Enhancements in version 2.2

BladeLogic Portal 2.2 includes the following enhancements:

Support for BMC Network Automation

You can now use Threat Director and BMC Network Automation to track, analyze, and remediate network vulnerabilities. BladeLogic Portal can integrate with BMC Network Automation and manage vulnerabilities in the same way that the portal integrates with BMC Server Automation. All the capabilities of Threat Director that were available for vulnerability management in the previous release are now also available for network management. Using Threat Director you can:

Import scan files that survey a computing environment, including its network infrastructure.
Map network devices detected in scans to devices managed in BMC Network Automation.
Map vulnerabilities in network infrastructure to rules for which corrective actions and grammars have been defined in BMC Network Automation.
Remediate network vulnerabilities using corrective actions associated with networking rules.
View the results of network remediation operations within BMC Network Automation itself or within the portal.

Managing security groups that correspond to realms in BMC Network Automation

You can now import realms from BMC Network Automation into BladeLogic Portal. The realms are automatically converted into portal security groups. Users associated with a realm in BMC Network Automation log into the portal using the same credentials they used in BMC Network Automation.

You can also use the administrative tools of BladeLogic Portal to add and delete security groups that correspond to realms in BMC Network Automation.

For more information, see Managing portal security groups for BMC Network Automation.

Updating the primary site for BMC Network Automation

When the portal is connected to BMC Network Automation, you cannot create additional sites like you can in BMC Server Automation. You can only modify some characteristics of the primary site that was created during installation.

Results for network remediation

By default, users view the results of network remediation operations by selecting an option on the home page that opens up the appropriate results within BMC Network Automation itself. However, a configuration option allows you to view results within the portal. Like similar pages for other types of operations in BladeLogic Portal, the results page shows the results of an operation for all targets. It also provides information about corrective actions taken for each target. Because of performance concerns, this option is not the default approach for viewing network remediation operation results.

Interface changes when connected to BMC Network Automation

When the portal is connected to BMC Network Automation, you will observe the following differences in behavior, as compared to when the portal is connected to BMC Server Automation:

When using the Remediation operation wizard, there is no Notifications tab.
When using the Remediation operation wizard, the Scheduling tab only allows you to schedule one execution of an operation. There are no recurring operations.
When using the Remediation operation wizard, the Scheduling tab does not allow you to set up job approval.
On the home page, there is no Run Now option that lets you execute the job. You cannot re-run jobs in BMC Network Automation.

The term endpoints has been introduced throughout the GUI. An endpoint refers to a managed server in BMC Server Automation or a network device in BMC Network Automation.

Connecting to BMC Discovery and the Software Instance filter

You can now connect BladeLogic Portal to BMC Discovery. This connection lets you use the capabilities of BMC Discovery (formerly called ADDM) to scan a computing environment and identify the hardware and software deployed there.

To update information that the portal obtains from BMC Discovery, an administrator must manually click a button called Sync Discovery Data.

For more information about integration with BMC Discovery, see Setting up a connection to BMC Discovery and Operator Dashboard - Threat Director.

Unscanned servers - Blind spot awareness

When you are connected to BMC Discovery, the Operator Dashboard in Threat Director now tells you how many assets are unscanned. An unscanned asset is a server that BMC Discovery has detected but was not included in the scan files imported into BladeLogic Portal. These unscanned servers are essentially "blind spots" in terms of the security of a computing environment.

Export of unscanned servers

When you are connected to BMC Discovery, an export from the Operator Dashboard generates two files: one shows vulnerability asset information and the other shows data about unscanned assets. If you have not set up a connection to BMC Discovery, only the vulnerability asset information is exported.

Software instance filter - Application awareness

If you are connected to BMC Discovery, the Operator Dashboard now includes a Software Instance filter, which lets you be aware of which applications are used in a computing environment.

Filtering for Threat Director dashboards

Device type filter

When connecting to BMC Network Automation, the Security Dashboard and Operator Dashboard now provide a Device Type filter.

Software Instance filter

When you integrate BladeLogic Portal with BMC Discovery, you enable the Software Instance filter on the Security and Operator Dashboards in Threat Director. With this filter, you can limit the information displayed to servers that contain specified software instances.

If you filter dashboard information by software instance, when you export data from a dashboard, the export now lists the software instances being used. If you do not filter by Software Instance but the connection to BMC Discovery is enabled, an export from the dashboard lists all software instances. If the connection to BMC Discovery is not enabled, an export shows software instance information as not applicable.

Filter configurations for BMC Network Automation connections

When connecting to BMC Network Automation, the filters available on the Security Dashboard are:

CVE
Device Type
Severity

The filters available for the Operator Dashboard are:

CVE
Device Type
Severity
SLA
Status

These filter differs from those available when connecting to BMC Server Automation.

Incremental or full auto-mapping of vulnerabilities

When using the Vulnerabilities page in Threat Director or Vulnerability Manager, you can now select the Update existing mappings option, which instructs the portal to discard existing auto-mappings and map all vulnerabilities. If you do not select this option, an auto-map only attempts to map unmapped vulnerabilities. Existing manual mappings are not affected by this option.

Performing a full auto-map of all vulnerabilities can be time consuming and BMC recommends only using this option when you believe the existing mappings are inaccurate.

Viewing the status of long-running actions

A new window now shows the status of long-running actions such as scan file imports. In older releases, long-running actions would lock the interface. Now you can monitor the progress of long running actions in a single location.

For more information, see Monitoring the status of long-running activities.

Changes to the installation and upgrade process

You can now use the installer to:

Set up an initial user for BMC Server Automation or BMC Network Automation or both.
Install only a BladeLogic Portal Server or a DCA Index Server or both.
Specify connections to multiple DCA Index Servers.

The upgrade process now:

Includes a database migration.
Includes information for BMC Network Automation.
Lets you restart the process without having to repeat the entire upgrade process.

The silent upgrade process now includes the following new and changed parameters:

New

# provide beginning values for Search Indexing Server port ranges
-J BMC_AUTOMATION_DCAINDEX_TCP_PORT=9300

# select server site to install
-J BNA_SELECTED=<true | false>

# bladelogic network information
-J BNA_SERVER_HOST=<yourbnahost.domain.com>
-J BNA_SERVER_PORT=<port>
-J BNA_USER=<admin_user>
-J BNA_ROLE=<Realm>
-J BNA_PASSWORD=<password>

# BNA server information for Data Refresh
-J BNA_DR_USER=<bna_user>
-J BNA_DR_PASSWORD=< password>

# Remote DCAIndex server to be configured
-J ELASTICSEARCH_HOST=<hostName1:tcpport1,hostName2:tcpport2>

Changed The ORACLE_ADVANCED_JDBC_URL has been renamed to ADVANCED_JDBC_URL.

Changes to the interface

When accessing BMC Network Automation, the logon dialog does not require you to specify an authentication method.
On the portal's home page, when an operation fails to get created in BMC Server Automation or BMC Network Automation, the name of the operation appears in a red font. Clicking the name of the operation provides information about why the operation failed, such as a timeout or insufficient permissions.
In the installation directory for BladeLogic Portal, the foundation directory has been renamed to portal.

Supported browsers

Google Chrome 52 or later
Mozilla Firefox 48 or later
Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 or 11

Terminology changes

In version 2.2, the term Threat Management has been changed to Vulnerability Manager.