I recently used the Software Distribution Wizard to upload a PowerShell script. Upon completing the wizard it generated the appropriate action script code to prefetch the script via the hash and later extract it. I noticed that in the generated code it references the the webURL of my primary server. How do I get the script distributed to my relays?
Here’s what I’m doing in case there is a better method. I have a PowerShell script that I need run on all my servers. The script kicks out a file to c:\ temp. I have an Analyses that has lines of file c:\temp\audit.txt. I then pull this property into a web report.
The script will reference the URL of your BigFix server just like a patch or a vendor fixlet.
The BigFix architecture knows what to do with that URL so it will automatically be distributed through your relays. No action required from you at all!
The backend of it is this:
The client requests the file at the URL from the relay, the relay requests it from the server, the server downloads it and gives it to the relay who gives it to the client. The Servers and relays only need to download it once and then its cached for all to use!
Just elaborating on this a little bit for others who may be interested:
Sometimes you want to cache a file on a lot of relays in preparation for a future action, e.g.large patches or binaries that may take a while to download. In these cases, you can use the File Pre-Cache Wizard to ensure your relays all have the desired files ready for the clients when they request them. Otherwise as @strawgate mentioned, a relay will wait for the first client to request the file before it downloads it for the first time.
If your using the File Pre-Cache Wizard though, or distributing large files and binaries, make sure your relays have enough cache space - the default is set to 1GB, but can be modified using a fixlet (search for ‘cache’ in all fixlets and tasks).