BigFix Configuration Settings

A number of advanced BigFix configuration settings are available that can give you substantial control over the behavior of the BigFix Enterprise Suite. These options allow you to customize the behavior of the BigFix Server, BigFix Relays, and BigFix Clients in your network.

Note: These settings should be used with caution. If misused, the configuration settings can cause non-optimal behavior or prevent BigFix from working properly. Please consult with your support technician for questions about changing these configuration settings.

Configuration Settings Notes

  • The following configuration settings apply to the BigFix Server, BigFix Relays, and BigFix Clients. These settings are administered through the Custom Settings configuration in the BigFix Console's Computer Status dialog.
  • Settings take on their default values as noted below unless the user modifies them.
  • If a setting is given an invalid value, the setting will revert to its default value.
  • All settings values are stored as strings in the registry.
  • Many of these settings can only be used on BigFix Clients that run on Windows.
  • To prevent older settings from overriding newer settings, each setting has an "effective date" and an action with an older effective date will not overwrite settings with newer effective dates. Effective dates are set to the time that the action was taken.
  • Numeric values are stored as strings, and assumed to fit in unsigned integers with a maximum of 32 bits (max value is 4,294,967,296).
  • Numeric values that are negative, greater than the max value, or contain non-numeric characters are treated as invalid values and revert to their default values.
  • Boolean values are stores as the strings either '1' or '0' corresponding to true and false respectively. Boolean values that do not contain either of these allowed values are treated as invalid and revert to their default values.

How to Set a Configuration Setting

Some of the Configuration Settings listed on this page are commonly used and have had Tasks created in the BigFix Support site to assist in using the Configuration Settings correctly and easily. If such a Task exists it will be indicated in the 'Task Available' field below and you should try to use the Task instead of manually creating the Configuration Setting. If no task exists please follow these steps to set a Configuration Setting:
  1. Open the BigFix Console and go to Computer tab.
  2. Select the computer(s) that you would like to apply the BigFix Configuration Settings to.
    Note: To change a configuration setting for the BigFix Server or the BigFix Relays using this mechanism, you must select the computer(s) that have the BigFix Server or BigFix Relays currently installed.
  3. Right Click the computer(s) and choose the Edit Settings option.
  4. Create a Custom Setting using a Name and Value from the configuration table below.
  5. Click OK to send out the configuration setting, which will take effect immediately (you can view a computer's settings by selecting a computer and clicking on the Settings tab in the Computer Status dialog).

Index
  1. BigFix Client - Settings that control the behavior of the BigFix Client
  2. BigFix Client Settings for BigFix Relay control - Settings that control the interactions of the BigFix Client with BigFix Relays.
  3. BigFix Gather - Settings that control the behavior of the BigFix Gather Service which is a component of BigFix Relays and the BigFix Server.
  4. BigFix Relay - Settings that control the behavior of BigFix Relays.

BigFix Client TOP

"_BESClient_ActionManager_UIMissingHoldMode"

To control client behavior for actions with "don't care" user constraint and UI to display. This setting is very useful when you have remote clients connecting to the computer and the remote sessions with an error of User interface process unable to launch (XX.YYYY) for user ''
Example : User interface process unable to launch (22.1008) for user ''
This usually indicates an error condition of the connection to the remote connection was present, but was terminated. We are not able to detect the user name being used because the abandoned user connection was left active but not terminated correctly. Other examples and information related to this are conditions of abandoned session tokens.

  • Default Value: "failed"
  • Setting Type: string
  • Value Range: "none" - automatically run the action if the only UI sessions are disabled or failed.
    "failed" - hold the action in a pending message state if there are UI sessions that are failed.
    "all" - hold the action in a pending message state if there are UI sessions that are failed or disabled.
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_EMsg_Detail

This configuration setting will enable the BigFix Client debug log that will give information about the BigFix Client activity. The higher the level of detail, the greater the detail of the messages that are put into the file and/or NT event log.

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (detail level)
  • Value Range: 0-100
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_EMsg_File

Full path to file to store activity messages. If empty string and the computer is not Win9x, activity messages are added to the NT event log.
Note: The _BESClient_EMsg_Detail setting must be greater than 0 to use this option.

  • Default Value: blank
  • Setting Type: String (full path)
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Resource_WorkIdle

The BigFix Client will do work (evaluate relevance) for a designated amount of time then go to sleep for a designated amount of time. This setting controls how many milliseconds to work before going to sleep in each cycle. If this number is high in comparison to the _BESClient_Resource_SleepIdle setting, then the BigFix Client will evaluate Fixlet relevance faster, but the CPU usage will be higher.

  • Default Value: 10
  • Setting Type: Numeric (MilliSeconds)
  • Value Range: 1-500
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Resource_SleepIdle

A BigFix Client will do work (evaluate relevance) for a designated amount of time then go to sleep for a designated amount of time. This setting controls how many milliseconds to sleep after working in each cycle. If this number is high in comparison to the _BESClient_Resource_WorkIdle setting, then the BigFix Client will take longer to evaluate Fixlet relevance, but the CPU usage will be lower.

  • Default Value: 480
  • Setting Type: Numeric (milliseconds)
  • Value Range: 1-500
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Resource_QuietEnable

Quiet mode causes the BigFix Client to not actively process Fixlets, send in reports, respond to commands, etc. It will basically sit idle until the wakeup time is enabled. A BigFix Client can be put in quiet mode for a maximum of 20 hours a day.
Note: If you put a BigFix Client in quiet mode, it will not send any reports to the BigFix Server or respond to any commands so use caution when enabling this setting.

  • Default Value: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - enable quiet mode
    0 (False) - disable quiet mode
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Resource_QuietStartTime

If quiet mode is enabled, you can specify a time for the BigFix Client to enter quiet mode. Set the time as a string in the form hh:mm where hh is number between 0 and 23, and mm is a number between 0 and 59. This is the local time for which the BigFix Client will quiet down to no activity. If the value is not properly formatted, the client will not enter quiet mode.

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: hh:mm
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Resource_QuietSeconds

If quiet mode is enabled, you can specify the number of seconds the BigFix Client should stay quiet. This number must be greater than 0 and less or equal to 72000 (20 hours) in order for the BigFix Client to enter quiet mode. In quiet mode, the BigFix Client checks once a minute to determine if the quiet time has elapsed. However, the BigFix Client will quickly respond to service shutdown requests at any time.

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: Numeric
  • Value Range: 0-72,000(20 Hours)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Log_Days

This specifies the number of days the BigFix Client logs are retained on a computer.

  • Default Value: 10
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Days)
  • Value Range: 1-366
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Comm_UseUrlMoniker

The BigFix Client has two methods of communication over the network. The first method uses the Windows URL Monikers API, which is a higher-level network interface that uses the computer's Internet connection settings (such as proxy settings, security settings, etc.). The second method uses the winsock API, which is a lower-level direct socket access layer that doesn't use the computer's Internet connection settings. Using winsock will allow the BigFix Client to connect to the BigFix Server regardless of the Internet connection settings, but URL Monikers should be used if the Internet connection settings are required for network access to the BigFix Server for some reason.

  • Default Value: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - use URL Monikers
    0 (False) - use Winsock
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Comm_SkipInternetActiveTest

Before the BigFix Client tries to gather it will check the Windows API connection test to determine if an internet connection is available. This setting will allow the BigFix Client to ignore the results of the connection test and attempt to gather anyway.

  • Default Value: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - ignore connection test
    0 (False) - perform connection test
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Comm_ListenEnable

When set to 0 the BigFix Client will not listen for UDP messages. If the BigFix Client does not receive UDP messages it will not receive gather pings sent from the BigFix Server notifying the BigFix Client of new actions and content.

  • Default Value: 1 (True)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - Listen for UDP
    0 (False) - Ignore UDP
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Register_IntervalSeconds

The BigFix Client will contact the ClientRegister CGI on the BigFix Server periodically to report its IP address (this is important if the BigFix Client changes IP addresses through DHCP), get the BigFix Server time, and get the BigFix Server version. If this setting is set too high, the BigFix Client may not receive UDP "pings" that tell it to gather the latest sites when new actions or new Fixlet content is available. If this setting is set too low, the BigFix Client will flood the BigFix Server with registration requests.

  • Default Value: 21600 (6 Hours)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Seconds)
  • Value Range: 1-82800 (23 Hours)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Download_Direct

Normally, BigFix Clients will contact their BigFix Relay to receive downloads from the internet. This setting forces the BigFix Client to download files directly from the internet using the url specified. This setting takes precedence over other download settings.

  • Default Value: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - download from the Internet
    0 (False) - download normally
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Download_DirectOnFail

When the BigFix Client fails to download a file from the BigFix Server or BigFix Relay, it can attempt to download the file directly from the Internet.
Note: If there is a proxy in your network that blocks unauthenticated access to the Internet, turning this setting to 1 (True) may not work.

  • Default Value: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - download from the Internet on failure
    0 (False) - do not download from Internet on failure
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Download_MirrorBypass

When set to 0, the BigFix Client will download files directly from the main BigFix Server if it can't find a BigFix Relay. When set to 1, the BigFix Client will not attempt to collect downloads from the main BigFix Server.

  • Default Value: 0
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Minutes)
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - Bypass main BigFix Server
    0 (False) - Failover to main BigFix Server
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Download_RetryMinutes

When the BigFix Client fails to download a file from the BigFix Server or a BigFix Relay during an action, it will wait for the specified amount of time then try again. After each failed attempt, it will double the retry time.

  • Default Value: 1
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Minutes)
  • Value Range: 0-480 (8 Hours)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Download_RetryLimit

When the BigFix Client fails to download a file from the BigFix Server or a BigFix Relay during an action, it will retry the specified number of times (each time it will double the amount of time it waits to retry).

  • Default Value: 6
  • Setting Type: Numeric (retry limit)
  • Value Range: 0-100
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Download_ChannelThreshold

The BigFix Client can simultaneously download two files at a time by using one "main channel" and one "thin channel". The main channel is used for all downloads, but if the main channel is currently downloading a large file, the thin channel can be used to download smaller files if the download size is less than the specified threshold. If this setting is set high, the BigFix Client will use the thin channel to download larger files, which could slow down actions because two large files may be downloading at the same time (each using half the bandwidth) instead of one file after the other. If this setting is set low, the thin channel will only be used for very small file downloads.

  • Default Value: 500,000
  • Setting Type: Numeric (bytes)
  • Value Range: 1-100,000,000 (Set to 0 to disable the thin channel)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Download_LimitBytesPerSecond

The BigFix Client can "throttle" the download speed by limiting the amount of bytes it downloads per second. This setting is especially effective if network bandwidth is a concern (such as with a dial-up connection). If the BigFix Server or BigFix Relay is also set to use throttling, the lower of the two values will be used as the download speed.

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (bytes/second)
  • Value Range: 0-4,294,967,296 (Set to 0 to disable download throttling)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Download_InactivityTimeout

When the BigFix Client is downloading a file from the BigFix Server or BigFix Relay, it sometimes will experience some inactivity because of network problems, disconnections, etc. When there is inactivity, the BigFix Client will wait for the specified number of seconds to receive more data before aborting the download.

  • Default Value: 300 (5 minutes)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-4,294,967,296 (Set to 0 to disable time-out)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Report_MinimumInterval

When the BigFix Clients are performing an action, they will send reports of the status of the action (Evaluating, Waiting, Running, Fixed, etc.). This setting controls the minimum number seconds between sending reports. If this number is too high, the BigFix Clients will take a long time update their action status. If this number is too low, it will put extra load on the BigFix Server to process the extra action status reports.

  • Default Value: 15
  • Setting Type: Numeric (seconds)
  • Value Range: 1-3600 (1 hour)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_ActionManager_RemindAutoPostponeSeconds

If users are allowed to postpone running an action a dialog will appear on the BigFix Client computer asking the user how long they want to postpone the action. After some amount of time the action will automatically be postponed and the dialog will close. This setting controls the length of time to display the postponement dialog.

  • Default Value: 120 (2 min)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-21600 (6 hours)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_ActionManager_ReminderDialogTitle

This setting controls the title of the action postponement dialog that appears on BigFix Client computers for actions that can be postponed by users. By default the title is 'Reminder'.

  • Default Value: Reminder
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Inspector_DisableWMI

This setting will disable the use of any inspectors that make calls to the Windows WMI. WMI has been found to cause problems on some computers, especially older versions of Windows (95 and 98). Problems include high CPU usage and 'blue screen' crashing of Windows. WMI is used by some some optional retrieved properties.

  • Default Value: 0
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - WMI inspectors disabled
    0 (False) - WMI inspectors enabled
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_ActionManager_PendingRestartExclusions

String(s) residing in the key X which are to be ignored by the BigFix Client when determining if a restart is needed. The strings must be separated by semicolons and the last string must have a terminating semicolon (for example "exclude1;exclude2;exclude3"). Note: the strings are case sensitive.

  • Default Value: blank
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_ActionManager_LocaleEnable

This configuration setting will enable BigFix Clients to display non-English messages if the translation files are in place (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 1 (enabled)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range: 1 (enable), 0 (disable)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_ActionManager_RemindTakeActionsNow

This configuration setting will remind users periodically that they have actions to run that they have postponed (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range: 1 (enable), 0 (disable)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_ActionManager_TaskbarIcon

This configuration setting will determine whether or not message boxes will have an entry in the Windows task bar (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range: 1 (enable), 0 (disable)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Comm_CommandPollEnable

When this configuration setting is enabled, computers will poll their parent relay for UDP commands they may have missed (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range: 1 (enable), 0 (disable)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Comm_CommandPollIntervalSeconds

This configuration setting determines how often the BigFix Client will check with its BigFix Relay for any gathers or refreshes, if the "_BESClient_Comm_CommandPollEnable" setting is enabled. Avoid setting this to be less than 900 seconds due to performance implications (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 900
  • Setting Type: Numeric (seconds)
  • Value Range: 60-31536000 (1 Year)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Download_DownloadsCacheLimitMB

This configuration setting sets the BigFix Client download cache limit (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 20
  • Setting Type: Numeric (MB)
  • Value Range: 0-32
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Download_UtilitiesCacheLimitMB

This configuration setting sets the Utility cache limit (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 10
  • Setting Type: Numeric (MB)
  • Value Range: 0-32
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_RegistrationManager_RegisterWith51Relays

This configuration setting enables a BigFix 6.0 Client to gather from a BigFix 5.1 Relay for troubleshooting purposes (BigFix 6.0+).

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range: 1 (enable), 0 (disable)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Resource_InterruptSeconds

When a BigFix Client receives a UDP message but is too busy processing a relevance clause, this BigFix 6.0 configuration setting determines the length of time the BigFix Client will wait before it stops evaluating the relevance clause to deal with the UDP message.

  • Default Value: 60
  • Setting Type: Numeric (seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-82800 (23 Hours)
  • Task Available: Yes

BigFix Client Settings for BigFix Relay control TOP

Set on the BigFix Clients to control their behavior to the BigFix Relays.)

_BESClient_RelaySelect_IntervalSeconds

The BigFix Relay selection algorithm will run this often. If a closer BigFix Relay is found, the closer BigFix Relay will be used. Note that if the BigFix Relay selection is failing, this interval is ignored.

  • Default Value: 21600 (6 hours)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (number of seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-31,536,000 (1 year)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_RelaySelect_MinRetryIntervalSeconds

If a BigFix Relay selection algorithm fails (no BigFix Relays are found), the BigFix Client will try again after this many seconds. A BigFix Client will double this value on each successive retry that fails to locate a BigFix Relay.

  • Default Value: 60
  • Setting Type: Numeric (number of seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-31,536,000 (1 year)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_RelaySelect_MaxRetryIntervalSeconds

After failing to find a BigFix Relay, a BigFix Client will continue to try to find a BigFix Relay. Each time it fails, the BigFix Client will double the time it spends until this maximum is exceeded. Then the BigFix Client will try with this maximum retry interval until it successfully selects a BigFix Relay.

  • Default Value: 7200 (2 Hours)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-31,536,000 (1 year)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_RelaySelect_MaximumTTLToPing

The maximum number of network hops (Time To Live) a BigFix Client will search over before considering its automatic relay selection attempt a failure. A BigFix Client will only be able to find BigFix Relays that are less then the maximum number of network hops away from the BigFix Client. This setting can be used to limit the ICMP traffic generated by the automatic relay selection algorithm.

  • Default Value: 255
  • Setting Type: Numeric
  • Value Range: 1-255
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_RelaySelect_PingDelayMicroSeconds

During the automatic relay selection algorithm, the BigFix Client will wait this long between each iteration. On each iteration the BigFix Client sends ICMP packets with a TTL greater then the last iteration. This setting can be used to slow down the automatic relay selection algorithm and reduce the network traffic generated.

  • Default Value: Default Value: 200 (MicroSeconds)
  • Setting Type: Setting Type: Numeric
  • Value Range: Value Range: 0-1,000,000 (1 Second)
  • Task Available: Task Available: No

_BESClient_RelaySelect_ResistFailureIntervalSeconds

This setting controls the time interval that the BigFix Client will ignore communications errors before performing BigFix Relay selection. Once a BigFix Relay has been selected and the BigFix Client has successfully registered, it will ignore errors when it attempts to post its results to the BigFix Relay or BigFix Server for this long before deciding to choose another BigFix Relay.

  • Default Value: 600 (10 Minutes)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-21,600 (6 Hours)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_RelaySelect_FailoverRelay

This setting determines what a BigFix Client will do in the event that no BigFix Relays respond to TTL pings up to the maximum configured distance. In this event, the BigFix Client will attempt to register with the defined failover BigFix Relay before trying the BigFix Server.

Note: This format is the same as for the settings __RelayServer1 and __RelayServer2. For example:http://servername:port/bfmirror/downloads/
  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String (Failover Relay)
  • Value Range: hostname or ipaddress
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_RelaySelect_TertiaryRelayList

When using manual relay selection, this setting is a way to specify a list of failover relays to choose from when the primary and secondary relays are not reachable. This setting is a semi-colon delimited list of relays to try. Manual selection goes in this order, primary/secondary/tertiary list/failover/root. For automatic relay selection you should look at the document on relay affiliation. example host1;host2;host3

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: list of hostnames or ipaddress
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Relay_NameOverride

If the BigFix Relay is using a DNS name that is not accessible by all BigFix Clients, an override can be used. If this value is set on the BigFix Relay computer, it will return this setting for the dns name inspector, which will be reported to the BigFix Server and used by other BigFix Clients to locate the BigFix Relay. You can also use this value if you want your BigFix Clients to locate their relays by IP address, rather than DNS name lookup. For example, if the BigFix Relay is reported at relay1:52311, you can use this setting to make the BigFix Relay be accessible at relay1.company.com:52311 or even 192.168.100.123:52311.
Note: This value needs only to be set on the one BigFix Relay computer and not on all the BigFix Client computers.)

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String (override name)
  • Value Range: hostname OR ipaddress (do not include port number)
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESClient_Relay_ControlData

Setting this setting to 0 will cause the BigFix Client to only use the BigFix Relay system to collect downloads and all other interactions will interact directly with the main BigFix Server. This setting is provided in order to allow a configuration where the load on a BigFix Relay does not significantly change from the 3.x BigFix Relay implementation. Note that the BigFix Clients with this setting of 0 will not manage their BigFix Relays configuration automatically. BigFix Clients with this setting will ignore the automatic configuration setting and will collect downloads from their primary and then secondary BigFix Relays.

  • Default Value: 1 (True)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - All BigFix Client communications will go through the BigFix Relay
    0 (False) - Only download files from the BigFix Relay (all other network transactions will use the BigFix Server)
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Comm_CommandPollEnable

Setting this setting to 1 will cause the BigFix Client to poll for new gathers or refreshes. Please refer to the setting _BESClient_Comm_CommandPollIntervalSeconds for the timing of the poll. Setting this to a value of 0 will disable this mechanism. This setting was first added in BigFix 6.0.

  • Default Value: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - The BigFix Client will check with its BigFix Relay for any new gathers or refreshes
    0 (False) - The BigFix Client will not check with its BigFix Relay for any new gathers or refreshes
  • Task Available: No

_BESClient_Comm_CommandPollIntervalSeconds

This setting determines how often the BigFix Client will check with its BigFix Relay for any new gathers or refreshes. It must be enabled with the setting _BESClient_Comm_CommandPollEnable.

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-82800 (23 Hours)
  • Task Available: No

BigFix Gather (Component of the BigFix Server and BigFix Relay) TOP

_BESGather_EMsg_Detail

This configuration setting will enable the BigFix Gather debug log that will give information about the BigFix Gather activity. The higher the level of detail, the greater the detail of the messages that are put into the file and/or NT event log.

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (detail level)
  • Value Range: 0-100
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_EMsg_File

Full path to file that stores activity messages. If empty string and the computer is not Win9x, activity messages are added to the NT event log.
Note: The _BESClient_EMsg_Detail setting must be greater than 0 to use this option.

  • Default Value: blank
  • Setting Type: String (full path)
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Comm_UseUrlMoniker

The BigFix Gather service has two methods of communication over the network. The first method uses the Windows URL Monikers API, which is a higher-level network interface that uses the computer's Internet connection settings (such as proxy settings, security settings, etc.). The second method uses the winsock API, which is a lower-level direct socket access layer that doesn't use the computer's Internet connection settings. URL Monikers are used by default to connect to the Internet using the Internet connection settings. Using winsock will allow BigFix Gather to connect to the Internet without using the Internet connection settings.

  • Default Value:
    BigFix Server: 1 (True)
    BigFix Relay: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - use URL Monikers
    0 (False) - use Winsock
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Download_CheckParentFlag

When a file is requested from the BigFix Relay, it can either download the file from the BigFix Server or download the file directly from the Internet. If this setting is set to 1 (True), then the BigFix Relay will first attempt to download the file from the BigFix Server.
Note: This setting should stay at 0 (False) for the BigFix Server.

  • Default Value:
    BigFix Server: 0 (False)
    BigFix Relay: 1 (True)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - Check the BigFix Server first to download the file
    0 (False) - Do not check the BigFix Server when to download the file
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Download_CheckInternetFlag

When a file is requested from the BigFix Relay, it can download the file directly from the Internet instead of from the BigFix Server. If this setting is set to 1 (True), then the BigFix Relay will first attempt to connect to the BigFix Server (if the _BESGather_Download_CheckParentFlag is set to 1) then directly connect to the Internet if the download from the BigFix Server fails.
Note: This setting should stay at 1 (True) for the BigFix Server.

  • Default Value:
    BigFix Server: 1 (True)
    BigFix Relay: 0 (False)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - Download the file directly from the Internet
    0 (False) - Do not download the file directly from the Internet
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Download_CacheLimitMB

BigFix Gather will cache downloaded files on the BigFix Server or BigFix Relay computer so that the file will not need to be downloaded again if the action is reissued. This setting will specify how many MB to cache before overwriting the old files. When the cache is full, the least recently used files will be replaced.
Note: This caching number applies to both cached files and cached action folders so the total space that the BigFix Relay will take up is actually 2x cache size (by default this is 2 GB).

  • Default Value: 1024
  • Setting Type: Numeric (MB)
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESGather_Download_RetryMinutes

When BigFix Gather fails to download a file from the Internet or its parent during an action, it will wait for the specified amount of time then try again. After each failed attempt, it will double the retry time.

  • Default Value: 1
  • Setting Type: Numeric (minutes)
  • Value Range: 0-1440 (24 hours)
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Download_RetryLimit

When BigFix Gather fails to download a file from the Internet or its parent during an action, it will retry the specified number of times (each time it will double the amount of time it waited to retry the last time).

  • Default Value: 6
  • Setting Type: Numeric (retry limit)
  • Value Range: 0-100
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Download_ChannelThreshold

BigFix Gather can simultaneously download two files at a time by using one "main channel" and one "thin channel". The main channel is used for all downloads, but if the main channel is currently downloading a large file, the thin channel can be used to download smaller files if the download size is less than the specified threshold. If this setting is set high, BigFix Gather will use the thin channel to download larger files, which could slow down actions because two large files may be downloading at the same time (each using half the bandwidth) instead of one file after the other. If this setting is set low, the thin channel will only be used for very small file downloads.

  • Default Value: 500,000
  • Setting Type: Numeric (bytes)
  • Value Range: 1-100,000,000 (Set to 0 to disable the thin channel)
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Download_LimitBytesPerSecond

BigFix Gather can "throttle" the download speed by limiting the amount of bytes it downloads per second. This setting is especially effective if network bandwidth is a concern (such as with a dial-up connection). When this setting is used on the BigFix Relay, the BigFix Relay will limit its download speed when downloading from the BigFix Server or parent BigFix Relay. When set on the BigFix Server, the BigFix Server will throttle downloading from the internet. As of BigFix 5.0, this setting throttles all downloading traffic.

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (bytes/sec)
  • Value Range: 0-4,294,967,296 (Set to 0 to disable download throttling and use the maximum possible bandwidth)
  • Task Available: No

_BESGather_Download_InactivityTimeout

When the BigFix Gather service is downloading a file from the Internet or its parent, it sometimes will experience some inactivity because of network problems, disconnections, etc. When there is inactivity, BigFix Gather will wait for the specified number of seconds to receive more data before aborting the download.

  • Default Value: 300 (5 minutes)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (seconds)
  • Value Range: 0-4,294,967,296 (Set to 0 to disable time-out mechanism)
  • Task Available: No

_GatherService_ForwardGet_UserAgentOverride

This string determines the User-Agent: string in the HTTP headers that the BES Gather Services uses.

  • Default Value: none
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

BigFix Relay Settings TOP

(Set on the BigFix Client to control the BigFix Relay component.)

_BESRelay_Selection_AutoSelectableRelay

A value of "0" makes the BigFix Relay unavailable for auto seletion after the next actionsite propagation. A value of "1" allows the BigFix Relay to be used by BigFix Clients for auto selection.

  • Default Value: 1 (enabled)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - Enable Auto Selection
    0 (False) - Disable Auto Selection
  • Task Available: No

_Enterprise Server_ClientRegister_MaxChildCount

Maximum number of clients the BigFix relay will allow to register. Once this limit is reached, connections will be rejected.

  • Default Value: 0 (no limit)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (number of BigFix Clients)
  • Value Range: 0-65536
  • Task Available: No

_Enterprise Server_ClientRegister_MaxChildRelayCount

Maximum allowed number of BigFix Clients that are BigFix Relays. This limit is calculated independently of the MaxChildCount -- it can be used to keep a BigFix Relay from indirectly acquiring a lot of BigFix Clients by picking up too many children that are BigFix relays.

  • Default Value: 0 (no limit)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (number of BigFix Clients)
  • Value Range: 0-65536
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_Log_Verbose

A non-zero value will enable verbose logging on the BigFix Relay for troubleshooting purposes. This setting increases the information written to the existing logfile.txt and should not be left on during normal operation.

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Boolean
  • Value Range:
    1 (True) - Enable Verbose Logs
    0 (False) - Disable Verbose Logs
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_HTTPServer_MaxConnections

Maximum number of simultaneous connections, once this limit is reached, connections will be rejected.

  • Default Value: 1024
  • Setting Type: Numeric (number of threads)
  • Value Range: 1-65536
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_HTTPServer_ThrottleKBPS

'Global' throttling on outgoing data to BigFix Clients from the BigFix Relay/Server (0 means no limit). If its value is 1000 and there are 100 clients downloading simultaneously, the BigFix Relay/Server will send data to each BigFix Client at 10kbps (for a total of 1000kbps). Throttling is implemented by sending a chunk of data at full speed, and then waiting chunksize/kbps seconds before sending the next chunk so if all requests are smaller than the chunk size, then there may be no throttling at all. Uploaded data to other BigFix Relays/Server is not throttled by this setting (PostResults data).

  • Default Value: 0 (disabled)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (kbps)
  • Value Range: 1-65536
  • Task Available: Yes

_BESRelay_PostResults_ResultCountLimit

The BigFix Relay accumulates reports from the BigFix Clients and then compresses them and sends them to the parent BigFix Relay or BigFix Server. This setting sets the maximum number of reports in each compressed report. Results are forwarded once the ResultCountLimit or ResultTimeLimit is reached. Setting a low value will cause more network traffic with increased response time. A higher value will result in less network traffic with slower response time.

  • Default Value: 500
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Number of results)
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_PostResults_ResultTimeLimit

The BigFix Relay accumulates reports from the BigFix Clients and then compresses them and sends them to the parent BigFix Relay or BigFix Server after waiting a specified amount of time. This setting sets the amount of time to wait before sending the reports. The longer the wait, the more latency before the BigFix Server receives the reports from the BigFix Clients, but the greater the efficiency of the system (lower network traffic).

  • Default Value: 3
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Number of seconds)
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_HTTPServer_HttpLogDirectoryPath

If set a connection log will be written to this path. A new log file will be created each day with the days date as teh name of the file. Connection logs can get quite big, gigabytes per day, so this setting should only be used for troubleshooting purposes.

  • Default Value: none
  • Setting Type: String (Path)
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_HTTPServer_HttpLogExpirationDays

Sets the number of days to keep connection logs for. After this many days the older connection logs will be deleted.

  • Default Value: 3
  • Setting Type: Numeric
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_ProxyUser

A BigFix Relay can be set up to use a proxy server when downloading files. This could be useful if their is a proxy between the BigFix Relay and the BigFix Server or if the BigFix Relay is connecting directly to the internet for downloads and must use a proxy. This setting controls the username used to authenticate with the proxy if the proxy requires authentication.

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String (username)
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_ProxyPass

A BigFix Relay can be set up to use a proxy server when downloading files. This could be useful if their is a proxy between the BigFix Relay and the BigFix Server or if the BigFix Relay is connecting directly to the internet for downloads and must use a proxy. This setting controls the password used to authenticate with the proxy if the proxy requires authentication. Warning: The password will be stored in plain text within the registry.

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_ProxyServer

A BigFix Relay can be set up to use a proxy server when downloading files. This could be useful if their is a proxy between the BigFix Relay and the BigFix Server or if the BigFix Relay is connecting directly to the internet for downloads and must use a proxy. This setting controls the hostname used to reach the proxy.

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_ProxyPort

A BigFix Relay can be set up to use a proxy server when downloading files. This could be useful if their is a proxy between the BigFix Relay and the BigFix Server or if the BigFix Relay is connecting directly to the internet for downloads and must use a proxy. This setting controls the port used by the proxy server.

  • Default Value: None
  • Setting Type: String
  • Value Range: N/A
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_BatchCount

This setting controls the number of UDP pings the BigFix Relay will send before delaying for a period of time. The length of the delay is controlled by _BESRelay_ClientRegister_BatchDelay. This setting could be used to limit the rate at which a BigFix Relay sends out UDP pings if this network traffic is harmful in some way.

  • Default Value: 100
  • Setting Type: Numeric (number of pings)
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_BatchDelay

This setting controls how long the BigFix Relay will wait between sending out a batch of UDP pings to BigFix Clients. This setting could be used to limit the rate at which a BigFix Relay sends out UDP pings if this network traffic is harmful in some way.

  • Default Value: 1000
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Milliseconds)
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_MaxRelayPathLength

This setting is used to control the maximum length a chain of BigFix Relays can extend. The setting prevents circular chains of BigFix Relays from forming by automatic BigFix Relay selection. This setting could be used to stop long chains of BigFix Relays from forming or create a maximum depth a BigFix Relay can be from the BigFix Server.

  • Default Value: 32
  • Setting Type: Numeric
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: No

_BESRelay_ClientRegister_ClientRegistrationExpirationPeriod

This setting controls how quickly BigFix Relays mark BigFix Clients as expired. BigFix Clients have this length of time to register again before their license is made available for use by another BigFix Client. This setting could be used to increase the rate at which licenses are transfered from offline BigFix Clients to active BigFix Clients when the total number of clients gets above the license seat count.

  • Default Value: 1440 (1 Day)
  • Setting Type: Numeric (Minutes)
  • Value Range: 1-4,294,967,296
  • Task Available: No