Welcome
Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
Upgrading
The steps to upgrade the BigFix Platform.
Before upgrading
Things to do before upgrading.

BigFix Documentation Homepage
BigFix 10 Platform Documentation
Welcome to the BigFix Platform documentation, where you can find information about how to install, maintain, and use BigFix.
Detailed system requirements
The content of this page has moved to the HCL Support site. You will be redirected shortly. If the auto-redirect fails for some reason, use this link: https://support.hcl-software.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0087327.
Platform guides in PDF format
Following is a list of links to the BigFix Platform user guides in PDF format:
Common Criteria Certification
BigFix 10.0.1.41 complies with the requirements of the standard ISO/IEC 15408 (Common Criteria) v. 3.1 for the assurance level: EAL2
Getting Started
Use this section to become familiar with BigFix infrastructure and key concepts necessary to understand how it works.
HTTPS across BigFix applications
This topic describes how the SSL/HTTPS communication works in BigFix applications and links the tasks on how to configure it.
Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
- Introduction
  BigFix aims to solve the increasingly complex problem of keeping your critical systems updated, compatible, and free of security issues. It uses patented Fixlet technology to identify vulnerable computers in your enterprise. With just a few mouse-clicks you can remediate them across your entire network from a central console.
- BigFix Platform Unicode Support Overview
  BigFix Platform V10 gathers data from BigFix clients deployed with different code pages and languages, encode the data into UTF-8 format, and report it back to the BigFix server.
- Sample deployment scenarios
  The following deployment scenarios illustrate some basic configurations taken from actual case studies.
- Requirements and assumptions
  BigFix runs efficiently using minimal server, network, and client resources.
- Types of installation
  Before you install the product, decide if you want to do an evaluation or production installation.
- Managing licenses
  You must obtain a license key before you can install and use BigFix.
- Before installing
  Before running the installation make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
- Installing on Windows systems
  Now that you understand the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to get authorized and install the programs.
- Installing on Linux systems
  After understanding the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to actually get authorized and install the programs.
- Installing the clients
  Install the BigFix client on every computer in your network that you want to administer, including the computer that is running the console.
- BigFix Administration Tool
  The BigFix Administration Tool, also called BESAdmin, is the tool we use to perform configuration changes and maintenance operations.
- Post-installation configuration steps
  After having run the installation, make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
- Managing relays
  Relays can significantly improve the performance of your installation.
- Introduction to Tiny Core Linux - BigFix Virtual Relay
  Follow the step-by-step sequence of operations needed to build the virtual machine, from the downloading of the ISO image to the complete setup and configuration of the BigFix Virtual Relay.
- Setting up a proxy connection
  If your enterprise uses a proxy to access the Internet, your BigFix environment can use that communication path to gather content from sites.
- Running backup and restore
  You can schedule periodic backups (typically nightly) of the BigFix server and database files, to reduce the risk of losing productivity or data when a problem occurs by restoring the latest backup.
- Upgrading
  The steps to upgrade the BigFix Platform.
  - Upgrade paths to BigFix 10
    The following tables describe the upgrade paths to BigFix 10:
  - Before upgrading
    Things to do before upgrading.
  - Upgrade prerequisite checks
    The following prerequisite checks are automatically run by the upgrade procedure on the BigFix Server.
  - Upgrade steps
    Things to take into account when planning the upgrade.
  - Automatic upgrade
    How to automatically upgrade the BigFix Platform components.
  - Manual upgrade on Windows
    How to manually upgrade the BigFix Platform components on Windows.
  - Manual upgrade on Linux
    How to manually upgrade the BigFix Platform components on Linux.
  - Rollback
    How to roll back your BigFix Server if you made a backup.
- SQL Server parallelism optimization
  The performance of an SQL Server database instance can often be improved by small tweaks. Performance might also be hindered by simple oversights. In fact, some SQL Server parallelism settings have suboptimal default values. Moreover, they have to be re-tuned after an hardware upgrade. Other issues might arise from inadvertent hardware configurations, especially when SQL Server is hosted on a virtual machine (VM).
- Known limitations and workarounds
  This section describes the known limitations and possible workarounds.
- Logging
  This section describes the log files associated with the BigFix components.
- Uninstalling the BigFix client
  To uninstall the BigFix client installed on the various operating systems, see the following sections.
Configuration Guide
Learn how to configure BigFix according to your needs.
Console Operator's Guide
Learn how to work with the BigFix Console.
Asset Discovery User's Guide
Learn how BigFix Asset Discovery works.
Web Reports Guide
Learn how the Web Reports feature extends the power of BigFix.
WebUI User's Guide
Read this guide for an introduction to the WebUI tools, concepts, and terminology.
WebUI Administration Guide
Read this guide for information about installing and administering the WebUI.
Glossary
This glossary provides terms and definitions for the Modern Client Management for BigFix software and products.

Before upgrading

Things to do before upgrading.

It is not possible to upgrade from BigFix Version 9.5.17 to Version 10.0.0 and 10.0.1.
Carefully review the minimum OS requirements and Database requirements for the BigFix Server.
Ensure that the current version is at 9.5.10 or later.
If you are using MS SQL Always On Availability Group, you must temporarily disable the feature.

Perform these steps before upgrading the BigFix components:

Ensure that the BigFix WebUI service is stopped before starting to upgrade the BigFix components, and do not start it again until the overall upgrade procedure is complete. Perform this step regardless of whether the WebUI is installed on the same system as the BigFix Server or on a different system.
Ensure that all remote BigFix Web Reports servers are stopped and do not start them again until the overall upgrade procedure is complete.
If you are using the Microsoft SQL Server Replication feature, you must temporarily disable it.
Close all BigFix consoles.
Back up your BigFix server and database as described in Server Backup.
Back up your license.pvk, license.crt, and masthead.afxm to a separate location on the BigFix server or to a USB key.
Ensure that you have enough free space for the BigFix database. The free space projection involves a number of factors: the row counts of specific tables, the density of the data pages storing the tables and indexes, and specific database options for log management and table compression.
Upgrade your SQL database engine, if needed.

In a Distributed Server Architecture (DSA) environment, increase the replication interval to prevent the replication from failing repeatedly during the upgrade. For additional information, see Changing the replication interval on Windows systems and Changing the replication interval on Linux systems.

If all needed requirements for automatic upgrade are satisfied, you can perform an automatic upgrade via Fixlet. Otherwise, you must perform a manual upgrade.

To add feedback about this topic, select the following checkbox:

By clicking this box, you acknowledge that you are NOT a U.S. Federal Government employee or agency, nor are you submitting information with respect to or on behalf of one. HCL provides software and services to U.S. Federal Government customers through its partners Four, Inc. Contact this team at https://hcltechsw.com/resources/us-government-contact. Do not include any personal data in this Comment box. Note: To report a problem or question about the product software, do not use this form. Instead, go to the HCL Software Support site. Personal data should not be shared in this comment box. See our Privacy Statement to understand how personal data is used.