Deploying clients from the console

How to deploy clients using the Client Deploy Tool Wizard.

Prerequisites:

Before deploying the BigFix clients from the Client Deploy Tool Wizard, ensure that you locate and activate globally the following analyses:

Table 1. Analyses to activate globally
ID	Name
204	BES Component Versions
2814	Collect BES Client Deploy Tool Reports

From the BigFix console, click Wizards > All Wizards > Client Deploy Tool Wizard.

The Client Deploy Tool Wizard will guide you through the deployment of the BigFix clients.

You can also launch the same wizard from the Unmanaged Assets view of the console by performing these steps:

Select one or more assets in the view.
Right-click them. A menu opens.
Click Install BigFix Client.
Note:
The displayed Client Deploy Tool Wizard already contains the following prefilled information:
- The names of the assets selected in step 1.
- The selection of the operating systems installed on the assets selected in step 1, found by the Nmap scan run on the assets.

In the Set Target Credentials page of the wizard:

Click Add Targets.
Enter the host name or the IP address of the target computers. You can enter the computer credentials now or specify them later.
If you want to specify the credentials of target computers you already added, or change them, select those computers from the list. Select the target computers displayed on the list.
Click Set Credentials.
Enter the user name and password needed to access the target computers.
As an alternative, you can select the Use Key File check box to use a private key file with the SSH authentication method, instead of using a password. You can also specify a passphrase if it was specified when generating the private key. Only ASCII characters are supported. Use a private key file in PEM or OpenSSH format.
Note: The SSH authentication method is not supported to install Windows target clients.
Note:
If you use the SSH key authentication, specify a user that is one of the following:
- root
- a user configured to run SUDO without a password.
Note: If you enabled FIPS mode and you use SSH key authentication with passphrase to install the clients, ensure that your private key is encrypted using a FIPS compliant algorithm.
Note: The SSH key types supported to access the target computers through SSH key authentication are RSA and ECDSA.
Note: By clicking the small magnifying glass icons in the table header, you display a search box, useful to easily locate specific devices if you have a very long list of targets. By clicking a column header, you sort the rows by the values of that column.
Click Next to proceed to the Select Deployment Point page.

In the Select Deployment Point page of the wizard:

Select the target computers displayed on the list.
Click Select Deployment Point.
Select a deployment point from the list.
Note:
The deployment points displayed by this list are a set of:
- All computers on which the Client Deploy Tool can be installed, and which are relevant for the Fixlet "Install/Update BigFix Client Deploy Tool Version 11". Remove 'yes' from the 'Is Preferred' filter to have the list of all computer selections available.
- All computers on which a standalone Client Deploy Tool (any Version) is installed. If an older version is found, the Client Deploy Tool will be upgraded to Version 11.
- All computers with a BigFix Console Version 10.
Click Next to proceed to the Set Deployment Point Credentials page. This page is skipped if we are installing the client on UNIX targets only.

In the Set Deployment Point Credentials page of the wizard:

Select a deployment point displayed on the list.
Click Set Credentials.
Enter the credentials needed to access the deployment point.
Click Next to proceed to the Set Advanced Settings page.

In the Set Advanced Settings page of the wizard:

Select the operating systems to be deployed, if not already prefilled by the results of the Nmap scan run on the assets.
Select the client version to be installed on your target computers.
Select the Show advanced settings check box.
(Optional) In the "Custom Settings" section, add a list of custom client settings to apply to each client that will be deployed by the Client Deploy Tool.
You can input these settings in either a table or a text box. If you use the table, add a row for each setting, then enter its name and value in the respective columns. If you use the text box, add a new line for each setting, then enter its name and value in the format "name=value".
(Optional) In the "Proxy Settings" section, if the clients to be deployed must communicate through a proxy, enter the following information:

Address

The host name that is used to reach the proxy.

Port

The port that is used to communicate with the proxy.

Username

The user name that is used to authenticate with the proxy if the proxy requires authentication.

Password

The password that is used to authenticate with the proxy if the proxy requires authentication.

(Optional) There is also a section where you can enter a custom installation path for the Windows target computers.
Click Next to proceed to the Deploy Clients page.

In the Deploy Clients page of the wizard:

Review the following summary information displayed by the wizard:
- The list of all target computers on which the BigFix client will be installed. The user names needed to access the target computers. The deployment point that will be used for each target computer.
- If new deployment points were specified, a list of the deployment points on which the Client Deploy Tool will be installed.
- On each deployment point, the BigFix client packages that will be downloaded, if not already present.
If the summary information is correct, click Deploy.

After clicking Deploy, the Client Deploy Tool Dashboard displays the details of your BigFix client deployments. For more information about the dashboard, see Viewing the deployment results in the dashboard.