"settings of client": what does that include? How to get a property onto that list? How to query properties created via an analysis?

[aixtools]

When you click, in Console, on a computer, that opens a dialog that contains this info:

In an action I included {settings of client} after a __creatfile statement to see what settings the actual client has, as these are different from what QnA reports (obviously).

Also, I had included a property via “Tools->Manage Properties” that I have called __MSN, _MSN, and MSN (trying various numbers of _ (underscore), in case that mattered) but whatever value that property has, it never shows in “settings of client”

• maybe I need a different “property” of client to get these “Master Action Site” properties
• why, or better how, does the property “AIX Full OS Level” show-up (from Analysis:
  
  

and

but none of the others?

p.s.: regarding other properties of client? Nothing jumps out to me:

Q: properties of type "client"
A: info of <client>: string
A: registration address of <client>: ipv4or6 address
A: registration subnet address of <client>: ipv4or6 address
A: registration cidr address of <client>: string
A: registration mac address of <client>: string
A: brand of <client>: string
A: build target of <client>: string
A: last command time of <client>: time
A: last report time of <client>: time
A: data folder of <client>: folder
A: storage folder of <client>: folder
A: authenticating of <client>: boolean
A: certificate of <client>: x509 certificate
A: character sets of <client>: string
A: deployment character set of <client>: string
A: report character set of <client>: string
A: fxf character set of <client>: string
A: local character set of <client>: string
A: banned prefetch plugins of <client>: string
A: evaluationcycle of <client>: evaluation cycle
A: settings of <client>: setting
A: setting <string> of <client>: setting
A: administrator <string> of <client>: setting
A: administrators of <client>: setting
A: administrative rights of <client>: administrative rights
A: version of <client>: version
A: manual group <string> of <client>: manual group
A: manual groups of <client>: manual group
A: upload progress of <client>: string
T: 1575

And, another - I hope related - question.

How to query the other “properties” that, apparently “WebReports” can query, without having to do a WebReport query as part of “relevance” check? or for a dynamic property setting "set/determined using “relevance”, better “Inspector” queries?

e.g., how to get/extract info from:

or even the more standard

[aixtools]

ok - trying now to work with tasks and analysis defined within a custom site, as “settings of client” is not working as I had hoped.

note: still curious about how “AIX Full OS Level” became part of client settings.

Anyway - my assumption - that seems wrong - is if I have an analysis running out of a specific custom site, e.g. “aixtools” then “name of current site” would be “aixtools”. However, I am getting “actionsite”, and the url is also containing “action site”

• I am wondering - maybe it is “actionsite” because the analysis is activated globally?

Sort of stuck, sigh,

[JasonWalker]

Have you had a read through at https://developer.bigfix.com/ yet? This is the go-to resource for custom content, explanations of client relevance vs session relevance, best practices, etc.

“Client Settings”, as I think you’ve found, are those things you can modify in the “Edit Computer Settings” dialog. They are stored on the client - in the Registry for Windows, or in besclient.config for Linux/UNIX systems. You can create custom settings via tasks/fixlets.

“Retrieved Properties” consist of anything you read from the client - file contents, registry entries, WMI, DMI, etc. You can create Global Properties or create an Analysis to retrieve properties. Retrieved Property consist of some client relevance that is evaluated at the endpoint, and the results are reported up to the server. “AIX OS Full Level” is an example of a Retrieved Property. You can use the “Manage Properties” menu item from the console to determine whether this is a Global Property, or provided by some Analysis. You can also use the “Manage Properties” menu to read the relevance that the client evaluates to determine the result, to see how the “AIX OS Full Level” value is determined.

In most cases you should avoid trying to evaluate things like “current site” at the client. There are some complex nuances to how that works, really not a good place to start learning. The “site” and “fixlet” inspectors in particular can behave differently depending upon whether you are using them in analysis/fixlet relevance, vs using them in an actionscript substitution; best to just avoid them at the start.

Likewise anything you read on objects in the “bes” family - “bes client”, “bes site”, “bes property”, etc. - all indicate the use of Session Relevance. Session Relevance evaluates on the Server / Web Reports, not the client. Session Relevance allows for powerful customizations such as reports, custom dashboards, and API integrations, but again is not the best way to start learning.

Have you come across the Fixlet Debugger? What OS flavors are you primarily interested in managing?

[JasonWalker]

Looking more closely at your screenshot, I see “AIX OS Full Level” actually is being reported under client settings. This implies that someone within you deployment created a Task to apply this as a custom setting.

[aixtools]

Thanks for the replies. working remotely, so my sandbox has a lower priority.

Platforms: Actually, only AIX - maybe later Linux.

re: site. My goal is not to use “current site” - other than my hope that if a fixlet was in the custom site “aixtools” - the current site would actually be “aixtools”, not “actionsite” - which I had previously taken to mean “Master Action Site”.

As to “AIX OS Full Level” being reported under client settings - afaik, nothing was modified from the task - aka it ia ASIS from the Patches for AIX site (or perhaps it is part of one of the BES (BigFix Management domain) sites.

• Update #1: it is analysis #40 of “Patches for AIX”. Only action was to enable it globally.
• Update #2: as this variable is not showing up on the two clients I had to reinstall (including rm -rf /var/opt/BESClient/*) but is showing up in the others - I’ll assume that I did “something wrong” in the prior sandbox (that died when with the root server harddisk). Also an “interesting” experience. So, for know I’ll ignore it’s existence (other than to look for where it might be hiding on the clients that report it )

Not had time to dig. I mention it only because it is one of the origins for my confusion.

as to devworks - over a year ago. Time to read again and again. It will read differently this time around. thx for the reminder.