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Overview
Become familiar with key concepts that are necessary to understand how BigFix Inventory works and learn about features and functions that are introduced in every version of the application.
Keeping BigFix Inventory up-to-date
BigFix Inventory updates and content packs are released periodically. Ensure that you upgrade the BigFix Inventory server with each release to take advantage of the new features and apply the application patches.
Currency of BigFix Inventory components

Overview
Become familiar with key concepts that are necessary to understand how BigFix Inventory works and learn about features and functions that are introduced in every version of the application.
- What's new in this release
  BigFix Inventory provides new features and enhancements that facilitate your work with the application. Check out what is new.
- Keeping BigFix Inventory up-to-date
  BigFix Inventory updates and content packs are released periodically. Ensure that you upgrade the BigFix Inventory server with each release to take advantage of the new features and apply the application patches.
  - Currency of BigFix Inventory components
  - Ensuring currency of scanner actions and fixlets
    Make sure that the scanner actions that are running on your endpoints are updated after each application release. The fixlet names contain the information about version to help you easily determine which actions are activated with the outdated fixlets and should be restarted after the application update.
- Features and functions
  BigFix Inventory provides useful features for managing virtualized environments. It discovers the software that is installed in your infrastructure, helps you to analyze the consumption data, and allows you to generate reports.
- Preview features
  BigFix Inventory provides a set of preview features that give you a chance to take a sneak peek at what we are currently developing and researching. Whether it is a small function or an extended report, you can check how it works and tell us about your ideas. The previews can change with each release, which means that you can still influence their final form.
- Limitations
  Review the list of BigFix Inventory limitations.
- Key concepts
  There are several concepts that will help you to understand how BigFix Inventory works and how to use it effectively.
- Scenarios
  To understand the business goals that you can achieve with BigFix Inventory, familiarize yourself with the main user scenarios. Each scenario presents a real-life example of using the application and lists personas who are typically involved in achieving a business goal.
- Notices

Currency of BigFix Inventory components

Keeping BigFix Inventory up-to-date

It is important to upgrade BigFix Inventory server with each release. You do not need to upgrade the remaining infrastructure components, such as the BigFix server or clients that frequently. BigFix Inventory is compatible with any supported version of BigFix. Upgrading the BigFix Inventory server resolves the majority of known defects and allows you to take advantage of the newly developed and improved features.

Versioning of the BigFix Inventory components

Versions of BigFix Inventory and the BigFixplatform are independent and they differ.

9.2.15 Starting from application update 9.2.15, the version of the application update and versions of the internal tools of BigFix Inventory, such as, the scanner, SAP Metric Data Collector and VM Manager Tool are unified. In this update the version of each component is 9.2.15. In the future, the version of each component will change to the version of the application update only when this component will change.

Updating BigFix Inventory components

To make sure that your BigFix Inventory architecture is up-to-date, analyze the list of actions according to their priority.

Upgrade to the newest version of BigFix Inventory.
Stop your active actions, and then restart them using the newest versions of fixlets.
Upgrade the internal BigFix Inventory tools, such as, the scanner, SAP Metric Data Collector and VM Manager Tool. For more information, see: Installing the scanner and Updating VM Manager Tool.
Optional: Upgrade the BigFix platform components. This step is optional and mainly depends on your business needs and requirements. Upgrading the platform might be related to the security measures as each update might bring a number of security enhancements. From BigFix Inventory perspective, upgrading BigFix is usually not required for BigFix Inventory to work properly. The majority of the features are independent and work with older versions of the platform.