DeepFreeze and BigFix cohabitation

Usage and Config Platform
1

Hi Guys,

I am wondering how anyone deals with duplicates being created by bigfix when you reboot a machine in a frozen state?

I updated it in the original post but it was old.

Thanks,

Peter

2

In general, I wouldn’t recommend DeepFreeze for many reasons, but I do realize that isn’t a sufficient answer when you often don’t have a choice.

You can delete the duplicate records using a tool IBM provides: TEM Computer Remover

Looks like there is an old whitepaper: http://www.faronics.com/assets/DFEnt_BigFix.pdf

It would be best to prevent the creation of duplicate computer records in the first place by getting Deep Freeze to play nice with BigFix.

Related:

3

The Data Igloo functionality of Deep Freeze would allow you to redirect registry key to a file on the system which would likely allow it to retain the computer information between reboots. You can also use data igloo to allow writes to the BigFix directory.

Here is a link that covers how to do it for Microsoft Security Essentials… http://support.faronics.com/knowledgebase/article/View/357/8/retaining-application-data-with-data-igloo

That should get you started!

Also – agree with @jgstew … avoid deepfreeze at all costs!

1 Like
4

I’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of working with DeepFreeze. You have to manage the machines when they are Thawed. The BES Client should be either stopped or Sleeping while the machine is in the Frozen state.

When the BES Client is started (or woken up) while the system is Thawed, it will manage the machine. I always recommended that the machines be Thawed at least once a day for a few hours to allow the BES Client to do its business.

As for Duplicates, I use the ComputerRemover tool every night to remove duplicate systems. I use the Windows Scheduler to run it each night.

5

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the reply. The issue i have with that is stopping the service while frozen is kinda counter productive as I can’t use bigfix to thaw it. I think that is the only option but I will have to figure something out.

Thanks,

Peter

6

You can start & stop the BigFix service with a scheduled task.

7

Hi James,

Yes I guess if that is the only option we will need to go that route.

Thanks,

Peter

8

Have you looked at the Quiet mode settings?

_BESClient_Resource_QuietEnable
_BESClient_Resource_QuietStartTime
_BESClient_Resource_QuietSeconds

The only problem with these settings is you can’t silence the client for more than 20 hours at a time.

9

Hi Tim,

The issue with this is in Frozen mode it will still create a duplicate every time they log out and log back in. It’s basically reverting a snapshot.

Thanks,

Peter

1 Like
10

Then as I understand it, the only choice you have is to leave the client in the STOPPED state while the machine is frozen, and start it when the machine is thawed for maintenance/management. The Quiet settings didn’t exist (or were not well documented) when I was involved with a group of DeepFreeze machines. I remember the nightmare before the Admin was convinced to turn off the client while Frozen, and enable it only when the machines were thawed each night for maintenance. Several hundred instances of each machine would show up in the console during the day. For most the Console Operators it was transparent, because they were never ‘live’ in BigFix long enough to report to anyone’s console except my Master Operator account.

When you think about it, DeepFreeze is the antithesis of BigFix. It “prevents” any changes to the endpoints, while BigFix is designed to implement those changes.

For a while I was looking into Microsoft SteadyState, before Microsoft killed it off. :frowning:

1 Like