(imported topic written by arpotu91)
Hey All,
Is there an easy way to change the relay value in the registry of windows computers? Or, will I need to write some action script to do so? Basically, I have a dual-homed relay, and some of the downstream computers are set to relay to the “front-end” network interface, and some are set to relay to the “back-end” network interface. I would like to change them all to relay to the back-end.
Thanks,
Arpotu.
(imported comment written by BenKus)
Hi arpotu,
Do you want to change the agents to use the different NIC when connecting to the relay? If so, how would you do that? Change the IP/DNS that the agents connect to?
Or do you want to change the way the relay connects to its parent relay?
Ben
(imported comment written by arpotu91)
I want to change “relayname.somedomain.com:portnum” to “1.2.3.4:portnum”. Basically, they’ll report to the same relay, but on a different interface. Reason being, the “front-end” has firewall restrictions (that might be affecting the UDP ping), but the back-end does not.
Arpotu.
(imported comment written by BenKus)
I see… Are these agents using manual or automatic relay selection?
You can also change the “name” of the relay to the IP address so that the agents will try to find the relay using the IP instead of the default DNS name. To do this, use the Task “BES Relay Setting: Name Override” in the BES Support Fixlet site.
If you are using Automatic selection, the agents will switch automatically to finding the relay based on its new name in a couple hours after it is propagated (when they do their normal relay autoselection).
If you are using manual selection, you can assign them to the new IP after you change it.
Ben
(imported comment written by arpotu91)
Ben,
The agents are using manual relay.
The relayname.somedomain.com DNS entry points to the front-end of the relay, but I need to point the agents to the back-end of the relay. If I use “Name Override” they will still point to the front-end.
Could I possibly rewrite the registry entries of these keys with action script and issue client restarts to point them in the right direction?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__Relay_Control_Server1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__Relay_Control_Server2
Arpotu.
(imported comment written by BenKus)
Hi Arpotu,
Why not change the Relay Name to the back end of the relay (which is an IP address, correct?) so when you point the agents at the relay with the standard manual selection mechanism, they point to the backend relay?
And if you did want to change the registry keys, you should use these ones:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelayServer1
Ben
(imported comment written by arpotu91)
Ben,
I can’t change the FQDN for the front-end because front-ends are used for “service delivery” and back-ends are used for “management” (RDP, monitoring, and in this case, patching with BigFix). All customer access to the server is through the front-end, and the respective IP range resides only in a specific DNS domain. In addition, the front-end is known for other services besides being a BES relay, so if I move the hostname to the back-end, customers won’t be able to get to those additional services.
BTW, thanks for the correction - guess I copied the wrong key name from the registry 
So, since I can’t move the front-end FQDN to the back-end, is my best option rewriting the registry key and restarting the clients?
Thanks,
Arpotu.
(imported comment written by BenKus)
Hi Arpotu,
You should use the Task on the BES Support site to change the name of the relay to be the IP address. This will only affect how the BigFix Agents contact the relay and it will not affect any other services on the system.
Ben