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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.
Coexistence scenarios
This topic describes supported scenarios for the coexistence of BigFix Inventory and License Metric Tool.
Adding a second BigFix Inventory server
Available from 9.2.1. Multiple instances of BigFix Inventory can coexist within the same infrastructure. They can be connected to the same BigFix server but monitor different computers that are grouped according to specific criteria. It allows for reporting utilization of license metrics for subsets of computers, managing parts of the environment by separate teams, or distributing the workload by importing data from a smaller number of computers.

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.
- Detailed System requirements
  The tables in this section provide detailed information about the system requirements for BigFix Inventory 10.
- Software requirements
  Ensure that all prerequisite software is installed on the computers in your infrastructure.
- Hardware requirements
  Before deploying BigFix Inventory review hardware specifications required to serve your environment.
- 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.
  - Coexistence of BigFix Inventory and License Metric Tool in the same infrastructure
    License Metric Tool and BigFix Inventory can coexist within the same infrastructure. They can be connected to the same BigFix server but monitor different sets of computers. You can then use BigFix Inventory to discover non-IBM software and measure its license metric utilization on selected computers, and use License Metric Tool to monitor computers on which only IBM software is installed. Thanks to connecting both applications to a common BigFix server, you can manage them by using one console. It makes monitoring the environment much easier.
  - Adding a second BigFix Inventory server
    Available from 9.2.1. Multiple instances of BigFix Inventory can coexist within the same infrastructure. They can be connected to the same BigFix server but monitor different computers that are grouped according to specific criteria. It allows for reporting utilization of license metrics for subsets of computers, managing parts of the environment by separate teams, or distributing the workload by importing data from a smaller number of computers.
    - Dividing computers between servers
      Available since 9.2.1. Divide your computers between two servers by specifying unique computer settings. Based on these settings, the servers choose specific computers to import the data from. As a result, each of your servers manages a separate group of computers. Plan the division, and then mark your computers as either BFI1 or BFI2.
    - Modifying servers to include specific computers
      Available from 9.2.1. Modify the data import settings so that each of your servers imports the data only from a specific group of computers. The servers choose only those computers that meet the specified criteria, for example, that are marked with a value BFI1, but not BFI2. Other computers are omitted during the import.
    - Additional considerations
      To ensure that no problems occur while working with coexisting servers, review the following considerations and apply them to your environment.
- 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.
- Configuring secure communication
  To ensure secure communication, BigFix Inventory uses public key cryptography, which is based on algorithms that use two separate keys, a private key and a public key. This key pair is used to encrypt and decrypt communication
- 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.

Adding a second BigFix Inventory server

9.2.1 Available from 9.2.1. Multiple instances of BigFix Inventory can coexist within the same infrastructure. They can be connected to the same BigFix server but monitor different computers that are grouped according to specific criteria. It allows for reporting utilization of license metrics for subsets of computers, managing parts of the environment by separate teams, or distributing the workload by importing data from a smaller number of computers.

Important: You can fulfill the same scenarios by dividing computers into groups in a single instance of BigFix Inventory. It is the recommended approach. For more information, see: Tutorial: Reporting subcapacity usage per computer group.

To add another instance of BigFix Inventory, install another BigFix Inventory server and connect it to the same BigFix platform. Ensure that both instances of BigFix Inventory use the same fixlet site. From the BigFix perspective, the separation of servers is not visible. The servers use the same fixlet site, computers, and tasks that are used to scan the environment and discover software. The separation occurs during the import of data from BigFix to BigFix Inventory servers.

To import data from different sets of computers, divide the computers into groups by giving them unique computer settings. Then, create an analysis that retrieves the values of these settings. Finally, modify the data import so that each BigFix Inventory server imports data only from computers that have a particular setting, and omits the remaining ones. As a result, each BigFix Inventory server manages a separate group of computers.

Note: Consider the following limitation only if you initially installed BigFix Inventory version 9.2.3 or earlier, regardless of whether you upgraded to a newer version since:

The coexisting servers must use the same database software, either SQL Server or DB2, and have the same software catalog uploaded. It is required because you will later disable the catalog delivery in one of the servers, so that a common catalog is always delivered to all computers. Different signatures in catalogs for SQL Server and DB2 would cause problems in software discovery. For more information, see Additional considerations.

Complete the following procedures to enable the coexistence.