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Troubleshooting and support
Learn about solutions to common problems that might arise when you use BigFix Inventory and how to find logs and trace files that help you troubleshoot those problems.
Troubleshooting software discovery
Problems with software discovery usually fall into one of three categories. The most common category is when the software is discovered but the components are assigned to an incorrect product. In this case, it is enough to reassign the component. The remaining categories include false-positive discovery, or no discovery due to the lack of the signature on the computer.
Troubleshooting problems with computers
When you encounter problems with scan results not being uploaded from a particular computer or you need to collect all logs from that computer, use the Computer Support Data panel. The panel is available in BigFix Inventory and is used to perform some troubleshooting actions without the need of using the BigFix console.
Refreshing scan data on a computer
If software scan, capacity scan, or VM Manager Tool scan finishes successfully on a particular computer but its results are not uploaded to the BigFix server, force the upload of the data. You can do it directly from BigFix Inventory without the need of accessing the BigFix console and running a separate fixlet for each type of scan.

Troubleshooting and support
Learn about solutions to common problems that might arise when you use BigFix Inventory and how to find logs and trace files that help you troubleshoot those problems.
- Troubleshooting a problem
  Troubleshooting is a systematic approach to solving a problem. The goal of troubleshooting is to determine why something does not work as expected and explain how to resolve the problem.
- Troubleshooting software discovery
  Problems with software discovery usually fall into one of three categories. The most common category is when the software is discovered but the components are assigned to an incorrect product. In this case, it is enough to reassign the component. The remaining categories include false-positive discovery, or no discovery due to the lack of the signature on the computer.
  - Incorrect software is displayed on reports due to incorrect bundling
    Automated bundling assigns discovered software components to products based on bundling rules. The rules assess the probability with which a component is part of a particular product. Because automated bundling takes into account all products that are available in the software catalog, not only products that you purchased, it might happen that the component is assigned to a product that you do not have. As a result, the product that you have is not displayed on the reports, and some other product is displayed instead. To solve the problem, reassign the discovered component to the correct product.
  - Software that you do not have is discovered due to false-positive discovery
    It might happen that an older version of the software is discovered after the upgrade or the software signature is not removed from the computer during the uninstallation. False-positive discovery can also be caused by backups of software directories or installation media that are stored on the endpoints and are reported as separate software instances.
  - Software that you have is not discovered
    It might happen that software that is installed is not discovered because the signature or the software ID tag does not exist on the computer where the software is installed.
  - Troubleshooting problems with computers
    When you encounter problems with scan results not being uploaded from a particular computer or you need to collect all logs from that computer, use the Computer Support Data panel. The panel is available in BigFix Inventory and is used to perform some troubleshooting actions without the need of using the BigFix console.
    - Checking whether the maximum archive size is exceeded
      You can check whether the maximum archive size is exceeded through the Computer Support Data panel.
    - Refreshing scan data on a computer
      If software scan, capacity scan, or VM Manager Tool scan finishes successfully on a particular computer but its results are not uploaded to the BigFix server, force the upload of the data. You can do it directly from BigFix Inventory without the need of accessing the BigFix console and running a separate fixlet for each type of scan.
    - Collecting logs for troubleshooting purposes
      If you are asked by BigFix Support to provide data for troubleshooting problems with computers in your infrastructure, go to the details of the computer. Open the Computer Support Data panel, download the log package, and provide it to BigFix Support. The package contains log files that are needed for troubleshooting purposes such as BigFix client logs, scanner logs, scan configuration logs, VM manager configuration files, and files generated during scans.
  - Disaster recovery
    To perform disaster recovery for your BigFix environment, you need to regularly back up the BigFix Inventory database and the BigFix platform server.
  - Common problems
    Learn how to solve some common problems with the server installation, configuration and administration.
  - Logs and return codes
    Find logs and interpret return codes to troubleshoot issues.

Refreshing scan data on a computer

If software scan, capacity scan, or VM Manager Tool scan finishes successfully on a particular computer but its results are not uploaded to the BigFix server, force the upload of the data. You can do it directly from BigFix Inventory without the need of accessing the BigFix console and running a separate fixlet for each type of scan.

Before you begin

You must be an Administrator or have the Manage Support Data and View Endpoints permissions to perform this task.

Procedure

Log in to BigFix Inventory, and go to Reports > Computers
Select the name of the computer from which you want to force the upload of scan results, and then click Computer Support Data.
Click Request Data Refresh.
Refresh of data forces upload of scan results from the BigFix client to the BigFix server.
When the data is refreshed, run an import to make the data available in BigFix Inventory.