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BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise User's Guide
BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all SUSE Linux endpoints.
Overview
The BigFix Patch solution, which includes deploying a multi-purpose, lightweight agent to all endpoint devices, supports a wide variety of device types ranging from workstations and servers to mobile and point-of-sale (POS) devices.
SUSE download cacher
The SUSE Download Cacher is command-line tool that is designed to automatically download and cache SUSE patches on the BigFix server to facilitate the deployment of SUSE Fixlets.

Patch User Guides
BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console.
- Patch for Windows User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Windows™ provides Fixlets for Microsoft™ security and non-security patches. Dashboards, wizards, and reports aid you in managing updates for various endpoint devices.
- Patch for AIX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for AIX® provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all AIX endpoints.
- Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Red Hat Enterprise Linux endpoints.
- Patch for CentOS Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patch for CentOS Linux™ provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all CentOs endpoints.
- Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all SUSE Linux endpoints.
  - Special notice
  - Edition notice
  - Overview
    The BigFix Patch solution, which includes deploying a multi-purpose, lightweight agent to all endpoint devices, supports a wide variety of device types ranging from workstations and servers to mobile and point-of-sale (POS) devices.
    - What's new in this update release
      This release of BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux™ Enterprise provides extended support to include SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 on IBM PowerPC 64-bit Little Endian (LE).
    - Supported platforms and updates
      BigFix Patch supports a wide range of SUSE Linux Enterprise platforms and updates.
    - Supported Novell repositories
      BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise supports the packages in several Novell repositories.
    - Site subscription
      Sites are collections of Fixlet messages that are created internally by you, by HCL, or by vendors.
    - Download plug-ins
      Download plug-ins are executable programs that download a specified patch from the website of the patch vendor. To ease the process of caching, Fixlets have an incorporated protocol that uses download plug-ins.
    - SUSE download cacher
      The SUSE Download Cacher is command-line tool that is designed to automatically download and cache SUSE patches on the BigFix server to facilitate the deployment of SUSE Fixlets.
    - Patching method
      BigFix offers more flexibility to the patch management solution by using native tools.
  - Using the download plug-in
    The download plug-in is an executable program that downloads relevant packages directly from the patch vendor. Fixlets use an internal protocol to communicate with the download plug-in to download files. These Fixlets are based on updates made by the vendor.
  - Using the download cacher
    The download cacher is a standalone command-line tool that is designed to download and cache files required for caching. The pre-cached files can be used by the download plug-in to patch the endpoints.
  - Using BigFix Patch for SUSE Linux Enterprise
    BigFix Patch provides a simplified patching process for downloading and installing patches that are relevant to a target endpoint. Use the Fixlets on the Patching Support and the various Patches for SUSE Linux Enterprise Fixlet sites to apply patches to your deployment.
  - Multiple-Package Baseline Installation
    BigFix Patch provides a solution to combine the installation of updates for multiple packages in a baseline into a single task, which can reduce the execution time of the baseline.
  - Custom repositories management
    You can set up your custom repositories and Subscription Management Tool (SMT) to manage patches for SUSE Linux Enterprise version 11 and later. This solution allows for multiple repositories and SMTs on the entire deployment.
  - SLE Btrfs snapshot management
    View and manage SLE Btrfs snapshots from the BigFix console. Snapshot management uses Snapper's ability to roll back Btrfs file system snapshots. This feature works with SUSE Linux Enterprise version 11 SP2 and later.
  - Support
  - Troubleshooting
    When problems occur, you can determine what went wrong by viewing messages in the appropriate log files that provide information about how to correct errors.
  - Frequently asked questions
    To better understand Patch Management for SUSE Linux™ Enterprise, read the following questions and answers.
  - Notices
- Patch for Ubuntu User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Ubuntu provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Ubuntu endpoints.
- Patch for Oracle Linux User's Guide
  BigFix® Patches for Oracle Linux provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Oracle Linux endpoints.
- Patch for Solaris User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Solaris provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Solaris endpoints.
- Patch for HP-UX User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for HP-UX provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all HP-UX endpoints.
- Patch for Mac OS X User's Guide
  BigFix® for Patch for Mac OS X provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Mac OS X endpoints.
- Patch for Debian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Debian provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It gives you unified, near real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to all Debian endpoints.
- Patch for VMware ESXi User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for VMware ESXi provides you unified, near real-time visibility to manage patches to all VMware ESXi endpoints from a single console.
- Patch for Raspbian User's Guide
  BigFix Patch for Raspbian provides Fixlets that you use to manage the latest updates and service packs that Raspberry Pi releases. These Fixlets are available through the Patches for Raspbian sites.
- Virtual Endpoint Manager User's Guide

SUSE download cacher

The SUSE Download Cacher is command-line tool that is designed to automatically download and cache SUSE patches on the BigFix server to facilitate the deployment of SUSE Fixlets.

Important: Use the download cacher tool only if you are using an air-gapped environment or if the total number of packages is too large. You can also use the tool if you want to cache all the downloads for faster execution of actions. Otherwise, use the download plug-in. The preferred method of SUSE patch caching is to register the SUSE Download Plug-in from the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard.

The tool uses FTP to download large .zip files and by default, stores them in the sha1 cache folder. You can also choose to store the files in a different existing directory. Your environment must be configured to accept FTP use.

You can access the tool by downloading and running it manually. For more information, see the technote, How to use SuSE Linux Enterprise patch download tool.