Migrate from SCCM to BigFix

Tips
1

Does anyone know how to migrate from Microsoft SCCM to BIGFIX? One of my clients is needing this documented.

2

Well I don’t think there is a method that is documented but I can give you the rough blueprint I would use:

  1. Stand up your core instance and designate where your relays are going to be.
  2. Ensure your network firewall and ACL rules allow traffic on TCP and UDP 52311 to your core and relays. From a security stand-point, you may be able to allow traffic to your core but maybe not from everywhere. I would consult your network team on what the best method for that would be. Depending on what ports are open in what place, you’ll need to ensure the installation package you deploy to your clients (whatever method that is) takes the network configuration into account.
  3. Configure your BigFix instance to dynamically categorize your clients for easier management as well as set up all the sites you will be using so clients know where they belong when they first report. This includes setting up desired client settings so the clients are configured to work when they first report. You can also use clientsettings.cfg to do this upon client install but if everything is set up dynamically, it would make sense to have one clientsettings.cfg file and your clients would apply additional settings based on dynamic settings you would set up as actions before clients start reporting.
  4. Create a package to be deployed via SCCM to install the BigFix clients to connect them to your BigFix infrastructure. As I said in point 3, you’ll need to configure your clients to connect to either your core or the nearest relay depending on your network configuration.
  5. Confirm your clients are reporting correctly and all client settings are applied as desired.
  6. If you plan to keep SCCM side by side with BigFix, your initial setup would end here. Otherwise, I would create a fixlet in BigFix to remove SCCM components and execute it against your now reporting clients.

All of these steps are REALLY high level so you’ll need to work out the details of how to perform these steps according to your environment’s needs but it is how I would blueprint this “migration”.