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Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
Managing licenses
You must obtain a license key before you can install and use BigFix.
Extending the license entitlements
How to purchase extra license entitlements

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.
  - Creating the License Authorization File
    To create your license authorization file (.BESLicenseAuthorization), containing deployment and licensing information and used during the installation to create your license files, access the HCL License and Download portal.
  - Licensing Assistance
    For specific problems with your license such as license expiration date, entitlement counts, or lost authorization files, open a Licensing case in the HCL Customer Support Portal at https://support.hcltechsw.com/csm.
  - Extending the license entitlements
    How to purchase extra license entitlements
  - Distributing the Updated License and Masthead
    When you upgrade BigFix to V9.5, all existing license certificates are updated to contain both SHA-1 and SHA-256 signatures.
- 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.
- 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

Extending the license entitlements

How to purchase extra license entitlements

To use BigFix Fixlet sites, you must first purchase extra entitlements. The entitlements can be added to your current license. After your license is updated, you can enable the Fixlet sites in the BigFix Platform.

Procedure

Contact the Sales team to purchase entitlements for the BigFix Fixlet sites.
Check the serial number of your current BigFix license:
1. Log in to the BigFix console.
2. In the bottom-left corner, click BigFix Management.
3. In the navigation tree, click License Overview.
4. Your serial number is displayed in the BigFix Platform window.
In the BES Platform window that you copied the serial number from, click Check for license update. If there is a change to your license, the following message is displayed: Site certificate update detected, BESAdmin must be run to propagate the change.
Go to the BigFix server and run the Administration Tool to update the license:
On Linux operating systems
1. Go to /opt/BESServer/bin.
2. Run the following command:
```
./BESAdmin.sh -syncmastheadandlicense -sitePvkLocation=path_to_license.pvk
```
On Windows operating systems
1. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server.
2. Run BESAdmin.exe.
3. When prompted, provide the path to the site signing key (license.pvk), and enter the password.
4. In the Masthead Management tab, click OK.

Results

You updated your license and propagated the change to your endpoints. It might take several minutes until the BigFix console displays the updated status. If the status does not change, restart the console.