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Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
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.
Phase 3 - Configuring the BigFix Virtual Relay instance
Depending on the choice you made when creating the template (manual deployment or auto-deployment), the method of deploying future virtual relay instances changes.
Deploying a new BigFix Virtual Relay instance by using Auto-Deployment
You can use this function to automatically deploy a consistent number of virtual relays based on the template created in Phase 2 by answering "y" (yes) to the option "Do you want to enable the Virtual Relay Instance Auto-Deployment mode?".

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 V9.5 gathers data from BigFix clients deployed with different code pages and languages, encode the data into UTF-8 format, and report it back to the BigFix server.
- Sample deployment scenarios
  The following deployment scenarios illustrate some basic configurations taken from actual case studies. Your organization might look similar to one of the examples below, depending on the size of your network, the various bandwidth restrictions between clusters and the number of relays and servers. The main constraint is not CPU power, but bandwidth.
- 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 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.
  - Architectural overview
    Tiny Core Linux (TCL) runs from a RAM copy created at boot time.
  - Phase 1 - Configuring the Tiny Core Linux virtual machine
    In Phase 1, you set up a virtual machine with the Tiny Core Linux operating system that can instantiate the BigFix relay.
  - Phase 2 - Preparing the BigFix Virtual Relay template
    After installing Tiny Core Linux on the virtual machine, shut down the virtual machine and edit the properties to connect the BESRelay-x.x.x.xx-tcl.i686.iso file.
  - Phase 3 - Configuring the BigFix Virtual Relay instance
    Depending on the choice you made when creating the template (manual deployment or auto-deployment), the method of deploying future virtual relay instances changes.
    - Deploying a new BigFix Virtual Relay instance by using Auto-Deployment
      You can use this function to automatically deploy a consistent number of virtual relays based on the template created in Phase 2 by answering "y" (yes) to the option "Do you want to enable the Virtual Relay Instance Auto-Deployment mode?".
    - Manually deploying a new BigFix Virtual Relay instance
      In case of manual deployment, the network parameters request is automatically displayed.
  - Maintenance
    After completing Phase 3, the Virtual Relay is fully operational and communicates with the BigFix core server.
  - Troubleshooting
  - Limitations
  - VMware and Open VM tools
    If during the template creation you specified "y" (yes) to the VMware Tools configuration, only a minimal set of Open VMware Tools was installed, because they are running on a Tiny Core Linux machine with a Text-based user interface only.
  - Auto-Deployment
    To instantiate the virtual relay instance by using the Auto-Deployment mode, you must copy the network.conf file into the /opt/bigFix/config directory of the instance that you are deploying.
  - Modifying the Virtual Relay template
    After you create the Virtual Relay template, you can deploy all the required Virtual Relay instances.
- 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
- Upgrading on Linux systems
- 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

Deploying a new BigFix Virtual Relay instance by using Auto-Deployment

You can use this function to automatically deploy a consistent number of virtual relays based on the template created in Phase 2 by answering "y" (yes) to the option "Do you want to enable the Virtual Relay Instance Auto-Deployment mode?".

To deploy with the Auto-Deployment mode, you must create a script that automatically instantiates the virtual machines and provides the correct configuration files for each virtual machine.

In case of auto-deployment, some configuration files are needed to deploy the instance. Before the virtual machine receives the required configuration files, it remains in a waiting state.

To use the auto-deployment mode, the following three configuration files are required:

besclient.config which must be copied into the /var/opt/BESClient local directory.
besrelay.config which must be copied into the /var/opt/BESRelay local directory.
network.conf which must be copied into the /opt/bigFix/config local directory.

The first two files contain some additional properties for the client and relay configurations. For the content of these files, see BigFix Platform on HCL Knowledge Center.

Note: The besclient.config and besrelay.config files are optional files. The client uses the default files if they are not provided. You must provide them only if you want to customize the virtual relay at startup time. For example, if you want to connect the virtual relay to another relay and not to the BigFix server, which is the default behavior.

The network.conf file contains the details about the network parameters of the deployed instances. It defines if the machine should start in DHCP mode or by using static IP settings. It must be the last configuration file to be copied. For details about the two different network.conf templates, see Auto-Deployment.

After receiving the configuration file, the instance automatically starts the BESRelay and the BESClient services and registers with the BigFix server or with the relay specified in the previously defined configuration file.

The auto-deployment is particularly useful because:

No further configurations are required.
It allows an easy and rapid multiple deployment.

Note: Before enabling the auto-deployment mode, ensure that you have installed vSphere PowerCLI, needed to copy the network.conf file and the other configuration files.