(imported topic written by BenUK77791)
Hi,
When we remove machines from AD they still appear in the BigFix database\ console. Is there a way we can set BigFix the remove if not in AD or if it has not contacted after say 30 days.
I realise we can set the console to show machines as being offline if nto contacted after a certain period but is there something similar to remove them permanently.
Thanks,
Ben.
(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)
Hey Ben,
The BES Expired Computer Remover tool should do what you want, just make a scheduled task to run it once a week or once a day and it will purge the systems that haven’t reported back in.
http://support.bigfix.com/bes/install/downloadutility.html#besexpiredcomputerremover
Tyler
(imported comment written by jpeppers91)
Has anyone seen an issue where the expired computer tool runs and doesn’t remove expired computers? I have one machine in the database where it’s last report time is in 2006 but it is not getting purged.
(imported comment written by jpeppers91)
Has anyone seen an issue where the expired computer tool runs and doesn’t remove expired computers? I have one machine in the database where it’s last report time is in 2006 but it is not getting purged.
(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)
It’s possible that the computer is active but the ‘Last Report Time’ property is either invalid or not being updated in the database. The BESDeletedComputerRemover tool uses the COMPUTERS table to decide if the client is still active or not. Basically, the COMPUTES table has a time stamp updated when anything about a client is received while the ‘Last Report Time’ is a property that can be mis-reported in certain situations. The Last Report Time property should be reported with every client report so we certainly expect that property to be up to date and correct but the situation you described is actually possible and the tool is likely operating correctly.
One common problem is that the high performance counter (part of the physical hardware in your motherboard) will be physically broken and the computer will incorrectly track time, leading to weird ‘Last Report Time’ values being reported.
(imported comment written by jeko1791)
Is there anyway to take the BES Computer Remover one step further. Let me explain. We manage systems for more than one entity, so it’s not unlikely that two unique systems could share the same computer name. We have several computers named EXCHANGE, WEB, MAIL, etc. So I don’t want the BES Computer Remover to see one of these offline for a while and delete it because there is another system with the same computer name that is still online. What we do is validate the IP also. It 2 BES Computers share the same computer name and IP, then we delete the one that hasn’t reported in a while.
Our problem is we are going through major system upgrades and transitions so as hardware changes, we get lots of duplicate entries. Cleaning these out is a daily chore, and since w cannot rely solely on computer name as a a unique identifier, it’s painfully manual.
Is there anyway to automate this process?
(imported comment written by BenKus)
Hey jeko,
The BESDeletedComputerRemovalTool has a command line option to allow you to use another property besides computer name… But in any case if you accidentally delete a computer that is active, it will come back on next report…
Ben
(imported comment written by jeko1791)
Ben,
Is BESDeletedComputerRemoval.exe the same as BES Computer Remover located here? http://support.bigfix.com/bes/install/downloadutility.html#bescomputerremove
If not, where do I find the BESDeletedComputerRemoval.exe, and can you point me to some documentation that explains how to search on multiple properties? (I looked at the help file for an older version of BESDeletedCompRemover.exe but couldn’t find anything about additional properties.
(I did the obvious and searched Forum and Support site for this .exe)
(imported comment written by NoahSalzman)
Jeko,
Ben meant to send you to the link you referenced. The tool was
updated in the very recent past.
Noah
(imported comment written by jeko1791)
Thanks noah, got it.
I’m a little nervous running this the first time. Can you verify that I have these switches correct before I run it? I’ want to delete duplicate systems that both, have the same computername and same IP address (we have some systems that legitimately have the same computername).
BESComputerRemover.exe -D -P “IP Address” “Computer Name”
I plan to run this as a Scheduled Task, so we don’t have to do this manually.
Thanks,