Installing the scanner

The scanner collects hardware information as well as information about files and packages that exist on the computers in your infrastructure. Install the scanner on every computer on which you want to detect software. If you enabled the default scan configuration, the scanner is installed automatically and this configuration is not required.

Before you begin

Before you install the scanner, note the following considerations.

  • Ensure that the BigFix client is installed and running on the computers on which you want to detect software and that the computers are subscribed to the BigFix Inventory site.
  • To install the scanner on a WPAR, you must install it on the LPAR first.
  • 9.2.17 AIX Ensure that on AIX the xlC.rte library version 13.1.0.0 or higher is installed on the target computer.
  • Linux
    • For scanner versions 9.2.17 and 10.0.0, ensure that libnsl.so.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 is installed on the target computer.
  • UNIX Ensure that the libstdc++.so.6 library is installed on the target computer.
  • Mac OS X Software discovery on Mac OS X does not require installing the scanner nor scheduling regular uploads of scan results. To enable the discovery, it is enough to run the package data scan.

About this task

The scanner can be used by multiple applications. By default, the scanner that is delivered with BigFix Inventory is installed in the single user mode. It means that if it is used by other applications, it must be run by root (UNIX) or SYSTEM (Windows).
Note: All previous installations of scanner will be removed during scanner upgrade, unless the scanner instance was used by any non-HCL exploiter. There is a separate fixlet “Cleanup Scanner Installations 11.0.0 (9.2.35) and older” that can be used to completely remove remaining scanner instances installed outside the BigFix Client installation folders if needed.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the BigFix console.
  2. In the navigation bar, click Sites > External Sites > BigFix Inventory > Fixlets and Tasks.
  3. In the upper right pane, select Install or Upgrade Scanner.
  4. Click Take Action.
  5. Select the computers on which you want to install the scanner, and click OK.

    The image shows how to select computers on which to install the scanner.
    Tip: To ensure that the action is applied on all computers that are added in the future, select Dynamically target by property.

Results

You installed the scanner on the computers in your infrastructure. To view information about the installed scanner, for example its version, activate the Scanner Information analysis, and open the Results tab.
The scanner will be installed in the following locations:
  • : <BigFix Enterprise>\BES Client\tools\scanner
  • : /opt/BESClient/tools/scanner

What to do next

After you install the scanner, schedule software scans.

Support for noexec option on /var direcotry

11.0.1Starting from BigFix Inventory 11.0.1 installation location changed. No longer Scanner executables are located in the '/var directory, thus Scanner 11.0.1 support setting noexec option on /var direcotry.

Versions 11.0.0 and older. The Install or Upgrade Scanner fixlet uses an executable that by default runs directly from the /var directory, a partition on the endpoint. If you choose to install the scanner in another location, specifically under the BESClient directory in', and then add the 'noexec' restriction after the scanner installation, it can cause issues with scanning fixlets as well. The fixlets will not work when '/var' is set with the noexec option. Therefore, ensure that '/var' directory is not set with the noexec option.
If /var is set to noexec, take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the noexec mount option.
  • Move /var/opt/BESClient to a different partition, which is not noexec, and create a symbolic link to it in its place.
Note: There is a fixlet available to move the BESClient and create symbolic links. To know more about the fixlet, refer to https://bigfix.me/fixlet/details/3637.