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Tuning performance
Learn how to plan the infrastructure of BigFix Inventory and to configure the application server to achieve optimal performance. The following guidelines are applicable in big data environments as well as in smaller environments that are running on low-performance hardware.
Additional tasks for improving performance
Learn about additional tasks that you might want to perform to improve the performance in your infrastructure.
Disabling the calculation of extended software aggregates
You can noticeably reduce the length of data imports in very large environments if you disable the calculation of extended software aggregates. Software aggregates are pieces of data that are gathered during software scans on your endpoints and which are later processed during successive data imports. They are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report.

Tuning performance
Learn how to plan the infrastructure of BigFix Inventory and to configure the application server to achieve optimal performance. The following guidelines are applicable in big data environments as well as in smaller environments that are running on low-performance hardware.
- Infrastructure
  The main factor that affects the performance of the BigFix Inventory server is the performance of the underlying infrastructure on which the application server and the DB2 database are running. You must ensure that the recommended requirements are met.
- Setting up scans and import
  Learn how to improve the scanning and importing activities to optimize the performance in your infrastructure.
- Additional tasks for improving performance
  Learn about additional tasks that you might want to perform to improve the performance in your infrastructure.
  - Changing the mode of sorting bundling options on the Software Classification panel
    If the Software Classification panel runs slowly or the BigFix Inventory server is under a heavy load, you might want to change the mode of sorting bundling options.
  - Disabling the calculation of extended software aggregates
    You can noticeably reduce the length of data imports in very large environments if you disable the calculation of extended software aggregates. Software aggregates are pieces of data that are gathered during software scans on your endpoints and which are later processed during successive data imports. They are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report.
  - Recovering from accumulated scans
    If scan results are not imported to BigFix Inventory for a longer period of time, they accumulate on the BigFix server. They are all processed during the first import after the break which might lead to long import times. To avoid the problem, skip importing the results of the software scan during the first import after the break. Then, apply good practices for distributing scans in your infrastructure, including dividing the computers into scan groups, and planning the scan schedule. It will allow for importing scan results from the consecutive scan groups without overloading the import.
  - Shortening the retention period gradually to avoid problems with growing database size
    Since BigFix Inventory 9.2.1, retention period is set to 7 days in a fresh installation, so this procedure does not apply in case of fresh 9.2.1 installations. If you did not configure the retention period after installation in earlier versions of BigFix Inventory and the data accumulation continued for several months, you must enable and repeatedly change the data retention configuration to make the retention period as short as possible. With each successive import, the historical data is deleted gradually and thus problems with growing database size are avoided.
- Tuning performance in medium and large environments
  You can learn the possible causes of the most common performance issues in medium and large environments. Follow the tips and the known solutions to these issues to keep the system in good shape and avoid performance problems.
- REST API considerations
  You can use BigFix Inventory REST API to retrieve large amounts of data that is related to computer systems, software instances, and license usage in your environment. Such information can then be passed to other applications for further processing and analysis.

Disabling the calculation of extended software aggregates

You can noticeably reduce the length of data imports in very large environments if you disable the calculation of extended software aggregates. Software aggregates are pieces of data that are gathered during software scans on your endpoints and which are later processed during successive data imports. They are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report.

About this task

You can disable the gathering of the following software aggregates:

Total Runs
Total Run Time
Average Runs per Day
Average Run Time
First Used

Procedure

Enable the new feature that allows for skipping the processing of extended software aggregates.
1. Open the following URL in your web browser: https://bfi_server_name:port/management/feature.
2. Select Skip Extended Software Aggregates and click Save.
To disable the calculation of extended software aggregates for a specific computer group:
1. In the BigFix Inventory web user interface, click Management > Computer Groups.
2. Expand the All Computers computer group and click the group for which you want to disable the calculation of software aggregates.
3. Select Skip Extended Software Aggregates and click Save.

Results

After you run a data import, the individual entries for extended software aggregates are displayed on the Inventory Exploration report as Not calculated.

What to do next

Run a data import to recalculate the aggregates.