(imported topic written by mcalvi91)
Is there a way to specify to the fixlet that we are not running the IBM or Trend installations for the various components? Currently, when we push a relay or client or console upgrade, it will push 3 times as much data (for the regular install, the IBM install and the Trend install). We asked support about removing those entries and only using the regular installer but support said that would be unsupported.
(imported comment written by BenKus)
Hey mcalvi,
Actually your agents/relays will only ever download one version of these files because they are smart enough to only get the version they need so you shouldn’t have an issue here… (but it is true that the server will cache a copy of the files… but note the files will get kicked out of the cache quickly because they won’t be used).
Ben
(imported comment written by mcalvi91)
yes I see that now, but is there a way to prevent those extra files that I dont need traversing the network to the relays?
(imported comment written by jessewk)
Unfortunately, not at this time. When version 7.1 is the lowest supported platform, we will be able to craft the action to prevent the unnecessary files from flowing to the relays.
Also, while a custom upgrade Fixlet might not be “officially” supported, it’s pretty low risk to replace:
if {exists key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Brand” whose (exists value “value” whose (it as string = “Trend”) of it) of registry}
prefetch BESClientUpgrade.exe sha1:04e35e3a9c9baa6ebc07b2a1dc16f03c15a2fedd size:6059968 http://download.bigfix.com/download/bes/72/Trend-BESClientUpgrade-7.2.4.60.exe
elseif {exists key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Brand” whose (exists value “value” whose (it as string = “IBM”) of it) of registry}
prefetch BESClientUpgrade.exe sha1:7e663dcdefeb6b2d20ebba1bede101f3c095b409 size:6100880 http://download.bigfix.com/download/bes/72/IBM-BESClientUpgrade-7.2.4.60.exe
else
prefetch BESClientUpgrade.exe sha1:130b6060290c2d04b619f24aaf14d8608d30370c size:6095256 http://download.bigfix.com/download/bes/72/BESClientUpgrade-7.2.4.60.exe
endif
with this:
prefetch BESClientUpgrade.exe sha1:130b6060290c2d04b619f24aaf14d8608d30370c size:6095256 http://download.bigfix.com/download/bes/72/BESClientUpgrade-7.2.4.60.exe
Just saying…
(imported comment written by BenKus)
mcalvi, quick note:
The files should never reach the relays… relays are cached on-demand… so neither the relays nor the agents will download the files…
Ben
(imported comment written by jessewk)
Actually, once a client below the relay requests a single download that is listed in the action, the relay will download all files listed in the action.
In most cases this is an optimization based on the theory that if one client below the relay is requesting one of the files, it is likely a different client will request one of the other files. So the relay will preemptively download them all. However in this particular case clients will never request any of the other downloads so the optimization actually behaves sub-optimally.
Remember in all cases clients will only download the files they need.
Jesse
(imported comment written by mcalvi91)
you hit the nail on the head though… we have to push the full data set across the wans so the clients can pull 1 file across a LAN.
(imported comment written by acula2391)
We noticed that too. The fixlet to upgrade the BES Installation Folders will download three times 145 MB file instead of just once. What a waste of Internet bandwidth and disk space.
Assuming that branded (partners) installations are relatively small number, what was the reason to not creating a separate upgrade fixlet only for the branded deployments?
Hopefully this will change when BigFix get the need to support more partner deployments in addition to Trend and IBM
Thanks,
acula23
(imported comment written by BenKus)
Hey guys,
We discussed this issue in detail internally before we arrived at the combined solution… The positives of keeping them together are fewer Fixlets (less clutter) and simpler user experience for all of our users. The negative is that your server will download/cache 2 unnecessary files temporarily (the files will get kicked out of the cache soon) and any relay that downloads these files will also cache the two files (if a relay is involved, which I don’t think will be the case in most deployments).
From the discussion, it sounds like there is a definite annoyance about these files and we can consider changing it… but does the fact that only one agent that is usually on the BigFix Server will likely ever need this file (and thus no relay will download the file…) change anyone’s mind about how important this is (so basically it is not going to cause any significant bandwidth usage other than a one-time download.
Ben
(imported comment written by mcalvi91)
we have about 450 relays in our organization pulling the 3 relay updates, 6 server installs and 3 agents across our QOSd wan. These are chained relays up to 6 deep. If the relays have to pull all three versions of the files and then they get kicked out of the relay, will the next run of upgrades not cause it to repull the files a second time?