SAM: Errors with the BFI Connector

Products

• CA IT Asset Manager
• CA IT Asset Manager Asset Portfolio Management
• CA Software Asset Manager (CA SAM)
• ASSET PORTFOLIO MGMT- SERVER

Issue/Introduction

The BFI (BigFix Connector) intermittently fails due to JSON error.

Sample error that may present in the logging:

77c90af5b1-012_bfi_extract_software.log

----------------- Step 1/3 -----------------
Preprocessor: 'ibm_bfi'
Parameter list:
 - ibm_bfi_connect_param_set_id: 'bfi1'
 - ibm_bfi_url: '/api/sam/software_instances'
 - ibm_bfi_columns: 'computer_system_id,last_used,process,catalog_dimension.publisher_name,catalog_dimension.software_title_name,catalog_dimension.software_title_version_name,catalog_dimension.software_title_version_version,catalog_dimension.software_title_release_release,catalog_dimension.software_title_release_name,catalog_dimension.software_component_name,catalog_dimension.software_component_release,catalog_dimension.version,catalog_dimension.discoverable_name'
 - output_filename: 'ibm_bfi1_software_instances.csv'
 
Errors occurred:
 Request failed; error: rest_base->decode_json(): failed. error: Could not decode received JSON data: json_last_error() returned error code: [4] (gave up after [2] tries) (ASP-I21)

Environment

Release : 4.2

Component : CA SOFTWARE ASSET MANAGER

Resolution

The above error usually means some invalid JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) content was returned.

An error such as this will be difficult to determine for a root cause, given its sporadic nature.  One may consider exporting the data called by the REST API of BigFix manually and review/compare the results to see where there may be an invalid JSON format.  One can also consider tweaking the page sizes (parameter ibm_bfi_page_size) to either increase or decrease to see if there is any impact.  Finally, one can review the import content itself for any inconsistencies.