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.
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.

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.
    - Supported applications
      You can update supported Linux middleware applications.
    - Site Subscription - Enabling updates for Linux middleware applications
      You can enable updates for Linux middleware applications from BigFix console.
    - Gathering updates for Linux middleware applications
      Use updates from the Linux middleware applications content site to submit a gather request to the BigFix server.
    - Viewing updates for Linux middleware applications
      You can view all the contents of the site after the site gathers the required information. Use Show Non-Relevant Content to view all available contents. The contents includes both the relevant and non-relevant items.
    - Updates for Linux middleware applications in the WebUI
      You can view content about updates for Linux middleware applications in the WebUI.
  - 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.
  - 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:

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.

Note: Support for N, N-1, and N-2 versions are available for Middleware Patch update fixlets.

Prerequisite of Oracle weblogic

Before running the Fixlet, make sure that these prerequisites are met on the Linux system:

Ensure you have the recommended version of JDK for Oracle WebLogic installed during installation and for patching Oracle WebLogic 12C.

Steps to determine Oracle weblogic details on Linux system

These steps involve locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

Note: We have customized the WebLogic fixlet to meet customer needs by modifying its relevance.

The fixlet retrieves the oraInventory path from the /etc/environment file using the ORACLE_WEBLOGIC_HOME key.
Customers can specify the oraInventory path for WebLogic by setting the ORACLE_WEBLOGIC_HOME key in the /etc/environment file. This enables the fixlet to use this path for applying the WebLogic patches.
This enhancement serves as an optional feature where the default paths remain functional.
The fixlet looks for the ORACLE_WEBLOGIC_HOME key within the /etc/environment file. For example, if the oraInventory path is /Weblogic/Oracle/Middleware/oraInventory, the ORACLE_WEBLOGIC_HOME value would be /WebLogic/Oracle.

Steps to determine RedHat JBoss details on Linux system

These steps involve locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

Search in installed folder for version.txt. For example, /opt/jboss.
Check directories specified by environment variables EAP_HOME and JBOSS_HOME.
Search directories containing "eap" or "jboss" at installed folder. For example, /home.
Check /etc/default/jboss-eap.conf and /etc/environment for files containing the key JBOSS_HOME.

Steps to determine Apache Tomcat details on Linux (systemd-based)

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

You need to find .service files in /etc/systemd/system that contain the CATALINA_HOME variable, which specifies the installation location of the software.

Steps to determine MariaDB details on Linux (RPM or Debian packages)

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

For Linux systems, you can use package management tools to check for the presence and version of mariadb-server.

Steps to determine MongoDB details on Linux (RPM or Debian packages)

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

For Linux systems, you can use package management tools to check for the presence and version of mongodb-org.

Steps to determine Postgresql details on Linux (RPM or Debian packages)

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

For Linux systems, you can use package management tools to check for the presence and version of postgresql.

Steps to determine IBM MQ details on Linux (RHEL or AIX packages)

These steps involve locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

For RHEL systems, check the installed version of the MQSeriesRuntime package using the RPM package manager.
For AIX systems, check the installed version of the mqm.server.rte using the AIX object repository.

Steps to determine IBM WebSphere details on Linux

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

For Linux and Unix systems, it checks for files named installed.xml in the installed folders. For example, /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/properties/version or /usr/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/properties/version.

Steps to determine Oracle JDK details on Linux

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

For Linux, it can check the RPM or Debian packages on the machine for jdk and its version.

Steps to determine MySQL details on Linux

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

For Linux, it can check the RPM or Debian packages on the machine for ("MySQL-server";"mysql-community-server") and its version.

Steps to determine IBM DB2 details on Linux

This step involves locating specific configuration files, extracting information from them, and filtering based on certain criteria:

It checks for files named spec within the .metadata/BASE_DB2_ENGINE directories located under the installed folder /opt/ibm/db2.

Pre-caching required for Linux applications

Table 1. Software pre-caching required
Software name	Pre-caching required (Yes/No)
Oracle WebLogic	Yes, needs manual caching.
RedHat JBoss	Yes, needs manual caching.
Apache Tomcat	No, files automatically cached to server by fixlets.
MariaDB	No, files automatically cached to server by fixlets.
MongoDB	No, files automatically cached to server by fixlets.
Postgresql	No, files automatically cached to server by fixlets.
IBM MQ	Yes, needs manual caching.
IBM WebSphere	Yes, needs manual caching.
Oracle JDK	Yes, JDK 8 and 11 needs manual caching. No, JDK 17 and 21 are automatically cached using fixlets.
MySQL	No, files automatically cached to server by fixlets.
IBM DB2	Yes, needs manual caching.