Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
Now that you understand the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to get authorized and install the programs.
Welcome to the BigFix Platform documentation, where you can find information about how to install, maintain, and use BigFix.
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Following is a list of links to the BigFix Platform user guides in PDF format:
BigFix 10.0.1.41 complies with the requirements of the standard ISO/IEC 15408 (Common Criteria) v. 3.1 for the assurance level: EAL2
Use this section to become familiar with BigFix infrastructure and key concepts necessary to understand how it works.
This topic describes how the SSL/HTTPS communication works in BigFix applications and links the tasks on how to configure it.
BigFix aims to solve the increasingly complex problem of keeping your critical systems updated, compatible, and free of security issues. It uses patented Fixlet technology to identify vulnerable computers in your enterprise. With just a few mouse-clicks you can remediate them across your entire network from a central console.
BigFix Platform V11 gathers data from BigFix clients deployed with different code pages and languages. It encodes all data into UTF-8 format, and reports it back to the BigFix server.
The following deployment scenarios illustrate some basic configurations taken from actual case studies.
BigFix runs efficiently using minimal server, network, and client resources.
Before you install the product, decide if you want to do an evaluation or production installation.
You must obtain a license key before you can install and use BigFix.
Before running the installation make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
Starting from BigFix Version 11 Patch 2, the Windows Server installation introduces the support of Windows (2019 or later) with Google Cloud SQL for Microsoft SQL Server 2022 database.
Download BigFix from the HCL License & Delivery Portal (Flexnet).
When performing a fresh installation of BigFix Server Version 11, you can either perform an evaluation installation or a production installation.
Before you perform the steps below, you must have purchased a license and obtained a BigFix license authorization file (*.BESLicenseAuthorization) using your License Key Center account or, in the case of a Proof-of-Concept evaluation, that was provided to you by your HCL Technical Sales Representative.
*.BESLicenseAuthorization
You have now created a private key, requested and received a certificate, used the certificate to create a masthead, and then generated the various installation components, including the BigFix Installation Guide.
You can have one or more BigFix components installed on a local system and you can decide to remove one or all of them at the same time.
Before proceeding with this section, determine your authentication method and complete the appropriate steps in Platform/Installation/c_authenticating_additional_serv.html.
Multiple servers can provide a higher level of service for your BigFix installation.
To uninstall a replication server, call the database-stored procedure delete_replication_server, which removes the specified ID from the replication set. Be careful not to delete the wrong server, or you might lock yourself out.
After understanding the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to actually get authorized and install the programs.
Install the BigFix client on every computer in your network that you want to administer, including the computer that is running the console.
The BigFix Administration Tool, also called BESAdmin, is the tool we use to perform configuration changes and maintenance operations.
After having run the installation, make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
Relays can significantly improve the performance of your installation.
Follow the step-by-step sequence of operations needed to build the virtual machine, from the downloading of the ISO image to the complete setup and configuration of the BigFix Virtual Relay.
If your enterprise uses a proxy to access the Internet, your BigFix environment can use that communication path to gather content from sites.
You can schedule periodic backups (typically nightly) of the BigFix server and database files, to reduce the risk of losing productivity or data when a problem occurs by restoring the latest backup.
The steps to upgrade the BigFix Platform.
The performance of an SQL Server database instance can often be improved by small tweaks. Performance might also be hindered by simple oversights. In fact, some SQL Server parallelism settings have suboptimal default values. Moreover, they have to be re-tuned after an hardware upgrade. Other issues might arise from inadvertent hardware configurations, especially when SQL Server is hosted on a virtual machine (VM).
This section describes the known limitations and possible workarounds.
This section describes the log files associated with the BigFix components.
To uninstall the BigFix client installed on the various operating systems, see the following sections.
Learn how to configure BigFix according to your needs.
Learn how to work with the BigFix Console.
Learn how BigFix Asset Discovery works.
Learn how the Web Reports feature extends the power of BigFix.
Learn how the BigFix Explorer feature extends the power of BigFix.
Read this guide for an introduction to the WebUI tools, concepts, and terminology.
Read this guide for information about installing and administering the WebUI.
This glossary provides terms and definitions for the Modern Client Management for BigFix software and products.
