URL for download command with manual caching of files

Content Authoring
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(imported topic written by SystemAdmin)

I have read the article about manually caching files on the BES server but I wanted to get some clarification on the actual URL that I need to use to reference the file that I manually cached. According to the support article, the directory to use is (…\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server\wwwrootbes\bfmirror\downloads\sha1). When I write my fixlet and enter the download command, what URL do I give it?

Also, I’ve noticed when using the Software Distribution Wizard that the URL’s reference http://servername:52311/Uploads/(sha1 value)/(compressed file name) and this seems to map to (…\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server\wwwrootbes\Uploads). What is the relationship between this directory and the downloads directory? If I use the Software distribution Wizard then the compressed file appears in a sub directory of the Uploads folder and in the …downloads\sha1 directory I mentioned earlier.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

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(imported comment written by jessewk)

Any file under the wwwrootbes folder is http accessible via the url http://:/

The difference between the uploads folder and the sha1 folder is that files in the sha1 folder are pushed out periodically based on your download cache size, whereas files in the uploads directory are not managed. If you only need your file to reside on the server temporarily, put it in the sha1 cache. Otherwise, create a directory under wwwrootbes, put your file in there, and craft the download URL in your Fixlet to hit the file directly. You’ll notice that once a client makes a download request for that file, a copy will be appear in the sha1 directory.

Jesse

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(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

Thanks for the info. I’ve been working on an Office 2007 deployment and things have been going well but using the Software Distribution Wizard to compress upload the files takes a very very long time. The directory structure is about 1GB (Pro, Std, Visio Pro/Std) and it took almost 2 hours for the wizard to complete sending them. This was while I was logged onto the BES server console pulling from the local hard drive and hardly any CPU resources were being used. I manually compressed the files using the archive tool and copied it in the folder and it took about 10 minutes. Why the long delay using the wizard?