Download Cache keeps removing files.

I have BigFix (9.5.16). installed on an airgap network, i have a method in place to pull over updated sha1 files (collected offsite) and import them to: BES Server\wwwrootbes\bfmirror\downloads\sha1

That works fine, folder ends up with around 22,000 files in it. (1.9TB)

However after it copies down, the next morning when i try to patch something, the patch will sit on “Waiting for downloads to be mirrored”

I go check that downloads folder, and its down to like 9,600 files (800gb). Then i have to re-initiate the copy to get the files back to patch. its getting frustrating to do this every time.

I have checked the - _BESGather_Download_CacheLimitMB on the Server and i have it set to 2.5 TB (2500000)
and the folder (when full only sits at 1.9tb) clears down to around 800gb.

anyone seen this issue before? i have checked Event Viewer and its BigFix deleting these files, but im not sure how to stop this.

For Example, Thursday i copied down Feb 202 MS patches. Tried to patch some test machines today and its missing 1/4 of the Feb patches downloaded and placed in BES Server\wwwrootbes\bfmirror\downloads\sha1 So i had to re-copy them over, once the sha1 files are in the the patch continue with out a problem.

This is fairly unique scenario and opening a support case with our L2 team is likely your best course of action as L3 will likely have to be involved with this matter.

Hi @KWalton, I too am facing similar issue with airgap infra. Can you please share the workarounds provided by the support team?

I think you should follow the advice given to open a support case.

Changes to the _BESGather_Download_CacheLimitMB setting do require the restarting of the BESRootServer or BESRelay service in order for them to take effect.

We have ours set to 5TB (5,242,880) and I currently have 2.78TB / 41,673 files.

If someone from dev could validate the following assumptions, it might help answer a lot of the ambiguity:

  1. Based upon the documented default for this setting (1,024MB) I have to assume you are using base 2 calculations and not base 10 for values entered in this property. That is to say using a value of 1 represents 1,048,576 bytes, not 1,000,000 bytes.
  2. When calculating in-use space on disk are you using the size of the contents of the file itself, or the amount of storage the file is taking on disk. For example, my current cache folder contains 3,063,831,184,690 bytes worth of files but that consumes 3,063,921,078,272 bytes of storage (due to NTFS format using block sizes of 4,096). Does this ~86-90MB (depending upon assumption #1) factor into the calculations?
  3. For all settings documented as being defined in MB, does assumption #1 hold true? If not the case, is it possible to annotate the documentation to reflect the definition of MB being used for the setting?
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