Welcome
Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
HA and DR configurations
Starting with BigFix Platform Version 11.0.4, it is easier to use third-party technologies to implement High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) configurations for the BigFix Server component on Windows.
HA and DR limitations
As of BigFix Platform Version 11.0.4, HA and DR configurations using Microsoft technologies are subject to certain limitations, which should be taken into account.

BigFix Documentation Homepage
BigFix 11 Platform Documentation
Welcome to the BigFix Platform documentation, where you can find information about how to install, maintain, and use BigFix.
Detailed system requirements
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Platform guides in PDF format
Following is a list of links to the BigFix Platform user guides in PDF format:
Common Criteria Certification
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
Getting Started
Use this section to become familiar with BigFix infrastructure and key concepts necessary to understand how it works.
HTTPS across BigFix applications
This topic describes how the SSL/HTTPS communication works in BigFix applications and links the tasks on how to configure it.
Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
- Introduction
  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 Unicode Support Overview
  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.
- Sample deployment scenarios
  The following deployment scenarios illustrate some basic configurations taken from actual case studies.
- Requirements and assumptions
  BigFix runs efficiently using minimal server, network, and client resources.
- Types of installation
  Before you install the product, decide if you want to do an evaluation or production installation.
- Managing licenses
  You must obtain a license key before you can install and use BigFix.
- Before installing
  Before running the installation make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
- Installing on Windows systems
  Now that you understand the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to get authorized and install the programs.
- Installing on Linux systems
  After understanding the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to actually get authorized and install the programs.
- Installing the clients
  Install the BigFix client on every computer in your network that you want to administer, including the computer that is running the console.
- BigFix Administration Tool
  The BigFix Administration Tool, also called BESAdmin, is the tool we use to perform configuration changes and maintenance operations.
- Post-installation configuration steps
  After having run the installation, make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
- Managing relays
  Relays can significantly improve the performance of your installation.
- Introduction to Tiny Core Linux - BigFix Virtual Relay
  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.
- Setting up a proxy connection
  If your enterprise uses a proxy to access the Internet, your BigFix environment can use that communication path to gather content from sites.
- Running backup and restore
  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.
- HA and DR configurations
  Starting with BigFix Platform Version 11.0.4, it is easier to use third-party technologies to implement High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) configurations for the BigFix Server component on Windows.
  - Introduction to HA and DR
    The objective of this section is to provide the basic concepts needed to structure the top level of your BigFix environment in a way that can help you achieve "business continuity".
  - Configuring HA and DR on Windows
    How to set up a BigFix Server for High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) on Windows.
  - HA and DR limitations
    As of BigFix Platform Version 11.0.4, HA and DR configurations using Microsoft technologies are subject to certain limitations, which should be taken into account.
- Upgrading
  The steps to upgrade the BigFix Platform.
- SQL Server parallelism optimization
  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).
- Known limitations and workarounds
  This section describes the known limitations and possible workarounds.
- Logging
  This section describes the log files associated with the BigFix components.
- Uninstalling the BigFix client
  To uninstall the BigFix client installed on the various operating systems, see the following sections.
Configuration Guide
Learn how to configure BigFix according to your needs.
Console Operator's Guide
Learn how to work with the BigFix Console.
Asset Discovery User's Guide
Learn how BigFix Asset Discovery works.
Web Reports Guide
Learn how the Web Reports feature extends the power of BigFix.
BigFix Explorer Guide
Learn how the BigFix Explorer feature extends the power of BigFix.
WebUI User's Guide
Read this guide for an introduction to the WebUI tools, concepts, and terminology.
WebUI Administration Guide
Read this guide for information about installing and administering the WebUI.
Glossary
This glossary provides terms and definitions for the BigFix software and products.

HA and DR limitations

As of BigFix Platform Version 11.0.4, HA and DR configurations using Microsoft technologies are subject to certain limitations, which should be taken into account.

At no point should two computers in the same cluster run the BigFix Server (or the WebUI) at the same time. To ensure this does not happen, only start and stop services that are part of a cluster role via the cluster manager.

Operations that stop or restart a service within a cluster role without using the cluster manager can trigger a failover of that role. For example, operations that change the BigFix masthead can automatically restart the BigFix Server services, causing the role that contains them to failover. We recommend switching to a manual failover before performing such operations.

There is currently no way to change the masthead location of the BigFix Server and move it to a shared storage folder. You should find a way to synchronize it across your BigFix Server installations, so it is ready in case of a failover.

The WebUI service may frequently restart itself, especially if you have automatic updates enabled, which is the default. We do not recommend putting it in the same role as the BigFix Server services.

There is currently no recommended procedure to move the Web Reports and WebUI data files to shared storage.