Welcome
Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
Post-installation configuration steps
After having run the installation, make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
Changing the database password
How to change the database password.

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.hcltechsw.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.
  - Post-installation steps
    After you install the product, perform these steps to verify that the installation runs successfully and to complete the basic configuration steps.
  - Starting and stopping the BigFix server
    Complete the following steps to start and stop the BigFix server installed on a Windows system:
  - Subscribing to content sites
    Sites are collections of Fixlets, tasks, analysis, that are created internally by you, by HCL, or by vendors. You subscribe to a site and agree on a schedule for downloading the latest batch.
  - Changing the database password
    How to change the database password.
- 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.
- 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.

Changing the database password

How to change the database password.

After you install the database of the BigFix server, you can change its password by running the following command:

On Windows operating systems:

.\BESAdmin.exe /updatepassword /type=<server_db|dsa_db>
[/password=<password>] /sitePvkLocation=<path+license.pvk> 
[/sitePvkPassword=<pvk_password>]

On UNIX operating systems:
```
./BESAdmin.sh -updatepassword -type=<server_db|dsa_db>
[-password=<password>] -sitePvkLocation=<path+license.pvk> 
[-sitePvkPassword=<pvk_password>]
```
Note: This procedure on UNIX also updates the database password for Web Reports, if the Web Reports component is installed on the same system where the BigFix server is installed.

where:

type=server_db: If you changed the database instance password, specify this value to update the password used by the server to authenticate with the database.
If you modify this value, the command restarts all the BigFix server services.
type=dsa_db: If you changed the database instance password on a server of a DSA configuration, specify this value to update the password used in a DSA configuration by remote servers to authenticate with the database.

For example:

./BESAdmin.sh -updatepassword -sitePvkLocation=/mylicenses/license.pvk
-sitePvkPassword=******* -type=server_db

The settings -password and -sitePvkPassword are optional; if they are not specified in the command syntax their value is requested interactively at runtime. The password set by this command is obfuscated.

Changing the database password on UNIX on Web Reports

On UNIX operating systems, to change the database password on the local and remote Web Reports server, complete the following steps:

Stop the beswebreports service:
```
service beswebreports stop
```
Open the configuration file: /var/opt/BESWebReportsServer/beswebreports.config
Go to [Software\BigFix\Enterprise Server\FillAggregateDB] and set:
```
Password = "db2newpassword"
```
Start the beswebreports service:
```
#service beswebreports start
```
After restart, passwords are obfuscated and substituted again with "" in the configuration files.