Switch Masthead special situation. Isolated networks

Usage and Config Platform
1

Hello Guys
I need help with the following;
I have to migrate 7000 BES Clients to a new BigFix environment, I guess the fastest way to do it is using the Fxilet _“Switch BES Client Action Site Masthead - BES >= 9.0 of the BES Support Site”. The thing is that this is multicustomer environment and and each customer machines (all servers) only have connectivity with they “local” or bottom relays of the environment, no connectivity with any of the Root Bes Servers exist.

My idea, is to modified the Fixlet in order to instruct the agents to download the new masthead and also tell them to connect to another new local/bottom relay in his own net customer already connected to the new BF environment, so this way I guess will now register with the new BF environment.

I am not skilled in actionscript, but I have tweaked (very little tweak you can say) the original Fixlet, this is the modified Fixlet, can you please check my situation and my Fixlet and give your suggestions or corrections to my Fixlet?
``
//1516 Switch BES Client Action Site Masthead - BES >= 9.0 BES Support [Modified]

*setting "__RelayServer1"="http%3a%2f%2fnew_relay_ip%3a52311%2fbfmirror%2fdownloads%2f" on "{now}" for client
*setting "__RelayServer2"="http%3a%2f%2fnew_relay_ip%3a52311%2fbfmirror%2fdownloads%2f" on "{now}" for client

download http://old_relay_ip:52311/Uploads/masthead.afxm
continue if {exists file "masthead.afxm" of folder "__Download" of client folder of current site}
if {unix of operating system}
	delete /etc/opt/BESClient/actionsite.afxm
	move "{pathname of file "masthead.afxm" of folder "__Download" of client folder of current site}" /etc/opt/BESClient/actionsite.afxm
else
      parameter "MastheadLocation"="{pathname of file "actionsite.afxm" of storage folder of client}"
	delete "{parameter "MastheadLocation"}"
	move "{pathname of file "masthead.afxm" of folder "__Download" of client folder of current site}" "{parameter "MastheadLocation"}"
endif
client restart

I will appreciate all your comments and suggestions, if you have already this in this situation would be awesome you can share the fixlet(s).

1 Like
2

I don’t have any experience doing this, and I haven’t read over the actionscript closely, but I do have some thoughts.

Definitely be careful with this. Might be best to test this and work it out on some test VMs or something until all the kinks are worked out and roll it out slowly.

I think it might work to set up a relay with the new masthead in the network and set that relay as one of the relays a client would select in that network, while the relay with the old masthead is also in the client’s selection list. The client should only successfully select a relay with a compatible masthead. Then when you swap the masthead and then restart the client, it should reject the relay with the old masthead and only select the one with the right masthead… basically breaking it up into multiple steps and also that if for some reason the masthead doesn’t get swapped over successfully and the old masthead is still in use, then it will still have a relay that it knows about that it can talk to.

1 Like
3

Hey, someone shared me a code, an alternative Switch masthead fixlet with multiple tweaks for the windows registry for example, I did test this in a few endpoints and worked, in a more few doesn’t because I think those haven’t connectivity with the new relay-masthead. Also I got tweaked SM Fixlet for aix and Linux clients, have not tested yet.

As you said @jgstew this has to be done carefully, even with great Fixlets for this situation I have there’s several circumstances can suddenly appear.

4

be careful. I don’t think the Switch Masthead works for the Relays.

I had to migrate 15k endpoints and the Relays had to have the Relay service removed, the client migrated, then the Relay reinstalled.

5

@TimRice Yes, I do have in mind that relays can’t be migrated using masthead switch, right know I have migrated like 200 clients :smile: I have trouble with Windows 2000 (yeah), I guess those will be out. Thank for your advise, I appreciate.
If possible share how your migration develop…