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BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
Patch for AIX User's Guide
BigFix® for Patch for AIX® provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all AIX endpoints.
Using the download plug-in
The download plug-ins, AIX Plug-in and AIX Plug-in R2, are executable programs that download a relevant patches directly from the patch vendor. Fixlets use an internal protocol to communicate with the download plug-in to download files. These Fixlets are based on updates made by the vendor.

Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
- Patch for Windows User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Windows™ provides Fixlets for Microsoft™ security and non-security patches. Dashboards, wizards, and reports aid you in managing updates for various endpoint devices.
- Patch for AIX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for AIX® provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all AIX endpoints.
  - Overview
    BigFix Patch for AIX® provides unified, real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all endpoints from a single console. BigFix Patch keeps your AIX clients current with the latest packages, service packs, and fixes.
  - Using the download plug-in
    The download plug-ins, AIX Plug-in and AIX Plug-in R2, are executable programs that download a relevant patches directly from the patch vendor. Fixlets use an internal protocol to communicate with the download plug-in to download files. These Fixlets are based on updates made by the vendor.
    - Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard overview
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to oversee and manage download plug-ins in your deployment.
    - Registering the AIX download plug-in
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to register the download plug-in for AIX.
    - Unregistering the AIX download plug-in
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to unregister the download plug-in for AIX.
    - Configuring the AIX download plug-in
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to configure the download plug-in for AIX.
    - Migrating the AIX download plug-in
      You must migrate the AIX download plug-in if the plug-in version is earlier than 2.0.0.0. You only need to do this once. The download plug-in is upgraded to the latest version after migration.
    - Upgrading the AIX download plug-in
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to upgrade the download plug-in for AIX.
    - Registering the AIX Download Plug-in R2
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to register the AIX Download Plug-in R2 to install patches for third-party applications such as NTP, OpenSSH, and OpenSSL.
    - Configuring the AIX Download Plug-in R2
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to configure the AIX Download Plug-in R2.
    - Unregistering the AIX Download Plug-in R2
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to unregister the AIX Download Plug-in R2.
    - Upgrading the AIX Download Plug-in R2
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to upgrade the AIX Download Plug-in R2.
  - Using the AIX download cacher
    You can use the AIX download cacher utility to deploy service pack, concluding service pack, or technology level fixes. The download cacher uses HTTP to download specific fix packs. Ensure that HTTP network traffic is not blocked in your environment.
  - Using BigFix Patch for AIX
    Use the Fixlets on the Patches for AIX Fixlet site to apply AIX patches to your deployment.
  - Network Installation Management (NIM) integration
    BigFix provides an alternative solution for updating and managing multiple AIX system through Network Installation Management (NIM). BigFix supports the NIM patch management features in this release.
  - Troubleshooting
    When problems occur when patching AIX endpoints, review the log files to determine what went wrong and how to correct the errors.
  - Frequently asked questions
    The questions and answers in this section can help you to better understand BigFix Patch for AIX®.
- Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Red Hat Enterprise Linux endpoints.
- Patch for CentOS Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patch for CentOS Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all CentOs endpoints.
- Patch for Amazon Linux 2 User's Guide
  BigFix® Patch for Amazon Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Amazon Linux 2 endpoints.
- Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all SUSE Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Ubuntu User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Ubuntu provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Ubuntu endpoints.
- Patch for Oracle Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patches for Oracle Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Oracle Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Solaris User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Solaris provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Solaris endpoints.
- Patch for HP-UX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for HP-UX provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all HP-UX endpoints.
- Patch for Mac OS X User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for Mac OS X provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Mac OS X endpoints.
- Patch for Debian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Debian provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Debian endpoints.
- Patch for VMware ESXi User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi provides you unified, near real-time visibility to manage patches to all VMware ESXi endpoints from a single console.
- Patch for Raspbian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Raspbian provides Fixlets that you use to manage the latest updates and service packs that Raspberry Pi releases. These Fixlets are available through the Patches for Raspbian sites.
- Patch for Virtual Endpoint Manager User's Guide
  BigFix® for Virtual Endpoint Manager provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches in a virtual environment.
- Supersedence for Non-Windows
  This topic describes how supersedence works in Patch.

Using the download plug-in

The download plug-ins, AIX Plug-in and AIX Plug-in R2, are executable programs that download a relevant patches directly from the patch vendor. Fixlets use an internal protocol to communicate with the download plug-in to download files. These Fixlets are based on updates made by the vendor.

For the Fixlet to be able to use the protocol, the related download plug-in must be registered on the BigFix server. Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to register the appropriate download plug-in.

Note: Download plug-ins support basic authentication only.

Table 1. Download Plug-ins for AIX Patching
Download Plug-in Name	Applicable Sites	Content Support
AIX Plug-in	Patches for AIX	Technology Level Service Packs Interim Fixes (Security Advisories and High Impact/Highly Pervasive Fixes
AIX Plug-in R2	Patches for AIX	Third-party applications (OpenSSH and OpenSSL)

Note: The following URLs should be included in the proxy whitelist to download third party packages using AIX Plug-in R2:

The AIX Plug-in utilizes the Electronic Customer Care (ECC) service to retrieve AIX updates. ECC replaces the fixget tool to provide a centralized access point to access code updates for IBM systems. Using ECC instead of fixget has a significant impact on the supported protocols utilized for fix server communication and to download updates.

The BigFix caching mechanism is utilized to download and cache filesets in the BigFix server, allowing them to be reused for later deployment. This approach tremendously saves time from having to download the same set of filesets every time an action is taken against a Fixlet.

Note: You are advised to register the download plug-in services only on the BigFix server and not on BigFix® relay computers.

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