BigFix is a suite of products that provides a fast and intuitive solution for compliance, endpoint, and security management and allows organizations to see and manage physical and virtual endpoints through a single infrastructure, a single console, and a single type of agent.

All the BigFix applications run on top of the BigFix platform.

The BigFix solution comprises several application products that provide consolidated security and operations management, simplified and streamlined endpoint management, while increasing accuracy and productivity.

A sample architecture helps you planning your environment.

BigFix is based on contents. The generic term of content might represent data to distribute to targets, or instructions to run on targets, or queries to run on targets.

BigFix helps you identify on which targets to apply content.

Follow the steps listed in these topics to learn how to deploy a patch using the Patch Management application on a newly installed BigFix server. All the steps are run from the BigFix console.

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 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.

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.

BigFix runs efficiently using minimal server, network, and client resources.

Before you install the product, decide if you want to do an evaluation or production installation.

You must obtain a license key before you can install and use BigFix.

Before running the installation make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.

Now that you understand the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to get authorized and install the programs.

After understanding the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to actually get authorized and install the programs.

Install the BigFix client on every computer in your network that you want to administer, including the computer that is running the console.

The BigFix Administration Tool, also called BESAdmin, is the tool we use to perform configuration changes and maintenance operations.

After having run the installation, make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.

Relays can significantly improve the performance of your installation.

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.

If your enterprise uses a proxy to access the Internet, your BigFix environment can use that communication path to gather content from sites.

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.

This section describes the known limitations and possible workarounds.

This section describes the log files associated with the BigFix components.

This guide explains additional configuration steps that you can run in your environment after installation.

In BigFix there are two basic classes of users.

You can add Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) associations to BigFix.

Starting from Version 9.5.5, BigFix supports SAML V2.0 authentication via LDAP-backed SAML identity providers.

Here are some of the important elements of multiple server installations:

The BigFix server generates unique IDs for the objects that it creates: Fixlets, tasks, baselines, properties, analysis, actions, roles, custom sites, computer groups, management rights, subscriptions.

You can gather license updates and external sites by using the HTTP or HTTPS protocol on a BigFix server or in an airgapped environment.

BigFix Console, Server and Relay components of the architecture perform high volume file operations.

In air-gapped environments, to download and transfer files to the main BigFix server, use the Airgap utility and the BES Download Cacher utility.

The BigFix Query feature allows you to retrieve information and run relevance queries on client workstations from the WebUI BigFix Query Application or by using REST APIs.

Starting from Patch 11, the capability to establish persistent connections was added to the product.

Starting from Patch 13, the capability to establish a persistent TCP connection between the parent relay in the more secure zone and its child relay inside the DMZ network was added to the product. This allows you to manage systems in a demilitarized zone (DMZ network).

The BigFix client includes a new feature named PeerNest, that allows to share binary files among clients located in the same subnet. The feature is available starting from BigFix Version 9.5 Patch 11.

You can collect multiple files from BigFix clients into an archive and move them through the relay system to the server.

A number of advanced BigFix configuration settings are available that can give you substantial control over the behavior of the BigFix suite. These options allow you to customize the behavior of the BigFix server, relays, and clients in your network.

These topics explain additional configuration steps that you can run in your environment.

This section details the steps and operational procedures necessary for migrating the BigFix Server from existing hardware onto new computer systems.

This section provides basic information on migrating your BigFix Server from existing Linux hardware onto new systems.

Starting with BigFix version 9.5.11, the server audit logs include the following items:

The following lists show the advanced options that you can specify in the Advanced Options tab of the BigFix Administrative tool on Windows systems, or in the BESAdmin.sh command on Linux systems using the following syntax:

BigFix provides the capability to follow the NIST security standards by configuring an enhanced security option.

Client Authentication extends the security model used by BigFix to encompass trusted client reports and private messages.

If you are subscribed to the Patches for Windows site, you can ensure that you have the latest upgrades and patches to your SQL server database servers.

The console is the visible face of BigFix, used by the operator to monitor and repair networked computers running the BigFix client.

Actions are scripts that run on selected targets. They are used to fix policy violation and security exposures and to run configuration steps. Fixlet, tasks, and baselines depend on actions to run their remediation mission.

A brief overview on how BigFix discovers assets and on what are Scan Points.

How to operate and thing to know about Asset Discovery.

The following options will work as command line arguments to run the importer on its own. For example "UAImporter-NMAP -debugout output.txt -file testfile.xml".

A list of the most frequently asked questions.

Web Reports is used whenever you want to view BigFix data that is spread over multiple databases in your deployment.

The Web Reports interface is simple and straightforward.

The Explore Data section of the program allows you to look at data collected from your entire BigFix network to filter it, and to create reports.

The Report List section of the program is accessed by clicking the appropriate tab from the top tab bar.

The Administration section of the program lets you manage activities, filters, addresses, users, and databases.

Tasks unlikely to be needed by the typical user, but which can be of use to advanced users with specific customization needs.