Hardware requirements for the server on Linux

Ensure that the computer on which you are installing the BigFix Inventory meets the minimal CPU, and memory requirements for the server and database elements.

Virtualized environment

The ETL (extract, transform, and load) import heavily uses the DB2 database resources. BigFix Inventory and DB2 server can be installed on a virtualized environment. However, for large deployments that consist of 50 000 - 100 000 computers, it is recommended that dedicated hardware is used.

In a virtual environment for medium size deployments that consist of 10 000 - 50 000 computers, it is recommended that dedicated resources are considered for processor, memory, and virtual disk allocation. The virtual disk that is allocated for the VM should be dedicated RAID storage, with dedicated IO bandwidth for that VM.

Use DB2 server that is dedicated for BigFix Inventory and is not shared with BigFix or other applications. Fine-tuning based on the above mentioned recommendations might be required.

Processor and RAM

The values provided for BigFix were calculated with the assumption that the BigFix server, its database and Web Reports server are installed on a single server and that the BigFix server is dedicated to BigFix Inventory. If you share the BigFix server between other applications, refer to the BigFix documentation for information about hardware requirements: BigFix requirements.

The values provided for BigFix Inventory were calculated for the maximum of five concurrent application users.

Table 1. Processor and RAM requirements for BigFix Inventory

The table consists of four columns and four body rows. The second column is further divided into two sub-columns.
Environment size Topology Processor Memory

Small environment

Up to 5 000 endpoints

 1 server BigFix, its database, and Web Reports server, BigFix Inventory and DB2 2-3 GHz, 4 cores 8 GB

(3GB)Xmx

Medium environment

5 000 - 50 000 endpoints*

 2/3 servers** BigFix, its database, and Web Reports server 2-3 GHz, 4 cores 16 GB
BigFix Inventory and DB2 2-3 GHz, 4 cores 12 - 24 GB

(6GB)Xmx

Large environment

50 000 - 150 000 endpoints*

 2/3 servers** BigFix, its database, and Web Reports server 2-3 GHz, 4 - 16 cores 16 - 32 GB
BigFix Inventory and DB2 2-3 GHz, 8 - 16 cores 32 - 64 GB

(8GB)Xmx

Very large environment

More than 150 000 endpoints*

 2/3 servers** BigFix, its database, and Web Reports server 2-3 GHz, 16 cores 32 - 64 GB
BigFix Inventory and DB2 2-3 GHz, 8 - 16 cores 64 - 96 GB***

(8GB)Xmx
  • * For environments with more than 35 000 endpoints, scan groups are required. For more information, see Tuning performance.
  • ** A distributed environment, where BigFix Inventory is separated from the database, is advisable.
  • xmx The default settings for the Java heap size is not sufficient for medium and large environments. If your environment consists of more than 5000 endpoints, increase the memory available to Java client processes by increasing the Java heap size.
  • Procedure
  • 1. Go to the <INSTALL_DIR>/wlp/usr/servers/server1/ directory and edit the jvm.options file.
  • 2. Set the maximum Java heap size (Xmx) as suggested in table above.
  • 3. Restart BigFix Inventory server.

Disk space

The following tables show disk space requirements for each component.
Important: The BigFix client is also installed on the computers where the components are installed. Ensure that the computers have enough space for the client. For more information, see: Hardware requirements for the client.

BigFix Inventory

Table 2. Disk space requirements for BigFix Inventory installed on Linux

The table consists of three columns and five body rows. The first body row is further divided into two rows.
Default Directory Space required Comments
user_directory/BFI_installer 500 MB Compressed installer that is downloaded to the selected endpoint from BigFix. The compressed installer can be deleted after it is extracted.
500 MB Extracted installation files.
/opt/BFI 3 GB BigFix Inventory installation directory. The amount includes space required for future upgrades.
/tmp 350 MB Temporary files used during the installation.
Important: The installer must be able to run executable files in this directory.
$HOME 1 MB Home directory of the user running the installation.
/etc 1 MB Directory that stores scripts that start the server.
/var 10 kB Directory that stores the installation registry.

DB2 for BigFix Inventory

Table 3. Disk space requirements for DB2 for BigFix Inventory

The table consists of three columns and four body rows.
Default Directory Space required Comments
/opt/IBM/db2 1.5 GB DB2 installation directory.
/var/db2 10 kB Directory that stores DB2 global registry.
/home/db2inst1 See Comments Database server instance.
The amount of disk space that is required for the database server depends on the number of computers in your environment and the average size of scan files and analysis. It can be calculated according to the following formula*:
  • <The number of computers> x 1 MB + 15 GB of initial disk space
For example:
10 000 computers
10 000 x 1 MB + 15 GB = 25 GB
100 000 computers
100 000 x 1 MB + 15 GB = 115 GB
/home/db2inst1/db2inst1/ See Comments Database server transaction logs.
During the data import (ETL process), BigFix Inventory requires some additional free disk space for database server transaction logs. The amount of disk space that is required can be significant because transaction logs store two sets of data:
  • Data that is used for recovery if the ETL fails
  • Data that is used to create new ETL results
The amount of disk space that is necessary for the transaction logs depends on the number of computers in your environment as well as the number of computers in a single scan group from which data is processed during the import.

To lower the amount of disk space that is necessary for transactions logs, distribute the scans over time so they are processed during several data imports instead of one.

The size of transaction logs can be calculated according to the following formula*:
  • <The number of computers> x 1.2 MB + <the number of computers in the biggest scan group> x 1.2 MB + 17 GB of initial disk space
For example:
10 000 computers and 10 000 scan results
10 000 x 1.2 MB + 10 000 x 1.2 MB + 17 GB = 41 GB
100 000 computers and 15 000 scan results
100 000 x 1.2 MB + 15 000 x 1.2 MB + 17 GB = 155 GB

*The disk space requirements are calculated based on the average number of files that are discovered in your environment. The values that are provided in the formula assume that the average number of the discovered files is 800 per computer, which is represented by 1 and 1.2 MB. If, according to your estimates, the number of files is higher, increase this value adequately. If you already installed BigFix Inventory, you can use the Scanned File Data and Computers reports for your calculations. Note, that the required initial disk space (15 or 17 GB) is constant. The number of discovered files not only affects the size of the database,but also the server runtime memory requirements. For more information, see: Tuning performance in medium and large environments.

* The formulas apply to typical environments that are configured to run weekly software scans, daily data imports, and whose endpoints have about 60 software installations each. The results also depend on the amount of data returned by the scans, which means that in some environments the required amount of disk space might be smaller or bigger. In case of irregular data imports or accumulated scans, the required disk space increases.
Note: The retention period in this typical environment is set to the last 7 days. For more information about tuning this parameter, see: Shortening the retention period gradually to avoid problems with growing database size.

BigFix

Table 4. Disk space requirements for BigFix installed on Linux

The table consists of three columns and five body rows.
Default Directory Space required Comments
/var/opt/BESInstallers 90 MB Directory with console and client installers.
/var/opt/BESServer 2 GB BigFix installation directory.
/var/opt/BESServer/wwwrootbes/bfmirror/downloads/sha1/ Around 2 GB BigFix cache. It stores files that are downloaded by some of the fixlets before they are distributed to the selected endpoints. For example, the BigFix Inventory installer.

The required space might increase if you run some of the fixlets multiple times. For example, each time you run the Upgrade to the latest version of BigFix Inventory 9.x, a new installer is downloaded to the cache. Thus, the required space increases.

To check whether a fixlet downloads any files and what their size is, log in to the BigFix console, and check the value in the Download Size column for the particular fixlet. Then, ensure that enough disk space is available in the BigFix cache.
/var/opt/BESWebReportsServer 300 MB Web Reports installation directory.
/opt/BESWebReportsServer 500 MB Directory with the Web Reports server binaries.
/opt/BESServer 100 MB Directory with server binaries.
/var/log 1 MB Directory with log files.
C:\Program Files\BigFix Enterprise\BES Console 90 MB BigFix console installation directory. The console must be installed on Windows.

For disk speed, see: Storage performance requirements.

DB2 for BigFix

For information about hardware requirements for DB2 that is used as the BigFix database, see the Database requirements.

Apart from the disk space that is described in the guide, ensure additional disk space for transaction logs on the computer where the BigFix database is installed. To calculate the required disk space, check how many objects exist in all fixlet sites that you have enabled in the BigFix console. An object is every computer group, analysis, fixlet, and task that exist in the console, including the ones that are not relevant. Every 1000 objects requires 1GB of free disk space. For example, if you have 500 fixlets and tasks, 300 analyses, and 20 computer groups, you have 820 objects in total. Thus, 1 GB of disk space is required.