Welcome
Overview
Become familiar with key concepts that are necessary to understand how BigFix Inventory works and learn about features and functions that are introduced in every version of the application.
Keeping BigFix Inventory up-to-date
BigFix Inventory updates and content packs are released periodically. Ensure that you upgrade the BigFix Inventory server with each release to take advantage of the new features and apply the application patches.
Currency of BigFix Inventory components

BigFix Documentation Homepage
BigFix 11 Inventory Documentation
Welcome to the BigFix Inventory documentation, where you can find information about how to install and configure BigFix Inventory. The application provides you with information about your inventory and license metrics. You can manage your software assets, gather information about your hardware, and ensure license compliance for your enterprise using BigFix Inventory.
BigFix Platform
Overview
Become familiar with key concepts that are necessary to understand how BigFix Inventory works and learn about features and functions that are introduced in every version of the application.
- What's new in this release
  BigFix Inventory provides new features and enhancements that facilitate your work with the application. For more information, follow BigFix Forum - Inventory (Release Announcements).
- <discontinued> Updates and patches for BigFix Inventory up to version 10.0.13.1
  This page provides information about application updates released for BigFix Inventory.
- Keeping BigFix Inventory up-to-date
  BigFix Inventory updates and content packs are released periodically. Ensure that you upgrade the BigFix Inventory server with each release to take advantage of the new features and apply the application patches.
  - Currency of BigFix Inventory components
  - Ensuring currency of scanner actions and fixlets
    Make sure that the scanner actions that are running on your endpoints are updated after each application release. The fixlet names contain the information about version to help you easily determine which actions are activated with the outdated fixlets and should be restarted after the application update.
- Features and functions
  BigFix Inventory provides useful features for managing physical and virtualized environments. It discovers the software that is installed in your infrastructure, helps you to analyze the consumption data, and allows you to generate reports.
- Preview features
  BigFix Inventory provides a set of preview features that give you a chance to take a sneak peek at what we are currently developing and researching. Whether it is a small function or an extended report, you can check how it works and tell us about your ideas. The previews can change with each release, which means that you can still influence their final form.
- Limitations
  Review the list of BigFix Inventory limitations. For information on IBM limitations, refer to IBM limitations.
- Key concepts
  There are several concepts that will help you to understand how BigFix Inventory works and how to use it effectively.
- Scenarios
  To understand the business goals that you can achieve with BigFix Inventory, familiarize yourself with the main user scenarios. Each scenario presents a real-life example of using the application and lists personas who are typically involved in achieving a business goal.
Installing
Learn about the requirements and available installation scenarios to ensure that the deployment of BigFix Inventory goes smoothly in your environment.
Configuring
After you install BigFix Inventory, configure the application. Create accounts for the users who need access to the application and set up scans to collect software and hardware inventory data from your environment.
Upgrading
A new version of BigFix Inventory is released periodically, typically at the end of each calendar quarter. Upgrade to the new version regularly to take full advantage of new features and application fixes.
Catalog Overview
This section provides information about catalog updates available with every release.
Managing the infrastructure
After you complete the initial configuration of BigFix Inventory, learn how to manage components of its infrastructure: VM managers, server, database, and data sources.
Software inventory and license utilization
You can classify the discovered software so that reports in BigFix Inventory reflect your entitlements and properly show utilization of license metrics by particular products.
Managing security threats
Learn how to use BigFix Inventory to manage security threats in your environment. You can view whether any of the installed components is prone to any Common Vulnerability and Exposure (CVE).
Tutorials
Tutorials help you understand how to use BigFix Inventory. They consist of modules that focus on broad goals. Modules consist of tasks that show how to configure specific settings step-by-step.
Security
Configure different security features to adequately protect business assets and resources in the data model when using BigFix Inventory.
Troubleshooting and support
Learn about solutions to common problems that might arise when you use BigFix Inventory BigFix Inventory and how to find logs and trace files that help you troubleshoot those problems.
Tuning performance
Learn how to plan the infrastructure of BigFix Inventory and to configure the application server to achieve optimal performance. The following guidelines are applicable in big data environments as well as in smaller environments that are running on low-performance hardware.
Integrating with REST API
External systems integration is one of the key features of BigFix Inventory. Business logic is enabled for integration and interfaces are provided for common integration points.
Glossary
Guide in PDF format
DataFlow ServiceNow Integration

Currency of BigFix Inventory components

Keeping BigFix Inventory up-to-date

It is important to upgrade BigFix Inventory server with each release. You do not need to upgrade the remaining infrastructure components, such as the BigFix server or clients that frequently. BigFix Inventory is compatible with any supported version of BigFix. Upgrading the BigFix Inventory server resolves the majority of known defects and allows you to take advantage of the newly developed and improved features.

Versioning of the BigFix Inventory components

Versions of BigFix Inventory and the BigFixplatform are independent and they differ.

9.2.15 Starting from application update 9.2.15, the version of the application update and versions of the internal tools of BigFix Inventory, such as, the scanner, SAP Metric Data Collector and VM Manager tool are unified. In this update the version of each component is 9.2.15. In the future, the version of each component will change to the version of the application update only when this component will change.

Updating BigFix Inventory components

To make sure that your BigFix Inventory architecture is up-to-date, analyze the list of actions according to their priority.

Upgrade to the newest version of
Stop your active actions, and then restart them using the newest versions of fixlets.
Upgrade the internal BigFix Inventory tools, such as, the scanner, SAP Metric Data Collector and VM Manager tool. For more information, see: Installing the scanner and Updating VM Manager Tool.
Optional: Upgrade the BigFix platform components. This step is optional and mainly depends on your business needs and requirements. Upgrading the platform might be related to the security measures as each update might bring a number of security enhancements. From BigFix Inventory perspective, upgrading BigFix is usually not required for BigFix Inventory to work properly. The majority of the features are independent and work with older versions of the platform.