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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 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.
Managing the Server ID limit
The Server ID is the identifier of the BigFix server.

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 V9.5 gathers data from BigFix clients deployed with different code pages and languages, encode the data into UTF-8 format, and report it back to the BigFix server.
- Sample deployment scenarios
  The following deployment scenarios illustrate some basic configurations taken from actual case studies. Your organization might look similar to one of the examples below, depending on the size of your network, the various bandwidth restrictions between clusters and the number of relays and servers. The main constraint is not CPU power, but bandwidth.
- 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.
  - Step 1 - Downloading BigFix
    Download BigFix from the HCL License & Delivery Portal (Flexnet).
  - Performing an evaluation installation
    When performing a fresh installation of BigFix Server Version 9.5 Patch 7 or later, you can either perform an evaluation installation or a production installation.
  - Step 2 - Requesting a license 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 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.
  - 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.
    - Managing the Server ID limit
      The Server ID is the identifier of the BigFix server.
    - Installing the Windows primary server
      The BigFix server is the heart of the system. It runs on a server-class computer on your network, which must have direct Internet access as well as direct access to all the client computers in your network.
    - Installing the Client on Windows
    - Installing the console
      The BigFix console lets the operator monitor and fix problems on all managed computers across the network.
    - Installing a stand-alone Web Reports server
      By default, the Web Reports component is installed along with the BigFix server.
    - Installing the WebUI
      Use this procedure to install the WebUI on BigFix Version 9.5.11 or later.
  - Removing the Product Components on Windows systems
    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.
  - 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.
- Upgrading on Windows systems
- Upgrading on Linux systems
- 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

Managing the Server ID limit

The Server ID is the identifier of the BigFix server.

In a single instance server deployment, the Server ID is 00. If there are other servers in the deployment that are configured for DSA replication with the primary server,they will assume the following values: 01, 02, 03, etc..

With BigFix 9.5.10, the maximum number of Server IDs you can use is 32 (from 00 to 31). Consequently, the number of allowed DSA servers decreases from 256 to 32.

The following checks are run:

In the server upgrade scenario, a pre-check is run to ensure that the DSA servers that are already configured are not more than 32, otherwise an error message to reduce the Server IDs is issued. To solve the problem, contact HCL Customer Support.
When installing a new DSA server, an additional check ensures that the upper limit for the Server IDs does not exceed a given threshold, otherwise a warning is logged in BESAdminDebugOut.txt. The same check inhibits or prevents the new DSA server installation if the limit is reached.
When you replicate the database using the Replication tab in the BigFix Admin tool, the BESAdmin command or the RESTAPI, if the Server ID is between 26 and 31, a warning is logged in the BESAdminDebugOut.txt and BESRelay.log respectively.