Clean and Reset BigFix Relays

Source: https://developer.ibm.com/answers/questions/368491/how-can-i-clean-out-and-reset-my-bigfix-relay/

How Can I Clean Out and Reset my BigFix Relay Machines?

How can I clean out and reset my BigFix relay machine?

Over the course of the lifetime of a deployment's BigFix relay, the relay can accumulate a lot of site data. BigFix Support has observed that the accumulation of enough old site data can push up into the range of dozens of gigabytes accumulated causing the operation of the BigFix relay to become partially dysfunctional.

Answer

Note: The procedure is the same for Linux relay machines as well; however the directory paths and commands are different.

• Stop/disable the BESRelay and BESClient services (stop/disable the BESClientHelper service if installed)
• Navigate to the \Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Relay\Mirror Server\Inbox directory
• Delete the bfemapfile.xml and GatherState.xml files (Optionally, you can rename them by putting a .old on the end of their file names)
• Navigate to the \Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Relay\wwwrootbes\bfmirror\bfsites directory, and delete all contents within this folder but not the folder itself.
• Next go to the \Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client directory and delete the __BESData folder and all of its contents
• Then enable/start up the BESClient service. (Note: DO NOT startup the BESRelay service at this point in time.)
• Begin monitoring the BESClient log file
• The BESClient will register with its parent relay (Note: because the local relay component is currently off, the client will now register with the machine's assigned parent relay, instead of 127.0.0.1, which is what you want).

Check the client logs for this confirmation of registration, for example:

At 11:11:18 -0700 - 
   Unrestricted mode
   Configuring listener as wake-on-lan forwarder(AdapterInfo=00-50-56-a2-5e-cf_9.39.144.0/21_9.39.149.187_1).
 Registered with url 'https://PARENT-RELAY:52311/cgi-bin/bfenterprise/clientregister.exe?RequestType=RegisterMe60&ClientVersion=9.5.5.196&Body=12251547&SequenceNumber=3552&MinRelayVersion=7.1.1.0&CanHandleMVPings=1&Root=http://spt1-win2k8r2%3a52311&AdapterInfo=00-50-56-a2-5e-cf_9.39.144.0%2f21_9.39.149.187_1&AdapterIpv6=00-50-56-a2-5e-cf%5efe80%3a%3aad05%3af2fd%3adfd1%3a8a7a%2f64_1'

Check the client logs for confirmation of a report posted successfully, for example:

At 11:12:37 -0700 - 
   Report posted successfully

• Go to the Console and find the computer in the list of Computers and check that the Last Report time has updated to sometime around the recent report successfully posted message (confirming that reporting is working)

Also check in the client log for successful gathering with the actionsite and mailboxsite from the parent relay, for example:

At 11:11:21 -0700 - 
   Successful Synchronization with site 'actionsite' (version 10540) - 'http://PARENT-RELAY:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite'
At 11:11:21 -0700 - mailboxsite (http://PARENT-RELAY:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/mailboxsite12251547)
   Downloaded 'http://spt1-win2k8r2:52311/mailbox/files/20/4c/204c27da7dbc56adc64872ea928c8748b693e7e6' as 'Action 4823.fxf'
   Gather::SyncSiteByFile adding files - count: 1
At 11:11:21 -0700 - 
   Successful Synchronization with site 'mailboxsite' (version 117) - 'http://PARENT-RELAY:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/mailboxsite12251547'

• Next, take action on the client from the Console and as a master console operator target the endpoint with a blank actionsite action (targeted by property) and a blank mailboxsite action (targeted by name) See the following article for guidance on how to do this. Confirm actions can be gathered, executed, and reported on.
• If for some reason the actions cannot be gathered, executed, or reported, you have have an issue with the parent relay machine the client is communicating through. You can trace the action through the client logs. Note: if UDP is disabled on the network between the parent relay and the client, another restart of the BESClient service may be needed to get the actions to gather within the time you are troubleshooting problem.
• Now, enable/start up the local BESRelay service and let it run for a good minute.
• Then restart the BESClient service again. And enable/start the BESClientHelper service if it is present.
• The relay machine should be fully clean and efficiently operational now.
• Repeat the steps in taking blank test actions to the relay machine to test.
• You can see if the local relay component is having problems by tracing for any error messages on its logfile \Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Relay\logfile.txt