I am looking for a method to create or update Client Settings without triggering a BigFix Action. I'm aware that the standard /api/computer REST API creates an action; however, I’ve noted that the BigFix Integration with ServiceNow (referenced here) successfully enriches BigFix with ServiceNow data without generating actions. Is there a specific API endpoint or internal method available to developers that replicates this "silent" update behavior?
I am curious about this as well.
I would even go so far as to say, doesn’t require any activity on the client itself let alone a BigFix action. For example, it’s possible to set a client setting and then the endpoint would check in with that info.
I am interested to add metadata such as the SNOW data. We have endpoints offline quite a bit and in some workflows, I would love to add this data without having the device come online.
@DerrickD If you look into the BigFix DEX Implementation - You can see that it will gather information and will update it into special table on the BFInsights database, ETL that into DEX Application database and after that the DEX Web application will be able to see that data.
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I’m doing something like this by using the API to upload individual data files to each computer’s mailbox. The file is then directly read by Retrieved Properties, no Actions required. An earlier version of my solution had a single non-ending, reapplied Policy Action that read the file and created Computer Settings, if Computer Settings are necessary. I’ve been told the ServiceNow solution uses a similar mechanism.
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That’s probably going to require direct database manipulation. Everything in BigFix comes from the client, as far as I can tell. Server-side Groups is likely the only exception.
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hi @orbiton, the way SNow integration does it is by using mailbox files - it essentially uses machine’s mailbox API (not action) to post the file. Also, this doesn’t change “client settings” - it just updates a file that goes into \BES Client\__BESData\mailbox\ folder and then you create analysis/properties that read the file in question.
You are welcome to use it for whatever you want to build but please be careful that while posting files with the same name and overwriting them on the client side, that’s not what happens on db side and instead it just appends multiple copies of uploaded files with the same name…
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How do I address the situation with the db? Do I need to use the Audit Cleaner and mark the option to delete old mailbox files?
You may want to run it by Support/DEV via a case and see what options exist today. We ran into it the hard way when we were upgrading to v11 which requires the resigning of certs, so what happened is we had millions of files with the same name (multiples for each machine), and to resign each one with new cert took a week to complete with entire BigFix environment unavailable for the duration and no option to “stop”/”pause” the process once started due to irreversible corruption it would have caused… HCL did commit to improve this in a number of ways but not 100% sure where each ended and whether they were all delivered. They should be able to advise you whether this sort of thing is now resolved before going “live” with such an automation/integration.
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