Non-Distributed - DownloadsAvailable

Usage and Config Platform
1

Hello,

Reading the BES Client logs I can see this message: “ActionLogMessage: (group:28352,action:28361) Non-Distributed - DownloadsAvailable”.
This means that the action is relevant to this machine and it can be applied?
Or it means that this action is in Queue wainting to be downloaded?

Thanks and regards,
Andrei Pinzaru

2

When the client sends a download request to the relay, they send a message back to the client saying the download is available for clients to grab and execute. I believe that is the notification received from the relay just saying the download is available.

Prior to the messages in the log you pasted, there should be a message like this:

DownloadsAvailable: checking for 'http://relay.server.name:52311/bfmirror/downloads/79083/0'

This is the client checking the relay to see if the file exists for the current running action and it will either tell the relay to get it if it doesn’t have it or download it from the relay if it does.

3

Ok, then this message just means that the actions isn’t distributed but the download is available. Correct?

4

That message is usually only displayed when an action is in progress and a client has called for the download file in reference to its pending action. In your example, it’s tied to Action ID 28352.

In other words, the file is not being openly distributed to clients who don’t have an action calling for it.

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5

What would be a “Distributed Download” vs a “non-Distributed Download”?

Would a “Distributed Download” just be site files with the “send to clients” box checked?

6

As I’ve never seen it, I couldn’t say for certain but that sounds like an accurate theory.

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7

I also have never seen anything other than “Non-Distributed - DownloadsAvailable”, and I don’t use site files, but that was my best guess.

8

There are a few places in this thread that you seem to be confusing actions and downloads, but it could just be terminology.

Actions are never “downloaded” as far as the client is concerned, they are “gathered”. (gathering does involve downloading a site’s content, but it is more involved than just a download)

The general flow is something like this:

  1. A new action is created in a site the client subscribes to.
  2. The client is notified that there is a new site revision, or it polls for commands, or it reaches its gather interval
  3. The new site/action revision is “gathered” by the client.
  4. The client processes the actions to see if any are relevant to it
  5. The client looks for all prefetch/download statements in the actionscript of relevant actions to determine what downloads are needed
  6. The client checks its cache for existing copies of the downloads.
  7. The client asks its parent relay if it has the downloads the client does not have in its cache.
  8. The relay downloads any files it is missing in its cache from its parent relay. (this continues up the chain of relays until the root server is reached, at which point the root server downloads the file from the internet directly if not in the root server cache)
  9. The relay replies “Non-Distributed - DownloadsAvailable” to let the client know the downloads are available.
  10. The client downloads the files.
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