Hi Experts,
I’m trying to install the relay component on a server where I’ve installed the 9.2.6 version of the client. The strange thing that I’m seeing under the tasks is that the task “Install Tivoli Endpoint Manager Relay (Version 8.2.1472.0)” is applicable but the task “Install IBM Endpoint Manager Relay (Version 9.2.5)” is not applicable.
Is this expected or am I doing something wrong here?
Another update on this.
I noticed that the relevances for all the Install Endpoint Manager Relay fixlets point to a particular version of the site and client except for the one for version 8.2.1472.0 which checks for version 8.2 or higher.
My site is at 9.2.6. Does this mean that there’s no relay fixlet available yet for this version other than the older version?
Please if someone can provide a response on this, it’ll be really helpful.
What kind of OS are you trying to install the operating system on?
This is a Windows Server 2012 R2 server on which I’m trying to install the relay component.
If the client on that server is 9.2.6 and the relevance isn’t working, I would try to run the non-relevant task directly targeting that server by name. If that comes back as not relevant, investigate the client installed on that server and make sure it’s functioning properly.
You could also take the individual arguments that evaluate the relevance of the fixlet on the server itself and see where it’s going wrong.
The fixlets are not relevant because the relevance is coded that way. They are coded to look for a particular version (which is lower than what my site and client are at). Here are the relevances included for the relay installer fixlet for version 9.2.5.
version of registration server = "9.2"
version of client = “9.2.5”
There’s no fixlet with the version 9.2.6. I’m not sure if I’m looking at it in the right way or not but it doesn’t look like the problem is with the fixlets.
It could because IBM re-adopted the BigFix moniker with the release of 9.2.6. Look for “Updated Windows Client - IBM BigFix version 9.2.6 Now Available!” and see if that’s relevant?
Is that for installing the client or the relay?
There should be a matching fixlet for installing/upgrading the relay.
The documentation needs to be updated with such details else people like me who are new to the product will be completely lost! It makes the statement “Bigfix installation is as simple as it gets” sound untrue. 
Okay. The good news is that I was able to uninstall the older version of the relay and install the version 9.2.6 (had to search with the version number in order to find it!).
Now for the part that needs some fixing.
I tried to uninstall the relay component using the task Uninstall BES Relay. It DID NOT work and here’s why.
I checked the relevance for it and found that it’s checking only for the existence of normal registry paths as if the installation had taken place on an x86 box. It does not take into account that if the relay is installed on an x64 box, the same keys would be under Software\Wow6432Node…
So, I had to eventually manually uninstall the relay using the msiexec command line.
@BigFixNinja - Would you be able to help in looking into this so that the relevance for this can be updated to make it work on x64 boxes as well?
By the way, I was just wondering if someone could also let me know which Bigfix components are available as 64 bit and 32 bit and which ones are 32 bit only.
Thanks!
The relevance is correct in the fixlet but the following requirements are in place:
For 9.2.6 the fixlets 2275 for Windows and 2256 for Linux/Unix are definitely there for installing the relay
Hi @AlanM,
I agree with you the relevance for the task that installs the relay, is correct and I’ve mentioned that in my response to jmaple as well. The relevance that I’m talking about that has the problem is the one that uninstalls the relay.
The relevance for the uninstall relay fixlet is not considering registry paths under Software\Wow6432Node when the relay is installed on an x64 machine.
Hope this clarifies my previous response.
@genious_2k1 , @AlanM stated the relevance is correct for the fixlet so some pre-req is not being met if the fixlet is not relevant for the deployment of the relay component.
Ahh, the uninstall fixlet I believe still has to be upgraded for the recent rebranding for 9.2.6 (not sure if someone addressed that yet)
@genius_2k1; to be clear, you are referring to Fixlet # 328 in the BES Support site correct? Named: “Uninstall BES Relay”
Currently the BigFIx relay components are not 64-bit. Therefore this uninstall fixlet will not need to be upgraded until or when the relay (and also the client) go to being 64 bit application components (you can use the current uninstall relay fixlet to remove relay components in the deployment).
So currently the BigFix server components are implemented as 64 bit applications. However, the client and relay components are still 32 bit applications.
The BigFix server components went from 32 to 64-bit going from version 9.2.3.68 to 9.2.4.2. See the following section on the changelist:
http://support.bigfix.com/bes/changes/fullchangelist-92.txt
Features Added or Changed
FYI, the “of registry” inspector will operates in 32-bit mode, so a query for ‘key “HKLM\Software\X” of registry’ will actually return the key HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\X.
To get the “real” registry keys you would use “of native registry” or “of x64 registry”. That’s why the uninstall fixlet does not have to consider Wow6432Node.
Hi Jason,
If what you’re saying is correct then, I’m not sure why the fixlet didn’t do anything even when I waited for an hour. This should happen within seconds like it does for all the other tasks.
The interesting thing is that as soon as I manually uninstalled the relay from the server, the uninstall task reported back as not applicable. That is what hinted towards a problem with the relevance.
@BigFixNinja - As far as pre-requisites are concerned, I’m assuming that the fixlet wouldn’t even show up as applicable if that were the case. Do correct me if I’m wrong here.
@AlanM - Any way that you can confirm this please?
You’d have to have checked the relevance statements via the Fixlet Debugger. There may have also been a problem with the client reporting on that specific relevance. A Send Refresh to the endpoint would have caused the client to send up a full report of its current evaluated properties (please don’t do a send refresh to many endpoints at one time). The console may have also had a stale cache, clearing the console cache and restarting the console may have reflected the endpoints relevance accurately.