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Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
Installing on Windows systems
Now that you understand the terms and the administrative roles, you are ready to get authorized and install the programs.
Performing an evaluation installation
When performing a fresh installation of BigFix Server Version 9.5 Patch 7 or later, you can either perform an evaluation installation or a production installation.

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.
  - Step 1 - Downloading BigFix
    Download BigFix from the HCL License & Delivery Portal (Flexnet).
  - Performing an evaluation installation
    When performing a fresh installation of BigFix Server Version 9.5 Patch 7 or later, you can either perform an evaluation installation or a production installation.
  - Step 2 - Requesting a license and creating the masthead
    Before you perform the steps below, you must have purchased a license and obtained a BigFix license authorization file (*.BESLicenseAuthorization) using your License Key Center account or, in the case of a Proof-of-Concept evaluation, that was provided to you by your HCL Technical Sales Representative.
  - Installing the components
    You have now created a private key, requested and received a certificate, used the certificate to create a masthead, and then generated the various installation components, including the BigFix Installation Guide.
  - Removing the Product Components on Windows systems
    You can have one or more BigFix components installed on a local system and you can decide to remove one or all of them at the same time.
  - DSA on Windows
- 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

Performing an evaluation installation

When performing a fresh installation of BigFix Server Version 9.5 Patch 7 or later, you can either perform an evaluation installation or a production installation.

To install a BigFix server with an evaluation license, perform the following steps:

On the computer where you want to install the BigFix server, run the BigFix Installation Generator.
Select Evaluation.
Accept the terms in the license agreement.
Select Express if you want to install BigFix to the default location.
After choosing the Express option, specify the password for the current user.
Request an evaluation license certificate file. To obtain it, you must enter the following data like in the example below:
Provide the domain name of the server and port on which you are going to install (isolated server), or leave the local domain name if you are installing BigFix on the local server.
Create a public/private key pair and specify a password that will be used to encrypt the private key file.
Specify the folder where your private key and license certificate will be created.
(Optional) Click Set Proxy if you use a proxy to connect to Internet.
Click Request to proceed with the request.
Click Continue to proceed with the evaluation installation on this local server.
Note: If you want to perform the evaluation installation on an isolated server (server located in an airgapped environment), in this panel click Cancel and perform the following actions:
1. Copy the license files, generated for the isolated server, from the current local machine to the isolated server.
2. On the isolated server, launch again the BigFix Installation Generator.
3. Perform the server installation by selecting:
  - Production as installation type
  - I want to install with a production license I already have as installation option.
4. Provide the location of the license files generated for the isolated server.
Click Finish to close the BigFix Installation Generator - InstallShield Wizard.