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Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
Installing on Linux systems
After understanding the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to actually get authorized and install the programs.
Installing the components
Verifying Server Installation
Verify that an installation has completed successfully.

Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
- Introduction
  BigFix aims to solve the increasingly complex problem of keeping your critical systems updated, compatible, and free of security issues. It uses patented Fixlet technology to identify vulnerable computers in your enterprise. With just a few mouse-clicks you can remediate them across your entire network from a central console.
- BigFix Platform Unicode Support Overview
  BigFix Platform V11 gathers data from BigFix clients deployed with different code pages and languages. It encodes all data into UTF-8 format, and reports it back to the BigFix server.
- Sample deployment scenarios
  The following deployment scenarios illustrate some basic configurations taken from actual case studies.
- Requirements and assumptions
  BigFix runs efficiently using minimal server, network, and client resources.
- Types of installation
  Before you install the product, decide if you want to do an evaluation or production installation.
- Managing licenses
  You must obtain a license key before you can install and use BigFix.
- Before installing
  Before running the installation make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
- Installing on Windows systems
  Now that you understand the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to get authorized and install the programs.
- Installing on Linux systems
  After understanding the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to actually get authorized and install the programs.
  - Installing and configuring DB2
    BigFix 11 Server installation on Linux has IBM DB2 as a prerequisite. It must be installed before the BigFix Server is installed.
  - Installing and configuring MS SQL
    Starting from BigFix Version 11 Patch 1, the Linux Server installation introduces the support of Red Hat 9 x86 64-bit with Microsoft SQL Server database.
  - Downloading BigFix
    Download BigFix from HCL License & Delivery Portal (Flexnet).
  - Performing an evaluation installation with DB2
    To install a BigFix server with an evaluation license on Linux with DB2, perform the following steps:
  - Performing an evaluation installation with MS SQL
    To install a BigFix server with an evaluation license on Linux with MS SQL, perform the following steps:
  - Installation Command Options
    You can run the Production or Evaluation installation in interactive or silent mode. You can use a single installer for different components.
  - Installing the components
    - Installing the Server
    - Installing Web Reports Standalone with DB2
      If you run a fresh installation of Web Reports, the HTTPS configuration is automatically enabled on port 8083.
    - Installing Web Reports Standalone with MS SQL
      If you run a fresh installation of Web Reports, the HTTPS configuration is automatically enabled on port 8083.
    - Installing the WebUI Standalone with DB2
      Install the WebUI on just one computer per deployment.
    - Installing the WebUI Standalone with MS SQL
      Install the WebUI on just one computer per deployment.
    - Verifying Server Installation
      Verify that an installation has completed successfully.
    - Silent installation
      How to perform a silent installation.
    - Installing the Client on Linux
    - Installing the Console
      You can install the BigFix console on any Windows computer that can make a network connection via HTTPS port 52311 to the Server.
  - Installation Folder Structure
    After the BigFix installation, you can see the following folder structure.
  - Configuration, Masthead, and Log Files
    At the end of the installation you can find the following BigFix files containing the settings of the installed components and the installation messages.
  - Managing the BigFix Services
    Procedure to manage the services.
  - Changing the database password
    How to change the database password.
  - Changing the DB2 port
  - Removing the BigFix components from Linux
    You can have one or more BigFix components installed on a local system and you can decide to remove one or all of them at the same time.
  - DSA on Linux
- Installing the clients
  Install the BigFix client on every computer in your network that you want to administer, including the computer that is running the console.
- BigFix Administration Tool
  The BigFix Administration Tool, also called BESAdmin, is the tool we use to perform configuration changes and maintenance operations.
- Post-installation configuration steps
  After having run the installation, make sure that you read the following topics and run the requested activities if needed.
- Managing relays
  Relays can significantly improve the performance of your installation.
- Introduction to Tiny Core Linux - BigFix Virtual Relay
  Follow the step-by-step sequence of operations needed to build the virtual machine, from the downloading of the ISO image to the complete setup and configuration of the BigFix Virtual Relay.
- Setting up a proxy connection
  If your enterprise uses a proxy to access the Internet, your BigFix environment can use that communication path to gather content from sites.
- Running backup and restore
  You can schedule periodic backups (typically nightly) of the BigFix server and database files, to reduce the risk of losing productivity or data when a problem occurs by restoring the latest backup.
- Upgrading on Windows systems
  Before you begin
- Upgrading on Linux systems
  Before you begin
- SQL Server parallelism optimization
  The performance of an SQL Server database instance can often be improved by small tweaks. Performance might also be hindered by simple oversights. In fact, some SQL Server parallelism settings have suboptimal default values. Moreover, they have to be re-tuned after an hardware upgrade. Other issues might arise from inadvertent hardware configurations, especially when SQL Server is hosted on a virtual machine (VM).
- Known limitations and workarounds
  This section describes the known limitations and possible workarounds.
- Logging
  This section describes the log files associated with the BigFix components.
- Uninstalling the BigFix client
  To uninstall the BigFix client installed on the various operating systems, see the following sections.

Verifying Server Installation

Verify that an installation has completed successfully.

Perform the following steps:

Ensure that the following message is displayed to the standard output or in the installation log file /var/log/BESInstall.log.

The installation of 'BigFix' completed successfully.
You can now proceed to install the BigFix console on a Windows system and you can log on as 'BFAdmin'.
The BigFix console installer is available in the folder '/var/opt/BESInstallers'.

Ensure that the services associated with each installed components are up and running by entering the following commands:
```
/etc/init.d/besserver status
/etc/init.d/besfilldb status
/etc/init.d/besgatherdb status
/etc/init.d/besclient status
/etc/init.d/beswebreports status
```
Or the following commands, starting from BigFix Platform Version 11.0.2 or later, but only for RHEL, SLES and derived platforms. For more details, see Managing the BigFix Services.
```
systemctl status besserver
systemctl status besfilldb
systemctl status besgatherdb
systemctl status besclient
systemctl status beswebreports
```
Ensure that local or remote databases are created by switching to the local DB2 Administrative user (default: db2inst1) and running the list database command:
```
su - db2inst1
db2 list db directory
```
Check that the following databases are created:
- Server component: BFENT
- Web Reports component: BESREPOR
On BigFix Linux for MS SQL Server version, when the database is installed on Red Hat, ensure it is running with the command:
```
systemctl status mssql-server
```
Connect to the database (example with mssql-tools on Linux or Management Studio on Windows) to verify that the following databases are created:
- Server component: BFEnterprise
- Web Reports component: BESREporting
Launch the BigFix Console and provide the credentials of the first BigFix user created at installation time to ensure that the Console connects to the Server. The user default value for the production installation is BFAdmin, for the evaluation installation is EvaluationUser. Ensure that the client installed by default on the server machine is registered.
Ensure that you can log on to the Web Reports from the Console by selecting Tools -> Launch WebReports and providing the credentials of the first user created at installation time.