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BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
Patch for CentOS Linux User's Guide
BigFix® Patch for CentOS Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all CentOs endpoints.
Using the download cacher
The download cacher is a standalone command-line tool that is designed to download and cache files required for caching. The pre-cached files can be used by the download plug-in to patch the endpoints.
Caching packages on the local cache folder
You can use the CentOS Download Cacher R2 to cache packages on an internet-enabled BigFix server. You can configure the BigFix Server to use the repository metadata and packages from both the cache folder and the internet.

Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
- Patch for Windows User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Windows™ provides Fixlets for Microsoft™ security and non-security patches. Dashboards, wizards, and reports aid you in managing updates for various endpoint devices.
- Patch for AIX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for AIX® provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility, and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all AIX endpoints.
- Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility, and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Red Hat Enterprise Linux endpoints.
- Patch for CentOS Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patch for CentOS Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all CentOs endpoints.
  - Overview
    BigFix Patch for CentOS Linux™ keeps your Linux clients current with the latest updates and service packs.
  - Using the download plug-in
    The download plug-ins, CentOS Plug-in and CentOS Plug-in R2, are executable programs that downloads relevant packages directly from the patch vendor. Fixlets use an internal protocol to communicate with the download plug-in to download files. These Fixlets are based on updates made by the vendor.
  - Using the download cacher
    The download cacher is a standalone command-line tool that is designed to download and cache files required for caching. The pre-cached files can be used by the download plug-in to patch the endpoints.
    - CentOS Download Cacher R2 usage information
      Use the CentOS Download Cacher R2 to download and cache CentOS patches in air-gapped environments. This tool supports the Patches for CentOS6 Plugin R2 and Patches for CentOS7 Plugin R2 sites.
    - Using the CentOS Download Cacher R2 for air-gapped environments
      You can use the CentOS Download Cacher R2 for air-gapped environments by using the buildRepo subcommand to download all patches for a repository to a specified directory.
    - Caching packages on the sha1 folder
      You can use the CentOS Download Cacher R2 to cache packages directly on an internet-enabled BigFix server's sha1 folder to improve performance during the Fixlet deployment.
    - Caching packages on the local cache folder
      You can use the CentOS Download Cacher R2 to cache packages on an internet-enabled BigFix server. You can configure the BigFix Server to use the repository metadata and packages from both the cache folder and the internet.
  - Using BigFix Patch for CentOS Linux™
    Use the Fixlets on the Linux™ RPM Patching and the various Patches for CentOS Fixlet sites to apply patches to your deployment.
  - Multiple-Package Baseline Installation
    BigFix Patch provides a solution to combine the installation of updates for multiple packages in a baseline into a single task, which can reduce the execution time of the baseline.
  - Custom repositories management
    You can set up your custom repositories to manage patches for CentOS Linux version 5 and later. This solution allows for multiple repositories on the entire deployment.
  - YUM transaction management
    View YUM transaction history and manage transactions through the YUM Transaction History dashboard, which works with CentOS Linux version 5, 6 and 7.
  - Troubleshooting
    When problems occur when patching CentOS endpoints, review the log files to determine what went wrong and how to correct the errors.
  - Frequently Asked Questions
    To better understand BigFix Patch for CentOS, read the following questions and answers.
- Patch for Amazon Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patch for Amazon Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Amazon Linux endpoints.
- Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all SUSE Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Ubuntu User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Ubuntu provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Ubuntu endpoints.
- Patch for Oracle Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patches for Oracle Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Oracle Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Solaris User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Solaris provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Solaris endpoints.
- Patch for HP-UX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for HP-UX provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all HP-UX endpoints.
- Patch for Mac OS X User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for Mac OS X provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Mac OS X endpoints.
- Patch for Debian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Debian provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Debian endpoints.
- Patch for VMware ESXi User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi provides you unified, near real-time visibility to manage patches to all VMware ESXi endpoints from a single console.
- Patch for Raspbian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Raspbian provides Fixlets that you use to manage the latest updates and service packs that Raspberry Pi releases. These Fixlets are available through the Patches for Raspbian sites.
- Patch for Rocky Linux User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Rocky Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Rocky Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Virtual Endpoint Manager User's Guide
  BigFix® for Virtual Endpoint Manager provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches in a virtual environment.
- Updates for Middleware Applications
  Middleware patching is an important process for organizations to ensure their systems are secure and up to date. By applying the appropriate patches and security updates, organizations can minimize the risk of malicious attacks and potential data loss. BigFix users can enjoy unified patch management by using a single platform for deploying database and middleware patches.
- Supersedence for Non-Windows
  This topic describes how supersedence works in Patch.

Caching packages on the local cache folder

You can use the CentOS Download Cacher R2 to cache packages on an internet-enabled BigFix server. You can configure the BigFix Server to use the repository metadata and packages from both the cache folder and the internet.

Before you begin

Store packages in a separate folder instead of the BigFix server's sha1 folder in case the folder size inflates. Since the BigFix server only stores the latest download, the stored packages might be replaced by newer files if the BigFix server sha1 folder size limit is too small.

About this task

Storing the packages in the local cache allows the CentOS Download Plug-in R2 to use it instead of getting it from the internet.

Additional space may be required as the package will also be cached in the BigFix server's sha1 folder when the BigFix server requests the package from the local cache.

Procedure

Use the buildRepo subcommand with the CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe file to download packages from a repository to the BigFix server's sha1 folder. For example:
```
CentOSR2DownloadCacher.exe --download_dir C:\downloads 
buildRepo --key centos-7-x64, centos-6-x32
```
In this example, the download cacher tool downloads the packages to the specified download folder.
Open the configuration file of the CentOS Download Cacher R2 called plugin.ini. Configure the plugin.ini file with the following settings:
```
localCache = <location of the transferred download_dir>
localCacheOnly = no
```
With this setting, the BigFix server first checks the repository metadata in the download plug-in's cache folder. If it has not expired, the BigFix server will use that metadata. Otherwise, the BigFix server will get the repository metadata from the internet. As for the packages, the BigFix server initially checks if the packages exist in the sha1 folder, then proceeds to the localCache before it goes to the internet.