I’m trying to get the latest BES client installed on several OS X computers. Our BigFix server is behind a firewall and I need to manually specify the relay. The instructions for manually assigning a relay to an OS X machine in the KB are wrong – the besclient.config file doesn’t exist on any of the machines I have attempted the installation on.
How do I manually assign a relay to a Mac?
And why is the official documentation on how to do this still incorrect?
Sorry for the confusion. The 6.0 Mac Agent works differently than the Unix/Linux/Windows Agents. We will soon be releasing a 7.1 Mac Agent that will follow the same preset behavior as the other agents. In the meantime, here are some instructions from our Mac Developer on how to accomplish the presets… they require some more steps, which hopefully is only a minor annoyance until 7.1 is released (coming pretty soon):
1.) Use the Installer builder to create a mac install image
2.) Don’t install any clients yet.
3.) Use the CfgToPList.pl script to create a template settings file:
a. Usage: CfgToPList.pl pathToSourceCfgFile destPathForPListFile
b. The source .cfg will likely be whatever clientsettings.cfg they use to pre-configure their Windows machines.
c. The destination file needs to be named com.bigfix.BESAgent.plist
d. It makes sense to use this script once to create a master com.bigfix.BESAgent.plist template file instead of on each machine.
4.) As root (don’t forget this) copy this template settings file to the destination machine, to the location: /Library/Preferences/com.bigfix.BESAgent.plist
5.) Install the client on that destination machine.
It is important to create and copy the com.bigfix.BESAgent.plist before the client is installed. If it is installed without a template there it will create its own default, and then replacing that with the default will wipe out the settings it has written (computerID, etc.)
I need to do this exact thing: modify the Mac installer to default to a specific relay instead of our bigfix server. I’m installing the Mac client version 7.2.6.4. Has any of this info changed? I really need to modify the Mac installer so default relay setting can happen automatically.
I added a clientsettings.cfg in my Windows client installer and it seems to work fine. Just need the same for the Mac installer.
For 7.0+ installers, you can use the same clientsettings.cfg… use these instructions:
This same file (clientsettings.cfg) will also create settings for the Mac client if placed in the installer package before installation.
To add it to the package file, place it in BESAgent.pkg/Contents/Resources/clientsettings.cfg
This can be accessed directly from the shell, but in the Finder you will need to right click on the BESAgent.pkg file and choose “Show Package Contents” to navigate within the package.
The installation package is created with the BEAgent Installer Builder app, which builds it into a read only compressed .dmg file. Because of this the package will need to be copied out of this read only disk image if it is to be edited.
Ahh. There’s my confusion. The support.bigfix.com version of the os x installer is different than what is on my BES servers. It contains the additional components. Thanks!
BigFix - can you update the support page to clarify where to get the correct version?
Jack - Right, the support page is the correct version, but the version cached on the BES server for the upgrade fixlets does not contain the components needed for customization. We didn’t remember this until scoobydooxp made note of it. May save others some steps if the instructions specifically state that you need to use the version on the support site.