Migrating computers between data sources

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9.2.24 Available from 9.2.24.

To migrate computers between two data sources, start by enabling computer reconciliation mode. Then, migrate a subset of computers to verify that the process works. After you verify that the process works, complete it for the remaining computers. You can migrate computers between two BigFix® data sources, from a BigFix data source to a disconnected data source, or the other way round.

Before you begin

If you are migrating computers to a BigFix data source, it must be at least in version 9.5 patch 5 for the reconciliation mode to work properly. If you are migrating computers from a BigFix data source, its version is irrelevant for reconciliation to work.

Important: Ensure that you first check and enable computer reconciliation mode if needed and then migrate computers between data sources. If you enable computer reconciliation after you migrate some computers, the computers are duplicated in License Metric Tool as existing both in the old and new data source. They have different IDs instead of being mapped as having the same ID. In this case, the reconciliation mode is not able to map the computers. If computers are duplicated in License Metric Tool before you start the reconciliation, remove the duplicates. Then, enable the reconciliation.
Note: Migrate computers with BigFix server client and the BigFix console only after you migrate the entire environment and confirm that the new setup is working. Maintaining this order ensures the connectivity to the old BigFix server during the entire migration process.

Procedure

  1. If duplicated computers exist in License Metric Tool, remove the duplicates.
    • If you are migrating from a BigFix data source, perform the following steps.
      1. Log in to the BigFix console.
      2. In the navigation tree, click Computers.
      3. Select computers that are duplicated in License Metric Tool, right-click the selected computers, and click Remove From Database.
      4. Log in to License Metric Tool and go to Management > Data Imports. Then, click Import Now.
    • If you are migrating from a disconnected data source, decommission duplicated computers from the License Metric Tool user interface or by using REST API.
  2. Enable the computers reconciliation mode.
    1. In License Metric Tool, go to Management > Advanced Server Settings.
    2. Change the value of the Enable computers reconciliation parameter to true.
    Tip: It is advisable to enable debug logging during data imports. For more information, see: Import logs.
  3. Migrate a subset of computers from the old data source to the new one to verify that the process works.
    • If you are migrating computers between two BigFix data sources, perform the following steps.
      Important: Before you resubscribe endpoints between BigFix data sources, ensure that they can communicate with the new BigFix server. For example, ensure that no firewall blocks the communication.

      If you have any custom relay settings, the settings need to be re-created after the endpoints are resubscribed between BigFix data sources.

      1. Download the masthead file of the new BigFix server from the following URL: https://<New_BigFix_server_address>:52311/masthead/masthead.afxm.
      2. Save the downloaded masthead file on the file system of the old BigFix server. Place it in the following directory: <BESServer_install_dir>/wwwrootbes/Uploads.
      3. Log in to the old BigFix console, and go to Sites > External Sites > BES Support > Fixlets and Tasks and run the Switch BES Client Action Site Masthead fixlet that is appropriate for your version of endpoints on the selected computers.

        Endpoints on which the action completes successfully, stop reporting to the old BigFix server and start reporting to the new one. Thus, the action might not be reported as completed in the old BigFix console.

      4. Go to Computers. Verify that the selected endpoints were resubscribed to the new BigFix server.
    • If you are migrating computers from a BigFix data source to a disconnected data source, perform the following steps.
      Important: If you encounter problems during the disconnected scanner installation, see: Disconnected scanner return codes.
      Option 1: If you want to install the disconnected scanner using task, perform the following steps.
      1. Log in to the BigFix console.
      2. In the navigation bar, click Sites > External Sites > IBM License Reporting (ILMT) > Fixlets and Tasks.
      3. In the upper right pane, select Install Disconnected Scanner on Windows (version) or Install Disconnected Scanner on Unix (version) depending on the operating system of the computer on which you want to install the disconnected scanner.
      4. Specify the disconnected scanner installation path. Optionally, you can specify other essential and advanced parameters. Then, run this task. To learn more about the disconnected scanner installation parameters, see disconnected scanner configuration parameters in setup_config.ini file.
        Note: The task allows to specify only a subset of the available disconnected scanner configuration parameters. For more information, see the task description.
        Important: If the task fails, you can check the exit code returned during the disconnected scanner installation. For more information, see: Checking exit code of a fixlet or task.
      5. Uninstall the BigFix client from the computers on which you installed the disconnected scanner to ensure that the computers do not report to both the old and the new data source. For more information, see: Uninstalling the BigFix client.
        Important: Do not remove the computer from the BigFix console until you make sure the computer correctly migrated to the new data source.
      Option 2: If you want to install the disconnected scanner manually, perform the following steps.
      1. Log in to the BigFix console.
      2. In the navigation bar, click Sites > External Sites > IBM License Reporting (ILMT) > Fixlets and Tasks.
      3. In the upper right pane, select Download the Disconnected Scanner Package (version) or Download the Disconnected Scanner Package for IBM i (version) depending on the operating system of the computer on which you want to install the disconnected scanner.
      4. Uninstall the BigFix client from the computers on which you want to install the disconnected scanner to ensure that the computers do not report to both the old and the new data source. For more information, see: Uninstalling the BigFix client.
        Important: Do not remove the computer from the BigFix console until you make sure the computer correctly migrated to the new data source.
      5. Install the disconnected scanner. For more information, see: Installing the disconnected scanner and gathering scan results (disconnected scenario).
    • If you are migrating computers from a disconnected data source to a BigFix data source, perform the following steps.
      1. Install the BigFix client on a subset of computers. For more information, see: Installing the BigFix clients (BigFix scenario).
        Important: After you install the BigFix client on a computer, do not send results of disconnected scan from this computer to License Metric Tool.
      2. Set up collection of data. For more information, see: Setting up data collection (BigFix scenario).
      3. Uninstall the disconnected scanner from the computers on which you installed the BigFix client. For more information, see: Uninstalling the disconnected scanner (disconnected scenario).
  4. Run the import.
    1. Log in to License Metric Tool and go to Management > Data Imports.
    2. Click Import Now.
    After the import, computers from the old data source are identified as computers from the new data source if their computer names and IP addresses are matched.
  5. Verify that data source migration finished successfully.
    1. Log in to License Metric Tool and go to Management > Computers.
    2. Hover over Configure, and click Configure View. Select the Data Source Name and Data Source Computer ID columns, and click Submit.
    3. Verify that all computers that you wanted to migrate have details of the new data source in the Data Source Name and Data Source Computer ID columns. Only computers that you did not want to migrate should have the values of the old data source.
  6. Repeat steps from 3 to 5 for the remaining computers.
  7. Optional: Disable the computers reconciliation mode.
    Note: You might want to leave the computers reconciliation mode enabled to avoid creating computer duplicates when the BigFix client is reinstalled on some of the computers.
    1. Log in to License Metric Tool and go to Management > Advanced Server Settings.
    2. Change the value of the Enable computers reconciliation parameter to false.

What to do next

It might happen that the IP address (or addresses) or the name of a computer in the old data source and the new data source differ. In such case, computer reconciliation does not work. The computer is not matched as the same computer in both data sources and duplicate entries appear in License Metric Tool. To solve the problem, perform the following steps.
  1. Remove the duplicates the same way as in step 1.
  2. Check the DNS name of the computer that was not matched. The DNS name remains the same even if the IP address or computer name changes. Thus, it can be used to properly identify the computer.
    1. Log in to License Metric Tool and go to Management > Computers.
    2. Hover over Configure and click Configure View.
    3. Select DNS Name and click Submit.
    4. Find the DNS name of the computer.
  3. Re-create the bundling.
    • Assign the software manually. For more information, see: Assigning components to products and Cloud Paks.
    • Migrate the assignments by using REST API.
      1. To retrieve information about software assignments that were defined for the particular computer in the old data source, use the following REST API request. The "is_present","=","0" filter ensures that you retrieve information about software assignments as they were defined for the particular computer in the old data source. 
        https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/software_instances?columns[]=product_name&
columns[]=component_name&columns[]=discovery_path&columns[]=is_charged&columns[]=is_confirmed&
columns[]=computer_dns_name&columns[]=discoverable_guid&columns[]=product_release_guid&columns[]=metric_id&
token=user_token&criteria={"and":[["is_present","=","0"],["computer_dns_name","=","dns_name"]]}
        Where:
        user_token
        Token that is used to authenticate REST API requests. For information how to obtain it, see: Authenticating REST API requests.
        dns_name
        DNS name of the computer that was not matched.
        Sample output:
        {
    "total":5,"rows":[
        {
            "product_name":"IBM Curam Provider Management",
            "component_name":"IBM Curam Provider Management Authorized User",
            "discovery_path":["/opt/readiness/tags/swTagsRepo"],
            "is_charged":1,
            "is_confirmed":0,
            "computer_dns_name":"dns_name",
            "discoverable_guid":"50061b64-e97e-4cb0-9235-349ba4e20aad",
            "product_release_guid":"4d7fc123-e05f-46f7-a6c6-e4fafe96fb04",
            "metric_id":-18783
        },
        {
            "product_name":"IBM Cognos Enterprise User",
            "component_name":"IBM Cognos Advanced Planner License",
            "discovery_path":["/opt/readiness/tags/swTagsRepo"],
            "is_charged":0,
            "is_confirmed":0,
            "computer_dns_name":"dns_name",
            "discoverable_guid":"52ee8a52-02e4-4dd0-8ae9-b79e42e019c0",
            "product_release_guid":"5a6c43b3-d36a-4b8e-a8dd-17ae590f6dc9",
            "metric_id":-18783
        },
    ...
    ]
}
      2. To migrate the software assignments, use the following PUT request. Use Body of the request that you obtained in step 3.a. It applies the software assignments to the computer in the new data source. The software assignments specified in the computer in the old data source stay unmodified.
        Request
        PUT https://hostname:port/api/sam/v2/software_instances
        Request header
        Accept: application/json 
Accept-Language: en-US
Token: <token>
        Request body
        {
    "rows":[
        {
            "product_name":"IBM Curam Provider Management",
            "component_name":"IBM Curam Provider Management Authorized User",
            "discovery_path":["/opt/readiness/tags/swTagsRepo"],
            "is_charged":1,
            "is_confirmed":0,
            "computer_dns_name":"dns_name",
            "discoverable_guid":"50061b64-e97e-4cb0-9235-349ba4e20aad",
            "product_release_guid":"4d7fc123-e05f-46f7-a6c6-e4fafe96fb04",
            "metric_id":-18783
        },
        {
            "product_name":"IBM Cognos Enterprise User",
            "component_name":"IBM Cognos Advanced Planner License",
            "discovery_path":["/opt/readiness/tags/swTagsRepo"],
            "is_charged":0,
            "is_confirmed":0,
            "computer_dns_name":"dns_name",
            "discoverable_guid":"52ee8a52-02e4-4dd0-8ae9-b79e42e019c0",
            "product_release_guid":"5a6c43b3-d36a-4b8e-a8dd-17ae590f6dc9",
            "metric_id":-18783
        },
    ...
    ]
}
        Sample output:
        {"valid_instances":{"Bundled":5},"invalid_instances":{},"unmodified_instances":5}