Welcome
Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
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.
Using RHSM download plug-ins
The download plug-in is an executable program that downloads relevant packages directly from the patch vendor. Fixlets use an internal protocol to communicate with the download plug-in to download files. These Fixlets are based on updates made by the vendor.
Setting up RHSM download plug-in
You must create and download identification certificates through the Red Hat Subscription Management system to use the RHSM Download Plug-in.

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.
  - Special notice
  - Edition notice
  - Overview
    BigFix® Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux™ keeps your Linux clients current with the latest updates and service packs.
  - Setup
    Setting up your environment for patch management.
  - Using Patch Management for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    You can manage Fixlets using dashboards, reports, and wizards. You can deploy, fix, and uninstall Fixlets. You can also view the breakdown of Fixlets available or needed in your deployment.
  - Manage custom repositories
    Use the RHEL Custom Repository Management dashboard to register and manage standard repositories and satellite repositories.
  - Manage YUM transactions
    Manage transactions through the YUM Transaction History dashboard, supports the use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6 and later versions.
  - Checking for YUM package updates
    You can identify YUM package updates that you must install in your deployment by using a task.
  - Using RHSM download plug-ins
    The download plug-in is an executable program that downloads relevant packages directly from the patch vendor. Fixlets use an internal protocol to communicate with the download plug-in to download files. These Fixlets are based on updates made by the vendor.
    - Setting up RHSM download plug-in
      You must create and download identification certificates through the Red Hat Subscription Management system to use the RHSM Download Plug-in.
    - Registering the RHSM download plug-in
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to register the RHSM download plug-in on the BigFix server or BigFix relay.
    - Registering the RHSM download plug-in for BigFix Relays
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to register the RHSM download plug-in on the BigFix Relays.
    - Creating the RHSM entitlement certificates
      You must create and download certificates through the Red Hat Subscription Management system. From the Red Hat portal, you must register a system then attach your subscriptions (entitlements) to that system.
    - Adding the RHSM entitlement certificates to the download plug-in
      To add certificates to the download plug-in, create a folder in <BES Server>\DownloadPlugins\RHSMProtocol\certs and copy the entitlement certificates and the system identity certificates in the created folder.
    - Verifying RHSM download plug-in certificate access to Red Hat repositories
      From the command line, you can use the --check-baserepos and the --check-allrepos commands to check that the entitlement certificates, which are in the 'certs' folder, have access to the supported Red Hat repositories.
    - Configuring the blacklist repository function to allow only entitled repositories
      The repository blacklist function blocks access to Red Hat repositories that are not needed for patching.
    - Configuring the basic RHSM download plug-in settings
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to configure the basic properties, such as proxy settings of the Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) download plug-in.
    - Configuring the advanced RHSM download plug-in settings
      For advanced configurations, manually edit the RHSM download plug-in configuration file called plugin.ini.
    - Unregistering the RHSM download plug-in
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to unregister the RHSM download plug-in.
    - Upgrading the RHSM download plug-in
      Use the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard to upgrade the RHSM download plug-in to the latest version available.
    - Extending the RHSM download plug-in (Optional)
      You can configure the RHSM download plug-in to download and cache packages from repositories that are not officially supported by BigFix.
  - Using the RHSM download cacher
    Use the RHSM download cacher to download and cache x86, x86_64, S390x, ppc64le, ppc64 Red Hat patches in air-gapped environments.
  - Multiple-Package Baseline Installation
    BigFix Patch provides a solution to combine the installation of updates for multiple packages in a baseline into a single task, which can reduce the execution time of the baseline.
  - Support
    For more information about this product, see the following resources:
  - Frequently asked questions
    The questions and answers in the section can help you to better understand Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
  - Troubleshooting
    You can try several ways to troubleshoot Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux™. This section also has references that are specific to the RHSM enhancements.
  - Notices
- 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.
- 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:

Setting up RHSM download plug-in

You must create and download identification certificates through the Red Hat Subscription Management system to use the RHSM Download Plug-in.

Before you use the RHSM Download Plug-in, you must do the following steps to set up the RHSM certificate.

Ensure that you have met the prerequisites to using the RHSM Download Plug-in. The prerequisites are found in Registering the RHSM Download Plug-in.
Register the RHSM Download Plug-in.
Create RHSM certificates through access.redhat.com
Add the certificates to the download plug-in. It is possible to add multiple certificates.
Verify that the RHSM download plug-in certificate has access to Red Hat repositories
Import the GPG keys to endpoints

Red Hat requires the use of GPG keys. Before deploying patches, you must apply the applicable task to import the GPG keys to the endpoints.
- Import RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release - RHEL 6 (from the Patches for RHEL6 Native Tools site)
- Import RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release - RHEL 7 (from the Patches for RHEL 7 site)
You only need to deploy the Import GPG key Fixlet once to the endpoints. The following tasks are optional.
- Use the Change Timeout for Prefetch Plugins task, which is found in the Patching Support site, to avoid an error with the execution of the prefetch plug-in. The error is caused by a short prefetch timeout setting. To remedy this, run the task to change the timeout to 30 minutes.
- After running the task to change the timeout settings, restart the BES client with the TROUBLESHOOTING: Restart BES Client on RHEL/SUSE task. The task is found in the BES Support site.
When configuring the download plug-in, the BigFix server and the BigFix client on the BigFix server must have the same version to avoid a null error. At a minimum, the version must be on the same major version level, for example 9.x.

For more information about what other tasks you can do with the download plug-in, including configuring, extending, and unregistering the download plug-in, see Using the RHSM download plug-in.