Welcome
Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
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.
Using BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise
BigFix Patch provides a simplified patching process for downloading and installing patches that are relevant to a target endpoint. Use the Fixlets on the Patching Support and the various Patches for SUSE Linux Enterprise Fixlet sites to apply patches to your deployment.
Manage Preference Lists
Preference lists are lists of packages that affect the dependencies that are installed for systems patched by content with endpoint dependency resolution. This feature is applicable only for the Patches for SLE11 System Z site.

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.
  - Special notice
  - Edition notice
  - Overview
    The BigFix Patch solution, which includes deploying a multi-purpose, lightweight agent to all endpoint devices, supports a wide variety of device types ranging from workstations and servers to mobile and point-of-sale (POS) devices.
  - Using the download plug-in
    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.
  - Using the download cacher
    The download cacher is a standalone command-line tool that is designed to download and cache files required for caching. The pre-cached files can be used by the download plug-in to patch the endpoints.
  - Using BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise
    BigFix Patch provides a simplified patching process for downloading and installing patches that are relevant to a target endpoint. Use the Fixlets on the Patching Support and the various Patches for SUSE Linux Enterprise Fixlet sites to apply patches to your deployment.
    - Patching using Fixlets
      You can apply SUSE Linux™ patches to your deployment by using the Fixlets on the Patches for SLE sites.
    - Viewing deployment results
      The results of a successful action for Fixlet content with endpoint dependency resolution are written in a log file on the endpoint. You must activate an analysis to view the results.
    - Manage Preference Lists
      Preference lists are lists of packages that affect the dependencies that are installed for systems patched by content with endpoint dependency resolution. This feature is applicable only for the Patches for SLE11 System Z site.
    - Using the Preference Lists Dashboard
      Use the Preference List Dashboard to create preference lists.
    - Retrieving installed RPM package information
      The list of installed RPM packages on SUSE Linux Enterprise endpoints can be retrieved by activating analysis on the BigFix console.
    - Supersedence
  - 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.
  - Custom repositories management
    You can set up your custom repositories and Subscription Management Tool (SMT) to manage patches for SUSE Linux Enterprise version 11 and later. This solution allows for multiple repositories and SMTs on the entire deployment.
  - SLE Btrfs snapshot management
    View and manage SLE Btrfs snapshots from the BigFix console. Snapshot management uses Snapper's ability to roll back Btrfs file system snapshots. This feature works with SUSE Linux Enterprise version 11 SP2 and later.
  - Support
    For more information about this product, see the following resources:
  - Troubleshooting
    When problems occur, you can determine what went wrong by viewing messages in the appropriate log files that provide information about how to correct errors.
  - Frequently asked questions
    To better understand Patch Management for SUSE Linux™ Enterprise, read the following questions and answers.
  - Notices
- 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:

Manage Preference Lists

Preference lists are lists of packages that affect the dependencies that are installed for systems patched by content with endpoint dependency resolution. This feature is applicable only for the Patches for SLE11 System Z site.

Preference lists have the following characteristics:

Packages included in forbidden preference lists are forbidden when dependencies are resolved.
Packages included in preferred preference lists are preferred over packages not in the list when dependencies are resolved.
Packages included higher in the preference lists are preferred over packages lower in the lists. You can manage these preference lists by using the Preference Lists Dashboard.