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Installation Guide
Learn the system requirements, licensing and installation instructions, and how to configure and maintain BigFix.
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.
Using the Client Deploy Tool
You can use the Client Deploy Tool (CDT) to install Windows, UNIX and Mac target computers.
Uploading the target logs to the server
To upload the Client Deploy Tool target log files to the BigFix server, perform the following steps:

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.
  - Using the Client Deploy Tool
    You can use the Client Deploy Tool (CDT) to install Windows, UNIX and Mac target computers.
    - Target prerequisites
      To successfully deploy target computers from the Client Deploy Tool, ensure that you satisfy the following prerequisites, depending on the target operating system.
    - Client Deploy Tool wizard
      The Client Deploy Tool wizard was introduced with BigFix Version 9.5 Patch 7.
    - Client Deploy Tool Fixlet
      The Client Deploy Tool Fixlets were introduced with BigFix Version 9.5 Patch 5.
    - Troubleshooting the client deployment
      After running a Fixlet to deploy target computers using the Client Deploy Tool, if some target computers were not deployed correctly, you can verify some Client Deploy Tool directories and their contents.
    - Log files
      Each time the Client Deploy Tool starts, a log file is created.
    - Uploading the target logs to the server
      To upload the Client Deploy Tool target log files to the BigFix server, perform the following steps:
    - Limitations
      The Client Deploy Tool allows you to deploy BigFix clients on all the platforms supported by BigFix Version 9.5.5. In addition, you can also use the Client Deploy Tool to deploy older BigFix client versions, 9.1 and 9.2.
  - Installing the Client on AIX
    To install the client perform the following steps.
  - Installing the Client on Linux
    The BigFix client can always be installed by manually running the client installer on each computer.
  - Installing the Client on Mac
    To install the Mac client perform the following steps:
  - Installing the Client on Solaris 10
  - Installing the Client on Solaris 11
    As a prerequisite, all Solaris agents must have the SUNWlibC package installed.
  - ESX Fixlet Content
    To get the Fixlet content for the ESX BigFix agent, subscribe your BigFix server to the appropriate Fixlet site.
  - Installing the Client on Windows
    You can install the BigFix client manually by running the Client installer on each computer.
  - Embedding in a Common Build
    If your organization employs a specific build image or common operating environment (COE) on a CD or image that is used to prepare new computers, you can include the Client in this build.
  - Avoiding duplicates when a Client is restored
    When the BigFix client is rolled back or restored from a snapshot, the next time it registers itself with the BigFix server, it receives a new Computer ID. The BigFix client with the old Computer ID becomes inactive because it does not report with the same Computer ID. As a result, the BigFix console shows duplicated entries for the same computer. Additionally, the affected computer loses all information: action history, discovery, and so on.
  - Enabling encryption on Clients
    When installed, you can set up your Clients to encrypt all outgoing reports to protect data such as credit card numbers, passwords, and other sensitive information.
- 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

Uploading the target logs to the server

To upload the Client Deploy Tool target log files to the BigFix server, perform the following steps:

Log in to the BigFix console.
Click the Fixlets and Tasks icon in the Domain Panel.
In the search bar, enter Upload Deploy.
Select the Task named Upload BES Client Deploy Tool Logs.
Click Take Action.
In the Applicable Computers tab, select the target computers from which you want to retrieve the Client Deploy Tool log files.
Click OK. Verify the status of the Task.

After running this Task, the log files are uploaded to the BigFix server directory Installation_dir/UploadManagerData/BufferDir/sha1/xx/xxxxxxx

where:

xx: Represents the last two digits of the Client ID.
xxxxxxx: Represents the full Client ID.

The names of the uploaded log files use the following prefixes:

cdtMainLog_ for the main Client Deploy Tool log file, which is BESClientDeployTool.log

cdtClientLogs_ for each log file taken from the ClientLogs folder of the Client Deploy Tool.

The files are uploaded to the BigFix server only if their size is smaller than 50 MB, unless you specified a different limit by using the appropriate client setting.

The Task is relevant if the following conditions are satisfied:

The BESClientDeployTool.log file exists in the installation directory of the Client Deploy Tool.
The ClientLogs folder exists in the installation directory of the Client Deploy Tool.

These conditions are met if you started the Client Deploy Tool at least once.

Important: To clean up the Client Deploy Tool reports older than a week, you can use the task named BES Client Deploy Tool cleanup of obsolete reports.