Setting up Configuration Management

Follow these steps to set up your Configuration Management deployment.

Follow these steps to set up Configuration Management

  1. Plan your Configuration Management deployment.
  2. Subscribe to the external SCM sites.
  3. Create custom sites or custom checklists.

Planning your Configuration Management deployment

Keep in mind the following steps as you plan your configuration management deployment.
  1. Identify which computers will run the Configuration Management content.
  2. Group the computers by operating system.
  3. Create subgroups within each operating system that must comply with the different standards.

Subscribing to sites

Each Configuration Management checklist is provided as a single site and represents a single standard and platform. The content is continuously updated and automatically delivered when added to an BigFix deployment. Computers must be subscribed to the site to collect data from BigFix clients. This data is used for reporting and analysis.

The process of site subscription depends on the version of the BigFix console that you installed. For more information, see the BigFix Configuration Guide.

Alternatively, an air-gap can be used to physically separate the BigFix server from the Internet Fixlet server. For more information, see Installing in an Air-Gapped Network.

The Fixlets in this site can be used as-is or customized to meet your own security policies. Compliance calculations are evaluated locally on each endpoint, and the Configuration Management solution is scalable and can accommodate large numbers of computers.

You can choose to copy Configuration Management content to custom sites so you can customize the content.

Creating custom sites

As each Configuration Management checklist is provided as a single site, when you create a custom site, you are in effect, creating a custom checklist.

Use custom checklists to fine-tune the settings that are monitored in your deployment. You can customize Configuration Management parameters and exclude specific computers from an analysis. Custom checklists target specific sets of computers with tailored content with the use of the subscription mechanism.

Creating custom checklists involves the following steps

  1. Create a custom checklist from an existing external checklist.
  2. Customize Fixlets using built-in parameterization.
  3. Subscribe the correct computers to the custom checklist.
You can use the Create Custom Checklist wizard to create new custom checklists that are based on your currently subscribed external checklists. For more information, see Creating custom checklists.