Question about a Limitation of BigFix Inventory 9.x

Usage and Config BFI
1

I’m preparing to install BigFix Inventory 9.x and have a concern about one of the “Limitations” listed in the documentation.

Distributed Server Architecture (DSA) is not supported

Distributed Server Architecture (DSA) allows for setting up multiple BigFix servers that can replicate data between themselves. If the main server is disabled, a backup server takes over its role ensuring continuous work. The architecture is not supported because BigFix Inventory can be connected only to one of the replicated servers at a time. When you try to add another server, a message is displayed saying that such a database is already connected.

Does this mean I can’t install the software if I use DSA or does it mean I can’t switch Inventory to the Secondary server if the Primary fails?

2

It means you cannot switch the Inventory to the secondary server.

3

That is my understanding. Most of the parts of BigFix that require another server do not support DSA including Web Reports and SCM…

4

To elaborate further (This is probably not relevant for your environment @TimRice) configuring multiple data sources can only be used for the BFI server to pull data from multiple BigFix ‘environments’ (different mastheads). This is a common setup - for example if you have isolated BigFix environments but you want a consolidated view of inventory, or you want to pull data from test and prod into one Inventory report.