BES Client does not take the "__RelayServer1" specified value

Usage and Config Platform
1

(imported topic written by wolf35991)

I have installed the BES Client onto a Solaris 10 instance, and have configued it to speak to a specific customer Relay Server. However, when I start the agent it ignores my selection, and attempts to speak directly to the top-level Relay Server instead. If I attempt to modify the config file to change the “__Relay_Control_Server1” setting, this is simply changed back to its previous value once I restart the client (even if I update the effective date too).

I had pre-created the /var/opt/BESClient/besclient.config file prior to running the pkgadd command, to install the BES Client.

The besclient.config contained the following entries prior to installation:

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient]

EnterpriseClientFolder = /opt/BESClient

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\GlobalOptions

StoragePath = /var/opt/BESClient

LibPath = /opt/BESClient/BESLib

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelayServer1

value = http://:52311/bfmirror/downloads/

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelaySelect_Automatic

value = 0

I confirmed that the FQHN of the Relay was resolvable by the OS. Incidentally, this is a customer relay server, which is connected to a parent relay server.

I have installed the BES Client onto other Solaris and Linux instances using the above approach, and this was successful. However, it refuses to work on the current host, and I am at a loss to explain it. The log file does not give any indication - it just shows the client attempting to connect to the wrong Relay and failing.

Any suggestions or troubleshooting steps from anyone would be appreciated.

1 Like
2

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Anything here help?

http://support.bigfix.com/cgi-bin/kbdirect.pl?id=182

Ben

3

Hi All,

I see the same issue on some RHEL systems.
They are set to manually select Relay.
Relay Server 1 and Relay Server 2 and even the Tertiary relay list is provided, but when the client starts it seems to overwrite this file, deleting the relay servers and the tertiary list.

We remove and reinstall the client - it works. So there is no problem connecting to the relay.

This happens on systems that have been running for some time without any issue.

4

You say “provided” but how were they provided?

5

Yeah what @AlanM said…

Specifically are you editing the file manually? If you edit the file manually you will need to stop the client first, and increment the “effective date” to be newer than what the client has stored internally. Otherwise the client will overwrite the file with the prior values when it starts up.

6

I had the same problem with a Red Hat client install :sweat:, I found this thread to be helpful, as well this other thread :
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21578286.

Between the two threads I found a solution that worked for me! In the end, I had to use a besclient.config file that looked like this :

[Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\GlobalOptions]
StoragePath = /var/opt/BESClient
LastClientVersion = 9.5.5.196
ActionLockController = console
LastKnownClockShift = 0
RegCount = 1

[Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client_BESClient_Upgrade_UTF8Settings]
value = 1
effective date = Thu,%2006%20Apr%202017%2017:13:28%20+0000

[Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__Relay_Control_RootServer]
value = http://bigfix.{ourdomain}.com:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite
effective date = Thu,%2006%20Apr%202017%2017:13:28%20+0000

[Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelayServer1]
value = http://{IP of relay server}:52311
effective date = Thu,%2006%20Apr%202017%2017:15:28%20+0000

[Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelayServer2]
value = http://{IP of relay server}:52311
effective date = Thu,%2006%20Apr%202017%2017:15:28%20+0000

[Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client_BESClient_LastShutdown_Reason]
value = Service%20manager%20stop%20request
effective date = Thu,%2006%20Apr%202017%2017:13:50%20+0000

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client_RelaySelectAutomatic
value = 0

I’m not sure if every section was needed, but once I started putting this file in the \var\opt\BESClient\ folder the relay was correctly assigned. Before that no matter what I tried to change it to it went back to the defaults after a reboot - just like wolf35991 said, above : [quote=“system, post:1, topic:8965”]
If I attempt to modify the config file to change the “__Relay_Control_Server1” setting, this is simply changed back to its previous value once I restart the client (even if I update the effective date too).
[/quote]

7

You can take a try ,

  1. install client
  2. copy custom besclient.config
  3. start the service

It would not reset the beslcient.config hopefully

1 Like
8

Yes, that might work - I went the more drastic route of uninstalling the client, deleting all the content and sub-folders under /var/opt/BESClient and then putting the config in place and reinstalling - seemed to work every time as long as I had that config in place. I noticed that it would reset to defaults unless I had pretty much that entire config, I used it on several red hat and centos images with no more issues after I started using it.

I’ve noticed a pattern in that I have not seen this issue with Ubuntu or other debian-based distributions, only RH based ones like CentOs.

Here is another thread discussing the same issue, not sure if their solution worked or not :
Clientsettings.cfg Not Working for __RelayServer1