Welcome
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.
Additional tasks for improving performance
Learn about additional tasks that you might want to perform to improve the performance in your infrastructure.
Disabling the calculation of extended software aggregates
You can noticeably reduce the length of data imports in very large environments if you disable the calculation of extended software aggregates. Software aggregates are pieces of data that are gathered during software scans on your endpoints and which are later processed during successive data imports. They are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report.

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.
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.
- Setting up scans and import
  Learn how to improve the scanning and importing activities to optimize the performance in your infrastructure.
- Additional tasks for improving performance
  Learn about additional tasks that you might want to perform to improve the performance in your infrastructure.
  - Changing the mode of sorting bundling options on the Software Classification panel
    If the Software Classification panel runs slowly or the BigFix Inventory server is under a heavy load, you might want to change the mode of sorting bundling options.
  - Disabling the calculation of extended software aggregates
    You can noticeably reduce the length of data imports in very large environments if you disable the calculation of extended software aggregates. Software aggregates are pieces of data that are gathered during software scans on your endpoints and which are later processed during successive data imports. They are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report.
  - Shortening the retention period gradually to avoid problems with growing database size
    Since BigFix Inventory 9.2.1, retention period is set to 7 days in a fresh installation, so this procedure does not apply in case of fresh 9.2.1 installations. If you did not configure the retention period after installation in earlier versions of BigFix Inventory and the data accumulation continued for several months, you must enable and repeatedly change the data retention configuration to make the retention period as short as possible. With each successive import, the historical data is deleted gradually and thus problems with growing database size are avoided.
- Tuning performance in medium and large environments
  You can learn the possible causes of the most common performance issues in medium and large environments. Follow the tips and the known solutions to these issues to keep the system in good shape and avoid performance problems.
- REST API considerations
  You can use BigFix Inventory REST API to retrieve large amounts of data that is related to computer systems, software instances, and license usage in your environment. Such information can then be passed to other applications for further processing and analysis.
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

Disabling the calculation of extended software aggregates

You can noticeably reduce the length of data imports in very large environments if you disable the calculation of extended software aggregates. Software aggregates are pieces of data that are gathered during software scans on your endpoints and which are later processed during successive data imports. They are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report.

About this task

You can disable the gathering of the following software aggregates:

Total Runs
Total Run Time
Average Runs per Day
Average Run Time
First Used

Procedure

Enable the new feature that allows for skipping the processing of extended software aggregates.
1. Open the following URL in your web browser: https://bfi_server_name:port/management/feature.
2. Select Skip Extended Software Aggregates and click Save.
To disable the calculation of extended software aggregates for a specific computer group:
1. In the BigFix Inventory web user interface, click Management > Computer Groups.
2. Expand the All Computers computer group and click the group for which you want to disable the calculation of software aggregates.
3. Select Skip Extended Software Aggregates and click Save.

Results

After you run a data import, the individual entries for extended software aggregates are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report as Not calculated.

What to do next

Run a data import to recalculate the aggregates.