File not being cached on relay

Usage and Config
1

I was testing a deployment to the same device several times, and each time I saw the "Downloads Available: False" message and had to wait for the relay to mirror the installer. But after the third or fourth time, I was wondering why it wasn't being cached. The device was connected to the same relay the whole time, and changes to the fixlet were only to the install command — nothing changed with the download.

The fixlet completed successfully, so there was no problem eventually downloading the files.

The relay in question has a 100GB cache, and I see other new content from today being stored in D:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Relay\wwwrootbes\bfmirror\downloads\sha1. The sha1 folder is currently at 98.7GB, but I was under the impressions that old/unused cached content would be automatically purged to make room for new content. The installer in question is 169MB

Are there some rules (e.g. content must be deployed to x number of endpoints) for content to be properly cached?

1 Like
2

I know in the client logs I have seen Downloads Available: False and then a few seconds later the relay sends a ping to the client saying the download is available.

I never really looked into it to see why this is happening.

You can tell the client to checking with the relay faster if the client isn’t getting the ping from the relay that the download is ready through a client setting:

_BESClient_Download_CheckAvailabilitySeconds=90

The default is I think 10 minutes, which is way too long.

3

It definitely took longer than a few seconds, so I suspect it truly was downloading all over again. The client can receive UDP fine as well, as least confirmed by the persistent connection check reporting "UDP received"

Is _BESClient_Download_CheckAvailabilitySeconds hidden for some reason? I don't see it in the List of Settings and Detailed Descriptions for 9.5, 10 or 11.

4

sometimes the client will get the download ping, but still wait 10 minutes before checking in again… I’m not sure why. If the consistently takes 10 minutes to start downloading files, this is why.

That is odd. Apparently we do consider this a “hidden” setting, even though it is in one of our KB articles and mentioned on the forum. Not sure why.

It is mentioned here: DownloadsAvailable: False - #2 by Aram

Not sure why it wouldn’t be in the official documentation. Should be added in my opinion. I opened a ticket internally about this.

Also mentioned here: Controlling UDP traffic from BigFix Server and Relays - Customer Support