I have facing this issue since a long time now. Any action which I set up do not expire at the defined expiry date/time. This actions stay under “Open Actions” for almost 8 to 10 hours and then move to “Expired Actions”.
I know the first thing which comes to everyones mind is the client local time on which these actions are getting deployed, I have already checked this and my Big Fix Server time and My client local time is same. Also I am not facing this issue just for one system but for any action I deploy.
Need urgent help as all my Policy actions are going for a Toss…
There is often confusion in this area since the expiration date/time behavior for actions may at first seem strange, but I will try to explain. The first thing to note is that as you suggest, an action’s start/end times are defined as
client local time
. Given this, it is very possible that you might have clients in timezones ‘behind’ that of the main BigFix server. So, actions remain in the ‘Open’ state until all possible client timezones have been met. For example, let’s say your main BigFix server sits in the Eastern Time Zone (GMT -05:00), but you have BigFix clients all over the world, including in the Pacific Time Zone (GMT -08:00). You define an action to end/expire at 11:00 PM client local time. In this case, if the action actually ended/expired at 11:00 PM Eastern (GMT -05:00), then clients in the Pacific Time Zone would have essentially lost 3 hours to execute the action (as it would only be 8:00 PM Pacific). This behavior would be unacceptable. So, since all the action start/end times are defined against the client’s local time, the actions must remain in the ‘Open’ state until all possible time-zones have been met.
Was I able to explain?
Given this, so long as the client’s local time (and timezone) is accurate and appropriate, the actions will NOT execute on the BES Clients after the action’s defined end time.
Thats a valid point, but as I have said, the client local time is same onto all the systems on which these actions are running. All my systems are in the same time zone. I have done this onto my own system which has the same date/time settings (as they logon to the same DC), and I have noticed this same issue.
The behavior I described above whereby actions remain in the ‘Open’ state in the BESConsole before being considered an ‘Expired action’ is by design due to the fact that an organization may have clients in various time zones. Again, the fact that the actions are ‘Open’ in the BESConsole for several hours after the End Time has passed for a given time zone (for instance, the time zone for your main BigFix server) should not affect the actions running on your clients since all the times within an action are evaluated against the client’s local time and time zone. Regardless of what the time zones are for your particular systems, the main BigFix server will keep actions ‘Open’ until all possible timezones have been satisfied.
Is the issue that the action status is not changing in the console, or is it that you feel actions are running on clients after the defined action end time?
I dont think the actions run after the defined Time zone, though I am not sure, but yes, they do not change in the console for almost 8 to 10 hours. Also as I said, we do not have any system on the Big Fix server database which is from a different time zone…
While you don’t currently have any machines in different time zones (and maybe never will), we have to account for the fact that one could show up at any time, anywhere in the world. Many of our customers have machines in time zones all around the world. Also, if you have a relay in your DMZ, then any traveling laptops could show up in unexpected time zones, like when I log on to check my work email on vacation in Tahiti.
So to account for that, the console will not show actions as expired until no time zones exists where the action could still be in the “open” state. So, if the action is set to expire at 3:00PM on January 17th, the console will show the action as open until it’s past 3:00PM on January 17th everywhere in the world.
I am sorry guys, but here I am not refering to any specific action or any specific Laptop or machine in DMZ which could lead to an action being shown up in the open action tab for 8 hours.
Let me give you a simple example to make myself clear----
I am generating an action on my own Desktop. The relay for this desktop is in the same building where the Big Fix Server is. All these three machines (Desktop, Relay, Big Fix Server) are in the same time zone and have the same time stamping as these logon to the same DC. Now this actions still remains in the Open action tab/state for almost 7 to 8 hours post its expiry time…
I hope the above example has nothing to do with any time zone restriction.
There appears to be some confusion here. The key points are:
A BES Client will never run an action after the expired time (according to the client local time zone).
It is normal for actions to show “expired” in the BES Console many hours later. The reason for this is to account for the fact that the clients might have different time zones (even if you happen to have all your computers in the same time zone).
So basically the behavior you describe is by design and there is nothing to worry about. Re-read Aram’s description above for a more detailed explanation.