Welcome
Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
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 and configuring SQL Server 2025 DB
Starting from BigFix Version 11 Patch 6, the Windows Server installation introduces the support of Windows Server 2019 (or later) x86 64-bit with Microsoft SQL Server 2025 database.

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
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 and configuring SQL Server 2025 DB
    Starting from BigFix Version 11 Patch 6, the Windows Server installation introduces the support of Windows Server 2019 (or later) x86 64-bit with Microsoft SQL Server 2025 database.
  - Installing and configuring DB on Cloud
    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.
  - Downloading BigFix
    Download BigFix from the HCL License & Delivery Portal (Flexnet).
  - Performing an evaluation installation
    When performing a fresh installation of BigFix Server Version 11, you can either perform an evaluation installation or a production installation.
  - Requesting a license certificate and creating the masthead
    Before you perform the steps below, you must have purchased a license and obtained a BigFix license authorization file (*.BESLicenseAuthorization) using your My HCL Software account or, in the case of a Proof-of-Concept evaluation, that was provided to you by your HCL Technical Sales Representative.
  - Installing the components
    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.
  - Removing the BigFix components from Windows
    If you have one or more BigFix components installed on a computer, you can remove all of them at once, or one at a time.
  - DSA on Windows
- 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.
- 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 paths
  This page lists the default paths of the BigFix log files relative to: installation, upgrade, running components, plugins, and audit.
- 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.

Installing and configuring SQL Server 2025 DB

Starting from BigFix Version 11 Patch 6, the Windows Server installation introduces the support of Windows Server 2019 (or later) x86 64-bit with Microsoft SQL Server 2025 database.

BigFix Platform Version 11 GA supported the following configurations:

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 installed on Windows.
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 installed on Windows.
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 installed on Windows.
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 installed on Windows.
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 installed on Windows.

Note that the Enterprise and Standard editions are recommended.

Starting from BigFix Version 11 Patch 6, the Windows Server installation introduces the support of Windows Server x86 64-bit with Microsoft SQL Server 2025 database.

Note that the Enterprise and Standard editions are recommended.

On Microsoft SQL Server 2022 and 2025 the Strict Encryption is not supported.