Failure when starting BESClient

Usage and Config Platform
1

(imported topic written by mynameisbear91)

VMware ESX 3.5:

root@esx01 BESClient

uname -a

Linux esx01.companyname.com 2.4.21-63.ELvmnix #1 Wed Aug 4 13:32:27 PDT 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

actionsite.axfm downloaded from the masthead of our BES server, renamed, and placed gingerly in /etc/opt/BESClient:

root@esx01 BESClient

ls -al

total 36

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 9 09:46 .

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Nov 9 09:34 …

-rwxrwx— 1 root root 24954 Nov 9 09:46 actionsite.axfm

BES Client won’t start:

root@esx01 BESClient

/etc/init.d/besclient start

Starting BESClient:

FAILED

Pressing question: WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

2

(imported comment written by NoahSalzman)

Any goodies in the client log? Also: http://support.bigfix.com/cgi-bin/kbdirect.pl?id=332

3

(imported comment written by mynameisbear91)

There was nothing in /var/opt/BESClient except besclient.config.default, so I made a besclient.config per this kb:

http://support.bigfix.com/cgi-bin/kbdirect.pl?id=244

color=blue

My besclient.config:[/color]

root@esx01 BESClient

cat besclient.config

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient

EnterpriseClientFolder = /opt/BESClient

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\GlobalOptions

StoragePath = /var/opt/BESClient

LibPath = /opt/BESClient/BESLib

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelayServer1

effective date = 05 May 2006 16:50:36 gmt

value = http://bigfix.companyiworkfor.com:52311/bfmirror/downloads/

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelayServer2

effective date = 05 May 2006 16:50:36 gmt

value = “”

Software\BigFix\EnterpriseClient\Settings\Client__RelaySelect_Automatic

effective date = 05 May 2006 16:50:36 gmt

value = 0

color=blue

Vitals:[/color]

root@esx01 BESClient

pwd

/var/opt/BESClient

root@esx01 BESClient

ls -al

total 16

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 9 14:19 .

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov 9 09:34 …

-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 614 Nov 9 14:19 besclient.config

-rw-r----- 1 root root 521 Sep 30 03:12 besclient.config.default

root@esx01 BESClient

/etc/init.d/besclient start

Starting BESClient:

FAILED

root@esx01 BESClient

Still nothing additional in /var/opt/BESClient after trying to start it (no logs or anything)

I’m in no hurry so we can do this on the forum for user education as long as you want.

4

(imported comment written by mynameisbear91)

Spelling fail on my part (when I named the actionsite file)!

root@esx01 log

tail -1 messages

Nov 9 14:24:25 esx01 besclient: Missing masthead /etc/opt/BESClient/actionsite.afxm. failed

root@esx01 log

cd /etc/opt/BESClient/

root@esx01 BESClient

mv actionsite.a

xf

m actionsite.a

fx

m

root@esx01 BESClient

/etc/init.d/besclient start

Starting BESClient:

OK

root@esx01 BESClient

tail -1 /var/log/messages

Nov 9 16:06:50 esx01 besclient: BESClient startup succeeded

root@esx01 BESClient

5

(imported comment written by mynameisbear91)

As further search engine bait, by default ESX 3.5 does not allow the BigFix agent to communicate with the BigFix server.

bes client log

At 23:58:58 -0800 -
RegisterOnce: Attempting to register with 'http://bigfix.companyiworkfor.com:52311/cgi-bin/bfenterprise/clientregister.exe?RequestType=RegisterMe&ClientVersion=8.0.627.0&Body=0&SequenceNumber=222&MinRelayVersion=6.0.0.0&CanHandleMVPings=1&Root=http://bigfix.companyiworkfor.com%otherstuffiamdeleting
RegisterOnce: GetURL failed - General transport failure. - winsock error -8

This will add a firewall rule to allow the BigFix client on the ESX server to connect to BigFix servers and relays.

exact command follows

root@esx01 Logs# esxcfg-firewall -o 52311,tcp,out,Bigfix

After this I restarted the besclient and it began happily gathering sites. I’ll update this post once I figure out what port(s) the BES server uses to ping the client so that rule can be added as well.