Limitations

Installation and configuration

• Support for Distributed Server Architecture (DSA) is limited to one backup server

  Distributed Server Architecture (DSA) allows for setting up multiple BigFix® servers that can replicate data between each other. If the main server is disabled, a backup server takes over its role ensuring continuous work. License Metric Tool supports a setup in which one of the BigFix servers that is defined as a datasource is designated as a backup server. If this server is running, License Metric Tool works. However, if this server fails, imports of data also stop working until the server is up and running. License Metric Tool server does not automatically switch to use the secondary BigFix server.

• License Metric Tool does not support physical machines that are identified by duplicated serial numbers

  A physical machine is a hardware-based device with a single or multiple mainboards managed by a single operating or management system as a whole. The serial number that needs to be unique is defined as the entire system serial number not a chassis or board serial number. For example, on Linux, the serial number is the value that can be found under System Information > Serial Number in dmidecode.

• License Metric Tool does not support BigFix server-based computer groups

  BigFix server-based computer groups cannot be used for filtering data on the License Metric Tool user interface nor as a basis for definition of computer groups in License Metric Tool.

• MS SQL Server used as the BigFix database cannot be case sensitive

  Only case insensitive MS SQL Server database is supported.

• Changing the host name of the BigFix server is not supported

  The host name of the BigFix server cannot be changed because it is recorded in the license certificate during the installation. To change the host name of BigFix, reinstall the application.

• Creating clones of virtual machines that are running is not supported

  Cloning virtual machines that are running might produce unexpected results in License Metric Tool.

• Language of the installer depends on the system locale

  To run the License Metric Tool installer in a language other than English, system locale must be set to that language.

• Permissions that are defined for the Administrator role cannot be changed

  The Administrator role is assigned all available permissions. It prevents from creating separate Administrator roles, for example one responsible for data, the other for users.

• The disconnected scanner cannot be installed in a path that contains spaces on Linux and UNIX

Using License Metric Tool

• The scanner does not scan paths that contain certain whitespace characters and other special characters
  The scanner does not scan file paths that contain the following whitespace characters of the ASCII character set:

  • Carriage return (CR, character code 13)
  • Line feed (LF, character code 10)
  • Whitespace characters whose decimal codes are in the following ranges: 0-8, 10-31

  The Tab (character code 9) is supported.

  The scanner also does not scan shared disks whose mount point paths contain an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?). To avoid a situation in which software is not discovered, ensure that file paths in your infrastructure do not contain the unsupported characters.

• Calculating utilization of the Managed PVU metric requires an additional configuration of License Metric Tool

  Managed PVU metric is based on the number of processor cores available on computers that are managed by an application, for example by IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments. Calculating utilization of the Managed PVU metric is not available out of the box. To calculate its utilization, place an appropriate isotag file on the computers that are managed by the particular application. For an example of such a setup, see this technote.

• slmtag files with overlapping entries are not supported

  Start time of one entry in an slmtag file cannot overlap with the previously reported period. It should start at the end time of the previous entry or later.

• Adding excluded directories fails on Solaris when the number of characters in the task exceeds 1000

  When you use the Add Excluded Directories task and the specified list of directories is longer than 1000 characters, the task fails on Solaris.

• Specific start time cannot be set for actions by using REST API

  BigFix REST API requires that the start time for an action is specified as an offset from the time on the BigFix server. The solution is prone to network latency problems. It might cause that the action starts at time different from the intended one.

License metric calculation

Reports

• Reports show the current PVU per core value instead of the value that occurred during the license peak time

  PVU Subcapacity and All Metrics reports as well as the audit snapshot show the current PVU per core value instead of the value that occurred during the license peak time. It does not affect the calculation of PVU subcapacity and full capacity. To display the value that occurred during the license peak on the reports, change the start date of the report to a more recent date. Try changing the date until you find the date when the PVU per core value changed. It allows you to have consistent information displayed on the reports.

• Data on the Software Installations report is inconsistent with data on other reports

  Information on the Software Installations report regarding software installed on shared disks or components installed multiple times on the same computer is inconsistent with information on other reports. The inconsistency occurs also when a column on a report links to a filtered view of the Software Installations report such as in case of the Installed Software column on the Computers report. It happens because the Software Installations report is based on the old data model that does not take shared disks and multiple component instances into account.

  Starting from application update 9.2.15, the old Software Installations report is deprecated and substituted with a new report view. It is based on a new data model and consistent with other reports. The limitation no longer applies.

• Scheduling multiple report e-mails requires ensuring an appropriate interval between each report e-mail

  When you schedule multiple reports to be sent to your email, you must ensure that they are not being sent at the same time. The reason is that each report is managed in a different session that starts when the report is being sent, and ends when the action is completed. Each closed session, however, terminates also other sessions, in this case the delivery of other reports. Therefore, the schedule must be different for each report. The sufficient interval is about 5-10 minutes. You can specify it while setting the start time.

• Audit Trail limitations

  Audit Trail report cannot be filtered by the Details column.

• Filtering computers based on their IP addresses does not work under certain conditions

  When you filter your computers based on their IP addresses and specify the relation as ends with, no computers are displayed even if some computers match the criteria. To work around this issue, you can choose other relations, such as contains or begins with. This limitation concerns all reports.

• Filtering causes that the content of the window is scrolled up

  When you filter a report by using the in set filter, the content of the entire window is scrolled up to the top. You have to scroll down to add another filter.

• Incorrect number of rows can be displayed on reports that are saved as PDF files

  The number of rows that is displayed in the upper right corner of a PDF file can differ from the number of rows that is displayed on the user interface. This problem was only encountered with Mounted Shared Disks column in the Computers report because it contains multi-line entries.

• Time values are provided in different time zones on the user interface and in PDF or CSV reports

  On some reports, time values are expressed in the local time zone when the report is viewed on the user interface but in the UTC time when the report is exported to a PDF or CSV file. What is more, the format of the date and time is hardcoded in PDF reports.

• Sorting of the Subcapacity Metrics, All Metrics, or the Cloud Paks and FlexPoints reports on the Metric column and sorting of the Software Classification report on the Product Metric column is based on the metric ID and not on the metric name.

  For mapping between the metric and its ID, see: Metric IDs and code names.

Security

• SP800-131a compliance cannot be enabled with MS SQL Server

  If the SP800-131a cryptographic standard is enabled in strict mode in License Metric Tool and the enhanced security mode is configured on the BigFix and MS SQL Server servers, connection between the License Metric Tool server and the MS Server cannot be established.

• The pvk format of the encrypted private key is not supported

  You can use a private key in the PKCS#1 or PKCS#8 format (both are supported by OpenSSL).

• Key pair generated for License Metric Tool can be used for Web Reports only if the private key is not password-protected

Other

• The To Do List always displays names of outdated scanning actions in English

• Catalog search does not work during the import of data

• Fixlet for distributing scanner catalogs to the endpoints is not translated

  The Catalog Download (Version: version) fixlet is a custom fixlet that is not delivered with the License Metric Tool fixlet site. Thus, it is not translated.

• Process IDs are not present in audit snapshots

• When you click Save on the Server Settings panel, a message that you need to restart the service is displayed regardless of whether you made any changes on the panel

• Eastern Arabic numerals are not supported