12.6 enhancements

This section contains information about enhancements in version 12.6 of the BMC Client Management product..

Replacement for Java Web Start

Oracle recently announced a major change to their licensing policy and release cadence for Java SE (Standard Edition including both JDK and JRE). BMC Client Management earlier included Oracle Java (JRE) for some server processes and the Administration Console. To minimize impact of the new Oracle licensing change for users, BMC Client Management now provides support for open JDK through the web start installer. The web start installer is a replacement for Java Web Start, and provides the following advantages:

• Provides an easier way to install the BMC Client Management Console, with fewer installation steps.
• Ensures that the console is always up-to-date. 

If you use BMC Remedyforce or BMC FootPrints with BMC Client Management, you must wait until the release of BMC Remedyforce Winter 19 or BMC FootPrints version 20.19.01 before upgrading to BMC Client Management 12.6 patch 5 in order to launch the BCM console from BMC Remedyforce and BMC FootPrints. The current releases of BMC Footprints and BMC Remedyforce are not compatible with BMC Client Management 12.6 patch 5, due to the introduction of the new BMC Client Management web start installer.

For more information, see Downloading and installing the BMC Helix Client Management console.

Centralized management of account credentials for rolling out BMC Client Management agents

Before BMC Client Management version 12.6, administrators had to authenticate their credentials on each asset while rolling out BMC Client Management agents. Any changes to administrator credentials did not automatically apply to the associated rollouts. It became time-consuming and repetitive to enter authentication credentials on each asset.

From BMC Client Management version 12.6 onwards, administrators can centrally manage account credentials and associate it to rollouts. BMC Client Management automatically applies any changes to an account credential to all the associated rollouts. This mechanism efficiently manages rollouts.

The BMC Client Management console provides a new node, Account Credentials, that enables administrators to centrally manage account credentials for all the roll outs.

The following screenshot shows the overview of account credentials in your IT infrastructure:

For more information, refer to Managing administrator credentials centrally for rolling out BMC Client Management agents.

Remotely controlling devices through a web browser

In addition to the classic remote control feature through the BMC Client Management console, 12.6 release enables remote control of devices through a web browser. It does not need you to install the BMC Client Management java console to remote control devices. You can remote control devices from anywhere through a web browser using a compatible browser on a compatible operating system. As a BMC Client Management administrator, you can configure the remote control settings that will be used by the help desk technician.

For more information, refer to Remotely controlling a device through a web browser.

Integrating Remedy with Smart IT product with BMC Client Management

Integrating Remedy with Smart IT with BMC Client Management enables administrators to automate incident generation in Remedy with Smart IT based on events defined in BMC Client Management. 

For more information, refer to Remedy with Smart IT product integration with BMC Client Management.

Integrating BMC Remedy SSO with BMC Client Management

Integrating BMC Client Management with BMC Remedy SSO enables Remedy with Smart IT technicians to remote control BMC Client Management managed endpoints through the BMC Client Management browser-based console.

For more information on configuring Remedy SSO with BMC Client Management:

• Remedy SSO parameters
•  Integration with Remedy Single Sign-On 

Customizing the end-user dialogs to provide a personalized experience

From BMC Client Management version 12.6 onwards, you can directly customize dialog boxes that provide product updates or acknowledgments to an end user. It enables you to deliver a personalized experience for end users.

You can customize the end-user dialogs for the following features:

• Remote Control Access and Direct Access
• Operational rules
• Patch management

For more information on customizing the dialogs that are sent to devices which are to be remotely controlled or directly controlled, or where operational rules, patches are to be installed, see 

Customizing the end-user dialogs to provide a personalized experience

Customizing company logo for end-user dialogs

From BMC Client Management version 12.6 onwards, administrators can customize logo for end-user dialogs boxes:

1. On the BMC Client Management console, go to Global Settings > System Variables > Customization.
2. Click Browse to select a logo.
3. Select a logo in PNG or JPG format.
4. You can crop a part of the image or select a specific part of the image and click OK.
5. On the Customization tab, click Apply.

After you customize the logo, all dialog boxes will display the customized logo.

For more information, refer to Managing company logo.

Customizing company logo for style-based reports

Before BMC Client Management version 12.6, administrators could customize logos by storing logos on the master server and browsing them from the BMC Client Management console. But, an administrator could not add and customize new logos directly from the BMC Client Management console.

From BMC Client Management version 12.6 onwards, administrators can customize logo for style-based reports directly from the BMC Client Management console. This enhancement is not applicable for template-based reports.

To customize logo on style-based reports:

1. On the BMC Client Management console, go to Global Settings > System Variables > Reports.
2. Click Browse to select a logo.
3. Select a logo in PNG or JPG format.
4. You can crop a part of the image or select a specific part of the image and click OK.
5. On the Reports tab, click Apply.

After you customize the logo, any newly generated style-based reports will display the customized logo.

For more information, refer to Managing report settings.

Ensuring GUIDs generated for BMC Client Management devices are not duplicated

For eliminating duplicate Global Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) associated to devices, BMC Client Management has enhanced its GUID generation mechanism.  The new mechanism uses all the device attributes to generate a GUID, irrespective of whether an attribute is enabled or not in the BMC Client Management console.

BMC Client Management considers the attributes enabled in the console when an agent has to be re-installed on a device. BMC Client Management performs an attribute match to determine whether a device exists with at least one attribute match in the master database. If an attribute match is found, BMC Client Management persists the existing GUID for that device. This ensures that GUIDs are not duplicated in the master database and there are no communication issues between the master database and the agents.

Before BMC Client Management version 12.6, BMC Client Management used to generate unique IDs for devices by using the attribute value defined in the BMC Client Management console. The GUIDs were duplicated because was due to identical attributes on different systems. Thus it caused communication issues between the master database and the agents.

What's changed

From BMC Client Management 12.6 onwards, BMC Client Management uses all the attributes of a device to generate GUIDs, irrespective of whether an attribute is enabled or not.

For more information, refer to Managing BMC Client Management agent connection behavior. 

Does an upgrade change existing GUIDs

Existing device GUIDs will not be changed after BMC Client Management is upgraded from version 11.7 or later to version 12.6.

How does BMC Client Management manage GUIDs when you deploy an OS (OSD) using the BMC Client Management console

When you deploy an OS image on systems using BMC Client Management, it ensures that each OS deployment is assigned a unique GUID. It ensures GUID uniqueness, by removing any existing GUID information from the Identity.ini file that is captured by the SYSPREP utility.

How to manage GUIDs when you deploy an OS using third-party tools

Before you use third-party tools to deploy OS images, ensure that the captured OS image that you will use to deploy the OS image on other systems is clean of any GUID information. To ensure that the captured OS image is clean of GUID information, remove any GUID information from the ini file.

If you do not remove the existing GUID from the Identity.ini file before you deploy the ghost OS image, then the same GUID will be deployed on all the other systems causing duplicate GUIDs recorded by the master database.

Improved patch management mechanism

From BMC Client Management version 12.6 onwards, the patch management mechanism is upgraded to provide a more efficient patch management experience. The update is seamless with a fresh product install or during an upgrade.

Microsoft Office patching

The upgrade patch management mechanism does not support patching individual Microsoft Office products. It only supports patching the entire Microsoft Office suite.

• • In the Patch/Service Pack Distribution Wizard, the Office Options step is not available in the wizard, which enabled selecting individual Office products. The upgraded patch management mechanism only patches the complete Microsoft Office suite. SDK 9.2 only deploys the patches that support full file. In BMC Client Management 12.5, the Office Options step was part of the wizard.
  • SDK 9.2 also supports Office 365 patching for devices with an internet connection.
  • Columns that list the patch versions are not shown in the wizard.

To view the updated console:

1. Go to Patch Management.
2. On the menu bar, click Wizards > Patch/Service Pack Distribution Wizard.
   

For more information on distributing patches/service packs, refer to Patch Service Pack Distribution Wizard.

Product family representation

In the Patch Criteria step, the Product Name list an updated list, where some product families list all individual products.

The updated product listing is beneficial because you can pick and choose the products you want to patch rather than patch the entire product family.

For more information on selecting specific products to patch, refer to Patch Criteria.

Updates to Security Products Inventory types and Virtual Infrastructure Management

After upgrading to or freshly installing BMC Client Management 12.6, the Security Products Inventory types and Virtual Infrastructure Management are updated in BMC Client Management.

For more information on updates to BMC Client Management, refer to Updates to Security Products Inventory and Virtual Infrastructure Management.

Managing application using Apple's Volume Purchase Program

License applications that are purchased through Apple's Volume Purchase Program for BMC Client Management users.

For more information, refer to Managing applications purchased through the Apple Volume Purchase Program.

Visible column separators in BMC Client Management console

In the BMC Client Management console, you can add color between columns to make the columns visible.

To add a color, go to the Preferences window, in the Color of separators between columns setting, choose a color and click OK to apply the settings.

Remove unused or outdated patches

You can enable a parameter to remove unused or outdated patches from BMC Client Management.

From the Patch Group tab of the Global Settings > System Variables page, you can select the remove old patches automatically parameter.

For more information, refer to Patch group settings.