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Summary:

Why are my BigFix Clients are not choosing my BigFix Relay?

Solution:

During manual or automatic BigFix Relay selection the BigFix Clients will attempt to connect to the BigFix Relay at http://relayname:port/cgi-bin/bfenterprise/clientregister.exe?requesttype=version. If they cannot make this connection, they cannot use the BigFix Relay.

There are a few common reasons why BigFix Clients might not correctly find a BigFix Relay:

• The BigFix Clients cannot resolve the DNS name of the BigFix Relays - Many times with this type of issue, the BigFix Clients cannot resolve the DNS name of the BigFix Relay and therefore cannot use the BigFix Relay. The BigFix Relay reports its DNS name to the BigFix Server and that list is distributed to the BigFix Clients. You can see the DNS name of the BigFix Relay by looking at the "DNS Name" in the BigFix Console (right click on the column headings if you cannot see this property).
  If the DNS name of the BigFix Relay is unresolvable by the BigFix Clients because the DNS name is not fully qualified or because of another DNS issue, you can override the BigFix Relay's DNS name by changing the "_BESClient_Relay_NameOverride" setting on the BigFix Relay computer to return a different DNS name or an IP address. More information on how to do this is available at:
  http://support.bigfix.com/bes/misc/besconfigsettings.html.
• The BigFix Clients are not set to use a BigFix Relay - By default, the BigFix Clients will connect to the main BigFix Server. You will need to either manually point the BigFix Clients at a BigFix Relay or set the BigFix Clients to automatically find their closest BigFix Relay. More information on how to do this is available in the BigFix Administrators Guide at:
  http://support.bigfix.com/resources.html.
• A BigFix Client is blocked from contacting the BigFix Relay because of a firewall or NAT - The BigFix Client connects to the BigFix Relay using HTTP on the specified port number (default is 52311). Verify that the BigFix Client computer can make a connection to the BigFix Relay by going to the BigFix Client computer and pasting http://relayname:port/cgi-bin/bfenterprise/clientregister.exe?requesttype=version into a browser. If you see a version number, then the BigFix Client can properly connect to the BigFix Relay. If you receive an HTTP error, then you will need to determine why the BigFix Client cannot contact the BigFix Relay.
• The BigFix Relay is not correctly installed - If the BigFix Relay is not correctly installed, the BigFix Clients won't be able to connect to it. You can attempt to connect to the BigFix Relay by pasting http://relayname:port/cgi-bin/bfenterprise/clientregister.exe?requesttype=version into a browser. If you do not see a version number returned in the browser, you should try to reinstall the BigFix Relay to see if that fixes the problem.
• ICMP is blocked between BigFix Clients and BigFix Relays and the BigFix Clients are using automatic relay selection - The BigFix Clients use ICMP to determine how many network hops are between the BigFix Client and the BigFix Relay. If ICMP is blocked, the BigFix Clients will not be able to figure out their best BigFix Relay and they will randomly choose a BigFix Relay to use. Ping the BigFix Relay from the BigFix Client computer to see if ICMP is blocked.

Contact BigFix Technical Support if you continue to have a problem.