Question about PeerNest functionaillity

[TimRice]

We are starting to use PeerNest in our environment.
I have a couple questions about functionality.

1. We Enable PeerNest and configure the Cache size and expiration appropriately, on a group of computers in multiple subnets.
2. We push an Action that includes a large download file to computers where PeerNest is enabled.
3. We Decide we like what we saw performance wise and configure PeerNest on more machines in the same subnets.
4. We push the same Fixlet with a new Action to these computers.
5. Assuming the Cache content has not expired from the first action in #2, will the computers in Steps #1 and #2 act as PeerHosts for the Action in #4 even if they are not included in the Targets for the new Action?

I’m hoping that the new targets will first broadcast a UDP query to their subnet to any system that already has the file cached locally.

[trn]

We have used a limited amount of peernest and I have seen that later actions do get the advantage of targets for earlier actions having the files cached

We do have cache sizes and timeout limits set, but chosen to (hopefully) keep files cached for the duration of a deployment cycle.

[sryn]

This would imply that having “Stagger download times” enabled on an action would not confilct with PeerNest, or is that a bad practice? I t looks like the “Action temporal distribution - delay xxx seconds” still applies even with PeerNest enabled, so maybe it’s not optimal for the members of the multcast group on the subnet?

[DanieleColi]

Yes, @TimRice, you are right: when PeerNest is enabled, every client in a peer group will send an UDP broadcast and only if it not receives an answer it starts downloading from the Relay.

Some documentation for your reference
https://help.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/10.0/platform/Platform/Config/c_P2P.html
https://bigfix-wiki.hcltechsw.com/blogs/PeerNest/entry/PeerNest_behind_the_scenes

[DanieleColi]

Hi @sryn, whenever a peer starts downloading, all other peers are notified and won’t start at the same time; if you stagger download times, likely only one peer will ask the file to the Relay, so probably no Master Election happens.