix discovery

Step 1: Big Fix Integration Script

A script “runBigFixDiscovery.sh” has been developed that will kick start the AutoASD discovery (AASD) from TADDM discovery server. The script can be executed on demand. This script takes Discovery Scope and Discovery Profile name as inputs (besides BigFix access credentials) and supports below modes:
  • DISCOVER mode – for initiating the BigFix discovery
  • POLL mode – for polling the results of the BigFix discovery
  • CLEANUP mode – for on-demand purging the discovery result packages from BES Root Server
  • REDISCOVER mode – to rerun the previous discovery again
a) Create AutoASD Sensor Package
  • Specified Discovery Profile is used to fetch list of sensors and only valid scripted sensors subset is considered for AASD scripts package creation. This feature supports only a subset of the script sensors, which are supported in standard ASD mode.
  • Other non-scripted sensors in the discovery profile are ignored
  • AASD package is OS agnostic - as a result, some of the sensors may fail on BigFix endpoints, if not present
  • Generated AASD script package is uploaded to BigFix root server using /api/upload REST API
b) Create a BigFix Task
  • Specified Discovery Scope is used to create the “Relevance” XML, which BigFix understands
  • BigFix Task XML is generated with “Relevance” and dummy “ActionScript”
  • Generate Task title based on current date time
  • Use /api/tasks/custom/TADDM REST API to create a BigFix task under custom site namely “TADDM” at BigFix server
c) Start the BigFix Task
  • Use <SourcedFixletAction> to start the action execution for above created BigFix task
  • /api/actions BigFix REST API is used to start the “ActionScript” execution on target endpoint

Step 2: Run Script

  • As part of “ActionScript” execution, TADDM AASD package will be uncompressed, and contained sensor scripts (based on discovery profile) will be executed at the BigFix endpoints

Step 3: Collect Zip

  • At end of “ActionScript” execution, result package generated at BES client from execution of TADDM AASD package will be copied over to BES Root Server

Step 4: Import Results back to TADDM

  • TADDM will continuously poll BigFix Server DB to check for the results file uploaded to BES server
  • If the DB shows that new result files are present, TADDM will make HTTP request to fetch the encrypted result files, decrypt them and save them
  • TADDM will then process these result files based on the scope and profile configured and stores the discovered objects in the database