BES Client not Reporting

Usage and Config Platform
1

I have a BES Client that is not reporting and executing actions. I know I can remove the client and re-add it to fix the issue, but I would prefer not to do that because there is data that is lost on the client, like usage data.

I have reset the client by deleting the folder “C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client\KeyStorage” and then restarting the service, but it is still not processing normally. I would like to send a notify client forcerefresh, but the client is not processing actions.

When the client is restarted, the last line in the log file is:

Successful Synchronization with site 'mailboxsite' (version 1) - 'http://xxxxxx.com:52311/cgi- 
bin/bfgather.exe/mailboxsite1620250032'
2

I’d recommend turning on client debug logging, described at https://support.hcltechsw.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0022437 , and opening a support incident to have the team help you analyze it.

The one line from the log looks likely that it’s finding a relay and registering…the most common cause I’ve seen for delayed reporting is a long-running property evaluation, like the “descendants” or “descendant folders” inspectors. The debug log will show if it’s getting stuck on an evaluation.

There were also some versions of the client on Windows where WMI could hang when checking some…I think… Windows Defender settings. That should also be visible in the debug log.

3

If you know that the client can communicate with your environment, you can try Stopping the BES Client, clearing out the __BESData folder then restarting the BES Client.

This will cause the client to redownload all the content from it’s Relay. Since this leaves the client settings alone, you won’t lose anything and the client simply re-evaluates the content.

1 Like
4

The problem with deleting __BESData is that you loose all of the folders under __Global which contains usage data. We have properties and relevance that rely on usage data.

Deleting the folder “C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client\KeyStorage” and then restarting the client did work. It just took about an hour before it started reporting.

5

If the client is not reporting, debug cannot be turned on. Any suggestions? I guess I would need to do it via the registry.

6

I think that the BES Client not reporting is a major Bigfix weakness. If the endpoint is online and the BES Client service is running, it should report, and not hang forever. We use Bomgar, and it is able to report that the client is on, but not Bigfix.