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Installing
Learn about the requirements and available installation scenarios to ensure that the deployment of BigFix Inventory goes smoothly in your environment.
Planning the installation
Before you start the installation, review information about hardware and software requirements and other considerations to ensure that the installation completes successfully.
Installation accounts
You can install all the infrastructure components as the administrative user. You can also install some components as a non-administrative user but some limitations apply.

Installing
Learn about the requirements and available installation scenarios to ensure that the deployment of BigFix Inventory goes smoothly in your environment.
- Planning the installation
  Before you start the installation, review information about hardware and software requirements and other considerations to ensure that the installation completes successfully.
  - BigFix Inventory infrastructure
    A complete deployment of BigFix Inventory consists of the BigFix Inventory server and its database, the BigFix server and its database, and a BigFix console. Additionally, a BigFix client must be installed on every computer from which you want to collect software inventory data. Depending on the environment size, you can install all components on a single computer, or distribute them among multiple computers.
  - System requirements
    Ensure that computers on which you want to install BigFix Inventory components run on supported operating systems and hypervisors and have the prerequisite software installed.
  - Software requirements
    Ensure that all prerequisite software is installed on the computers in your infrastructure.
  - Hardware requirements
    During setup, match your optimum deployment size to your hardware specifications. Use the recommendations as a general guidance.
  - Port requirements
    When planning the infrastructure, ensure that port numbers used by BigFix Inventory, BigFix, and the database are free to enable communication between those components.
  - Firewall exceptions
    Some of the fixlets require that the BigFix server connects to the Internet and downloads necessary files and updates. To ensure that they can be downloaded, relevant web addresses must be accessible from the computer where the server is installed. Add those addresses as firewall exceptions and ensure that they are accessible to the proxy server if you are using it.
  - Proxy exceptions
    If the BigFix server uses a proxy for Internet connection to access fixlet sites or prefetch downloads, the BigFix Inventory server must be added to an exception list to ensure that the catalog propagation works properly.
  - Installation accounts
    You can install all the infrastructure components as the administrative user. You can also install some components as a non-administrative user but some limitations apply.
  - Coexistence scenarios
    This topic describes supported scenarios for the coexistence of BigFix Inventory and License Metric Tool.
- Installing on Windows
  A complete deployment of BigFix Inventory on Windows requires the installation of three components: the BigFix platform, the BigFix Inventory server, and an MS SQL database. Additionally, a BigFix client must be installed on every computer from which you want to collect software inventory data. You can install all components from scratch or add the BigFix Inventory server to the existing BigFix infrastructure. Depending on the environment size, you can install all components on a single computer, or distribute them among multiple computers.
- Installing on Linux
  A complete deployment of BigFix Inventory on Linux requires the installation of three components: the BigFix platform, the BigFix Inventory server, and DB2 database. Additionally, a BigFix client must be installed on every computer from which you want to collect software inventory data. Depending on the environment size, you can install all components on a single computer, or distribute them among multiple computers.
- Installation-related tasks
  If you encounter problems during the installation, you can check details related to the problem, fix it, and then resume the installation. If the BigFix and BigFix Inventory servers are in separated networks, you can disable the automatic address lookup to avoid problems with initial configuration. Learn how to check the current application and catalog version to make sure that your installation and initial configuration were successful.

Installation accounts

You can install all the infrastructure components as the administrative user. You can also install some components as a non-administrative user but some limitations apply.

Table 1. Installation accounts for the components of the BigFix Inventory infrastructure
Component	User	Limitations
BigFix Inventory server on Linux	root or non-root user	Server that is installed by a non-root user is not registered as a system service. It also cannot be upgraded with a fixlet. It must be upgraded in interactive or silent mode.
BigFix Inventory server on Windows	User with administrative privileges with the log on as a service permission. If you want to use the Windows authentication mode and your database server is remote, ensure that the user that accesses the database is a domain user. This user needs to have the dbcreator or sysadmin rights in MS SQL database.
DB2®	root or non-root user	For information about limitations that apply when you install DB2® as a non-root user, see the following links. Non-root installation overview DB2® 10.1 documentation Non-root installation overview DB2® 11.1 documentation
SQL Server	User with administrative privileges
BigFix server	User with administrative privileges (Windows) or root (Linux)
BigFix client	User with administrative privileges (Windows) or root (Linux and UNIX)	The user on Linux and UNIX cannot be a pseudo user.