I’m attempting to run a shell script with BES Client (6.0.9.55) on Mac OS X (10.4.10) that outputs to a file and then retreive the results through a property. The script is proof of concept only:
Am I on the right track with the “Execute it, Retrieve it later” approach?
(*nix newbie alert!!!) Is there a better location I should use for the output file (and what’s the BigFix language to get me there)?
What is the BF language to retreive the file created in the “\Library\Application Support\BigFix\BES Agent__BES Data\actionsite” folder? I tried “content of file “findme.txt” of client folder of current site” but that returns “”.
That script should work so I don’t see a problem with that aspect of it. What I would recommend though is renaming the file to __findme.txt as this should keep it from being deleted. After that it is pretty easy to retrieve the information via a retrieved property with something like:
if (exists file ((pathname of client folder of site “ActionSite” as string) & “/__findme.txt”)) then (lines of file ((pathname of client folder of site “ActionSite” as string) & “__findme.txt”)) else (“No Trace”)
Perfect! Thank you for your assistance. As it turns our we have had a few of our Macs stolen and a couple of them are still reporting in occasionally. The problem is they’re using private IP addresses. So … we thought we’d get the computers to perform a traceroute back to us so we can pass along their ISP addresses to the detective we’re working with. Here’s what we ended up with in case anyone is interested …
Task:
Relevance:
(it contains “mac os x”) of (name of operating system as lowercase)
(it contains “mac os x”) of (name of operating system as lowercase) and exists file ((pathname of client folder of site “ActionSite” as string) & “/__findme.txt”)
Property:
if (exists file ((pathname of client folder of site “ActionSite” as string) & “/__findme.txt”)) then (lines of file ((pathname of client folder of site “ActionSite” as string) & “/__findme.txt”)) else (“No Trace”)
Another thread (http://forum.bigfix.com/viewtopic.php?id=2112) reminded me to post this follow up. We were able to recover a stolen computer using BigFix but not in the manner you might imagine.
I was not directly involved in the conversation with local law enforcement but we provided information that should have been sufficient (dates, times, serial numbers, and traceroutes back to us from a stolen computer that was put online). I was told the ISP (a large well known provider) told the detectives they could not provide account information based on the information provided.
So, we put together a task that displayed a message on the computer (Stolen Computer Alert! This computer was stolen from xxxxxx. In order to avoid prosecution call xxx-xxxx immediately) then would shutdown the computer once the message was acknowledged. We got a call within hours and had our computer back the next day.
I should mention “they” said it was a craigs list purchase and they didn’t know it was stolen when the bought it. I’ll have to find out if our asset tag was still attached
So, we put together a task that displayed a message on the computer (Stolen Computer Alert! This computer was stolen from xxxxxx. In order to avoid prosecution call xxx-xxxx immediately) then would shutdown the computer once the message was acknowledged. We got a call within hours and had our computer back the next day.
