How do I set a failover relay using an action?

Usage and Config Platform
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(imported topic written by rmnetops91)

I have found a lot of discussion on setting a failover relay, but not enough information on how to set this value using an action. I don’t see a built-in task for this setting change. Is this a Task that must be created from scratch?

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(imported comment written by rmnetops91)

Anyone?

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(imported comment written by BenKus)

Hi rmnetops,

You can use a standard client setting for this (but you are right that we probably should make a predefined Task for this)…

Use the instructions here:

http://support.bigfix.com/bes/misc/besconfigsettings.html

and the setting is: _BESClient_RelaySelect_FailoverRelay

Ben

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(imported comment written by rmnetops91)

The link you posted does not indicate the format of the failover relay server value (what format does it need to be in?). It also only gives instruction on manually creating the custom setting on a computer(s) object, but how can I craft this setting using a task? I could probably just use a similar action from another BES client setting that already exists, and just modify it, but I still need to know the format the failover server value needs to be in (i.e is it http://server.domain.com, or server.domain.com, or http://server.domain.com/asdf/…)

Thanks for your help.

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(imported comment written by RoBolton91)

_BESClient_RelaySelect_FailoverRelay = http://DMZRelay:port/bfmirror/downloads/… You will need to put in the DMZ Relay name and also include the correct poet number…

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(imported comment written by rmnetops91)

Got it.

Thanks!

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Hi Team,
We are using manual relay selection and we have setup failover relay setting also.
By default agents first report to primary then sec, then tertitary, then failover and in the end goes to root.
Again by default it will wait for 10 mins (because _BESClient_RelaySelect_ResistFailureIntervalSeconds default time is 10 mins) and if primary is not accessible then it will go to sec and then tert and then failover and in the end to root. Our root servers are not accessible to endpoints so client will only look for pri sec and failover relays. If way any chance the pri sec and failover is not accessible then client will look for root and it too will not be accessible, so the question is in that scenario when it is not able to found any of the relay then when it will start over again? to look for pri and then sec and then failover and then again root, in what time sec cycle will start and how much time it will again try to look for pri and sec and then failover?

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By default the first retry is at 60 seconds ( _BESClient_RelaySelect_MinRetryIntervalSeconds ) and doubles the time wait after each retry until it reaches 2 hours ( _BESClient_RelaySelect_MaxRetryIntervalSeconds )

1 Like
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Not directly related to your question, but note also that you can define a ‘Last fallback Relay’ for Clients (essentially replacing the Root Server…this is defined within the masthead, and can be quite helpful: https://help.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/10.0/platform/Platform/Config/c_editing_the_masthead.html

1 Like
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HI Jason,
let me understand this with a scenario, we are using manual relay selection, let say for a client the pri, sec, failover relays and root are not accessible for about a day. Now by this moment we will reach the max time of retry interval that is 2 hours.

  1. Now bigfix client will look for relays and root server every 2 hours? Is that the right understanding?
  2. After 2 hrs cycle will the retry be in the same order like it will look for pri then sec then failover and in the end root?
    3.now in its next cycle of 2 hrs if the failover relay is accessible, then it should be able to report in the bigfix server using failover relay, correct?
  3. IF the agent is reporting using failover relay after how much interval later will it look for its pri and sec relay, Is it 6hrs?

Reason being we have this scenario is we are in azure infra with prod and DR, pri and sec relays in prod site and failover relay in DR, the plan is if the prod infra is down then all the vms will be up in DR and in this condition bigfix agent should be able to report via DR failover relay. And once the prod sites are back up then the same agents should be able to report back via the pri and sec relay.

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Yes, correct on all counts; when the client fails to find any relay, it will retry beginning at 1 minute, then longer times until it reaches the maximum retry time of 2 hours, then will keep retrying every 2 hours.

After it has successfully found any relay, it will run another relay selection every 6 hours by default to see whether there is a better/closer relay (controlled by _BESClient_RelaySelect_IntervalSeconds )

More details on these settings available at https://help.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/10.0/platform/Platform/Config/r_client_set.html#r_client_set__rlsl