Welcome
Patch User Guides
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.
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.
Mirror management
BigFix Patch provides a way to help with the failback options for your mirror management solution.

BigFix Documentation Homepage
BigFix 10 Patch Documentation
Welcome to the BigFix Patch documentation, where you can find information about how to install, maintain, and use the BigFix Patch.
Platform
Patch Overview
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
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.
  - Special notice
  - Edition notice
  - 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.
    - What's new in this update release
      BigFix Patch for AIX provides several features and enhancement in this application update.
    - Supported platforms and updates
      BigFix supports multiple versions or releases of AIX and updates that contain fixes for defects or software enhancements.
    - Site subscription
      Sites are collections of Fixlet messages that are created internally by you, by HCL, or by vendors.
    - Mirror management
      BigFix Patch provides a way to help with the failback options for your mirror management solution.
    - Network File System support
      Network File System (NFS) is a mechanism for storing files on a network. It is a distributed file system that allows users to access files and directories that are on remote computers and treat those files and directories as if they were local.
    - Interim fix support
      Fixlets for interim fixes, which are released through an AIX vulnerability advisory or subscription notification, are available for installation from the BigFix console.
    - Multibos support
      You can use multibos to deploy technology level or service pack updates to endpoints with a standby base operating system (BOS) instance without impacting the active BOS instance. By doing so, you can ensure continuous operation of the AIX operating system on the endpoint.
    - Wizards and dashboards
      BigFix Patch for AIX provides several wizards to help you create content for basic and advanced patch deployment.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - Support
    For more information about this product, see the following resources:
  - 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®.
  - Notices
- 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 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 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 Rocky Linux User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Rocky 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 Rocky Linux endpoints.
- 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.
- Updates for Middleware Applications
  Middleware patching is an important process for organizations to ensure their systems are secure and up to date. By applying the appropriate patches and security updates, organizations can minimize the risk of malicious attacks and potential data loss. BigFix users can enjoy unified patch management by using a single platform for deploying database and middleware patches.
- Supersedence for Non-Windows
  This topic describes how supersedence works in Patch.
Detailed system requirements
The tables in this section provide detailed information about the system requirements for BigFix 10.
Patch guides in PDF format
Following is a list of links to the BigFix Patch user guides in PDF format:

Mirror management

BigFix Patch provides a way to help with the failback options for your mirror management solution.

Maintaining an active mirrored copy of the rootvg volume on another disk ensures continuous operation of the AIX operating system in an event of a disk failure. It is common practice to break the root disk mirrors before any OS patches are deployed in case issues occur during or after patching.

Note: Only two-way mirror is supported.

The following solutions are provided for managing mirrors before patches are deployed:

Break existing mirrors option in the AIX Advanced Deployment Wizard: Select this option to break two-way mirroring before you deploy any fix packs to the disks. For more information, see Deploying technology levels and service packs to a new or existing alternate disk clone.

Re-mirror disk back to rootvg task (ID # 83): Use this task to re-establish the AIX disks when the patching or the upgrade is complete and verified.; This task becomes relevant only if the disks were broken by using the AIX Advanced Deployment Wizard.