Welcome
Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
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.
Oracle Database
An Oracle Database (DB) is a collection of data treated as a unit. A database stores and retrieves related information. Oracle Database is widely used and known for its reliability, scalability, and extensive features.

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.
- 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.
  - Special notice
  - Edition notice
  - Updates for Linux applications - middleware
    With Updates for Linux applications - middleware content site, customer can deploy updates to a vast number of third-party middleware applications.
  - Updates for Windows applications - middleware
    With Updates for Windows applications - middleware content site, customer can deploy updates to a vast number of third-party middleware applications.
  - Manual caching
    Manual caching refers to manually storing and managing data in a cache. Users can put patch files into a folder structure or just manually cache the files.
  - Oracle Weblogic
    Oracle WebLogic Server is a unified and extensible platform for developing, deploying, and running enterprise applications. Oracle WebLogic Server is a software application that runs on a middleware tier, between back-end databases and related applications and browser-based thin clients.
  - Oracle Database
    An Oracle Database (DB) is a collection of data treated as a unit. A database stores and retrieves related information. Oracle Database is widely used and known for its reliability, scalability, and extensive features.
    - Configuring Oracle DB patching for your deployment
      You can configure Oracle DB patching for your deployment from BigFix console.
    - Preparing Oracle DB patch downloads
      Complete these steps to prepare for downloading Oracle DB patches.
    - Check servers for Oracle DB patch readiness by using the precheck Fixlets
      For each Oracle DB patch Fixlet a corresponding precheck Fixlet is available. The precheck Fixlets check that your Oracle DB servers are ready to accept the the specified Oracle patch level.
    - Patch Oracle databases
      Oracle Database Patch Fixlets are specific to OS, Oracle version, and specific patch level such as "OracleDB 19c on Linux - 2023-10 Patch". (There are also Patch Fixlet variants specific to ASM and RAC.) When a Patch Fixlet is deployed to a database server, it attempts to patch all the targeted databases on that server; for example, "OracleDB 19c on Linux - 2023-10 Patch" will patch all 19c databases listed in the server's oratab file to 2023-10.
    - Rolling back an Oracle DB patch
      You can roll back most Oracle DB patches with Fixlets that HCL provides. However, rollbacks are not officially supported.
    - Troubleshooting
      Troubleshooting in Oracle DB involves diagnosing and resolving issues that might arise while you work with the database server, applications, or related components.
  - Support
    For more information about this product, see the following resources:
  - Notices
- 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:

Oracle Database

An Oracle Database (DB) is a collection of data treated as a unit. A database stores and retrieves related information. Oracle Database is widely used and known for its reliability, scalability, and extensive features.

Patching an Oracle Database with BigFix involves three basic steps:

Deploying an "Update" Fixlet as a Policy Action: This action captures information about all databases in the oratab file (or Oracle services on Windows) along with their respective patch levels.

Deploying a "Precheck" Fixlet: This steps includes updating the Oracle opatch utility to the version required by the patch, and to verify the prerequisites (disk space, patch conflicts, etc) for installing the patch.

Deploying a "Patch" Fixlet: The final step is to deploy a "Patch" Fixlet that installs both the binary and database patches.

Note: On non-Windows systems, the Update Fixlet can only capture information about databases that are in the oratab file. If a database is not in the oratab file, the patch Fixlet will not include it in the patching process.

Note: The Precheck and Patch Fixlets are specific to OS, Oracle version, and specific patch level such as "OracleDB 19c on Linux - 2023-10 Patch". (There are also Fixlet variants specific to ASM and RAC.) When a Precheck or Patch Fixlet is deployed to a database server, it performs prechecks or patches on all the targeted databases on that server. For example, "OracleDB 19c on Linux - 2023-10 Patch" will patch all 19c databases on the server to 2023-10, that are listed in the oratab file.

Note: The Precheck Fixlet is designed to be run multiple times as needed prior to patching. Running the Precheck Fixlet allows you to verify that all the prerequisites are met before deploying the corresponding Patch Fixlet.