Welcome
Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
Patch for VMware ESXi User's Guide
BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi provides you unified, near real-time visibility to manage patches to all VMware ESXi endpoints from a single console.
Setup for management extender
This section or menu option provides instructions for installing and configuring the management extender, including the necessary prerequisite steps.
System requirements
Ensure that you meet the necessary system requirements for the BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi.

BigFix Documentation Homepage
BigFix 11 Patch Documentation
Welcome to the BigFix Patch documentation, where you can find information about how to install, maintain, and use the BigFix Patch.
Platform
Patch Overview
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
- Patch for Windows User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Windows™ provides Fixlets for Microsoft™ security and non-security patches. Dashboards, wizards, and reports aid you in managing updates for various endpoint devices.
- Patch for AIX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for AIX® provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility, and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all AIX endpoints.
- Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility, and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Red Hat Enterprise Linux endpoints.
- Patch for CentOS Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patch for CentOS Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all CentOs endpoints.
- Patch for Amazon Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patch for Amazon Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Amazon Linux endpoints.
- Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all SUSE Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Ubuntu User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Ubuntu provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Ubuntu endpoints.
- Patch for Oracle Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patches for Oracle Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Oracle Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Solaris User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Solaris provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Solaris endpoints.
- Patch for HP-UX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for HP-UX provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all HP-UX endpoints.
- Patch for Mac OS X User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for Mac OS X provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Mac OS X endpoints.
- Patch for Debian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Debian provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Debian endpoints.
- Patch for VMware ESXi User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi provides you unified, near real-time visibility to manage patches to all VMware ESXi endpoints from a single console.
  - Special notice
  - Edition notice
  - Overview
    BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi provides audit Fixlets for new patch bundle updates that VMware releases.
  - Setup for management extender
    This section or menu option provides instructions for installing and configuring the management extender, including the necessary prerequisite steps.
    - Site subscription
      Sites are collections of Fixlet messages that are created internally by you, by HCL, or by vendors.
    - Supported platforms
      BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi supports VMware audit updates on different platforms.
    - System requirements
      Ensure that you meet the necessary system requirements for the BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi.
    - Subscribing to BigFix sites
      Together with the Patches for ESXi site, you can subscribe to the Virtual Endpoint Manager site.
    - Managing the workload balance
      Managing the workload balance describes how Patch for VMware ESXi is designed to work in big environments to optimize the workload balance.
    - Configuring the Management Extender
      Before you can begin working with the different Virtualization features, you must configure a relay server or a root server to communicate with a specific VMware vCenter or ESX host.
  - Setup for VMware ESXi plugin
    This section or menu option provides instructions for installing and configuring the VMware plugin, including the necessary prerequisite steps.
  - Migration from management extender to VMware plugin
    This section provides instructions on migrating from the Management Extender to the new VMware plugin for existing setups.
  - Using BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi
    You can view the audit Fixlets when you subscribe to the Patches for ESXi site.
  - Supersedence
    Please refer to Patch/Patch_Supersedence/c_patch_supersedenceintro.html to know more about the supersedence.
  - Support
    For more information about this product, see the following resources:
  - Frequently asked questions
    The questions and answers found in this section are designed to help you better understand Patch for ESXi.
  - Notices
- Patch for Raspbian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Raspbian provides Fixlets that you use to manage the latest updates and service packs that Raspberry Pi releases. These Fixlets are available through the Patches for Raspbian sites.
- Patch for Rocky Linux User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Rocky Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility, and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Rocky Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Open SUSE Leap 15 User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Open SUSE Leap 15 provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Open SUSE Leap 15 endpoints.
- Patch for Virtual Endpoint Manager User's Guide
  BigFix® for Virtual Endpoint Manager provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches in a virtual environment.
- Updates for Middleware Applications
  Middleware patching is an important process for organizations to ensure their systems are secure and up to date. By applying the appropriate patches and security updates, organizations can minimize the risk of malicious attacks and potential data loss. BigFix users can enjoy unified patch management by using a single platform for deploying database and middleware patches.
- Supersedence for Non-Windows
  This topic describes how supersedence works in Patch.
ESU Patch Add-Ons User's Guide
BigFix content supporting the Extended Support Updates (ESU) patching program from Microsoft® is available as an add-on to BigFix Patch, BigFix Lifecycle and BigFix Compliance.
RHEL Patch Add-Ons User's Guide
Detailed system requirements
The tables in this section provide detailed information about the system requirements for BigFix 11.
Patch guides in PDF format
Following is a list of links to the BigFix Patch user guides in PDF format:

System requirements

Ensure that you meet the necessary system requirements for the BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi.

The requirements are as follows:

BigFix Version 9.5.x, 10.0.x, or 11.0.x must be used.
You must subscribe to the Patches for ESXi site.
The management extender must be installed on a system that runs Windows (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 10, Server 2016, Server 2019, and Server 2022).
The BigFix relay must be installed on the system with the management extender.
The vCenter user must have an Administrator role to configure the management extender. Having the Administrator role enables users to retrieve host patch status and to avoid relevance issues.