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.
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.
Updating existing clients and resources
To use an existing NIM environment, update the clients and resources through the NIM Management Dashboard.
Synchronizing the date and time
The NIM Management Dashboard provides a task to synchronize the date and time on the targeted NIM client systems with the NIM master that they are registered to.

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.
  - 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.
    - NIM dashboards overview
      BigFix® provides dashboards to install, configure, and manage your NIM environment.
    - Setting up a new NIM environment
      To best utilize the NIM integration features, use the NIM Installation and Setup Dashboard when you install the NIM master, NIM clients, and NIM lpp_source resource.
    - Updating existing clients and resources
      To use an existing NIM environment, update the clients and resources through the NIM Management Dashboard.
      - Updating the NIM lpp_source resource
        The lpp_source resource is a directory with a collection of filesets that are used for the NIM update actions. Update the lpp_source resource to make the new installation files available to the NIM master and NIM clients.
      - Updating NIM SPOT resource
        The NIM Management Dashboard helps you to create Fixlets that you can use to update the NIM SPOT resource through the NIM master.
      - Updating the NIM master
        The operating system of the NIM master must always be at the same or later version than all NIM clients it manages. Attempts to update NIM clients to a version later than the NIM master would fail.
      - Updating the NIM clients
        Updating the NIM Client installs the latest filesets from the specified lpp_source resource on the NIM client.
      - Updating a system from a NIM client
        The NIM Management Dashboard helps you to create Fixlets that you can use to update an AIX system from a NIM client.
      - Rebuilding the NIM master configuration file
        The NIM Management Dashboard provides a task to rebuild the /etc/niminfo file on the targeted NIM master servers.
      - Rebuilding the NIM client configuration file
        The NIM Management Dashboard helps you create a Fixlet to connect to the NIM master to rebuild the /etc/niminfo file on a NIM client.
      - Synchronizing the date and time
        The NIM Management Dashboard provides a task to synchronize the date and time on the targeted NIM client systems with the NIM master that they are registered to.
      - Enabling or disabling push permissions
        The NIM Management Dashboard provides tasks that you can use to enable the NIM master to remotely run commands on the NIM client.
    - Adding new resources to an existing NIM environment
      Use the NIM Master Configuration options of the NIM Installation and Setup Dashboard to add new resources to an existing NIM environment.
  - 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:

Synchronizing the date and time

The NIM Management Dashboard provides a task to synchronize the date and time on the targeted NIM client systems with the NIM master that they are registered to.

Procedure

From the BigFix console, click All Patch Management > Dashboards > Patches for AIX > NIM Management Dashboard.
Click NIM Update Operations.
Click General NIM Management Operations.
Click Synchronize Date and Time.
Click NIM Client: Sync Date and Time with NIM Master.
Deploy the action.