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BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
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.
Managing the workload balance

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.
- 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.
  - Overview
    BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi provides audit Fixlets for new patch bundle updates that VMware releases.
  - Site subscription
    Sites are collections of Fixlet messages that are created internally by you, by HCL, or by vendors.
  - Supported platforms
    BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi supports VMware audit updates on different platforms.
  - System requirements
    Ensure that you meet the necessary system requirements for the BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi.
  - Subscribing to BigFix sites
    Together with the Patches for ESXi site, you can subscribe to the Virtual Endpoint Manager site.
  - Managing the workload balance
  - Configuring the Management Extender
    Before you can begin working with the different Virtualization features, you must configure a relay server or a root server to communicate with a specific VMware vCenter or ESX host.
  - Patch for VMware ESXi User's Guide
    You can view the audit Fixlets when you subscribe to the Patches for ESXi site.
  - Supersedence
  - Frequently asked questions
    The questions and answers found in this section are designed to help you better understand Patch for ESXi.
- 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.

Managing the workload balance

The following diagram depicts a visual representation of how Patch for VMware ESXi is designed to work in big environments to optimize the workload balance. In these environments, the same Virtual Center is managed by two or more management extenders.

A management extender is setup using a BigFix relay that has the proxy agent installed on it along with the vSphere management extender plug-in installed and configured. It enables the communication between the proxy agent and the VMware vCenter.

For each management extender you have, apply the following procedure in order to optimize the workload balance of your environment:

Stop the proxy agent service.
Clean up the contents of the DeviceReports folder located in the C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\Management Extender\Plugins\VMware ESXi 1\DeviceReports directory, where:

C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\Management Extender

Reflects the proxy agent installation.
Modify the vcenter-plugin-settings.txt configuration file:
1. Uncomment the HOST_LIST key and set it as follows:
```
HOST_LIST="hostA,hostB,hostC"
```
2. Ensure that hostA, hostB and hostC match the ESXi host definition in Vcenter. Therefore, you cannot specify their IP address if they are registered with the Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or otherwise.
Restart the proxy agent service.

After a cleanup of the environment (contents of the DeviceReports folder) and a restart of the proxy agent service, the management extender will handle only a subset of hosts, which are the ones added into the vcenter-plugin-settings.txt configuration file.

Important note: The Fixlet 829, if executed, does not recover the HOST_LIST key and its content, due to the customization of the parameter, different for each installation. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you take note of the ESXi hosts configured, if any.