Welcome
Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
Before installing
Before running the installation make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
Understanding the server components
The BigFix server responds to messages and requests from the relay, client, and console computers using a variety of components.

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.
  - Configuring a Local Firewall
    If you have defined an active firewall on the computer where you are installing the BigFix server, you can decide to configure this firewall during the BigFix server installation in one of the following ways:
  - Modifying port numbers
    By default, the server uses port 52311 to communicate with the clients, but you can choose any port number (although you should avoid the reserved ports between 1 to 1024 because of potential conflicts and difficulty managing network traffic).
  - Understanding the server components
    The BigFix server responds to messages and requests from the relay, client, and console computers using a variety of components.
- 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.
- 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 Modern Client Management for BigFix software and products.

Understanding the server components

The BigFix server responds to messages and requests from the relay, client, and console computers using a variety of components.

To better understand what the server does, read the descriptions of some of the components.

Client Registration Component: When the client is installed on a new computer, it registers itself with the client registration component of the server and the client is given a unique ID. If the computer IP address changes, the client automatically registers the new IP address with the client registration component.
Post Results Server Component: When a client detects that a Fixlet has become relevant, it reports to the Post Results server component using an HTTP POST operation. It identifies the relevant Fixlet together with the registered ID of the client computer. This information is passed on to the BigFix database through the FillDB service and then becomes viewable in the console. Other state changes are also periodically reported by the clients to the server directly or through relays.
Gather Server Component: This component watches for changes in Fixlet content for all the Fixlet sites to which you are subscribed. It downloads these changes to the server and makes them available to the GatherDB component.
FillDB Component: This component posts client results into the database.
GatherDB Component: This component gathers and stores Fixlet downloads from the Internet into the database.
Download Mirror Server Component: The Download Mirror Server component hosts Fixlet site data for the relays and clients. This component functions as a simplified download server for BigFix traffic.