Change Bootstrap Beacon for Linux agent?

[a_cutler]

I'm trying to change some test Linux servers with the FlexNet agent installed on them from reporting to our Prod FNMS environment to report to our Dev environment instead. I've had success with one Linux server using the managesoft-configure command and entering the new bootstrap server details in the prompts, but with now while following the same procedure I'm seeing the managesoft-configure script run correctly and the logs show that the policy files "merge successfully" however the policy log shows that the agent is seeing/prioritizing all of the production beacons in addition to the dev beacon that I'm trying to report to, and the agent ends up prioritizing a production beacon and reporting to production again. How can I get the policy to update with only the new bootstrap beacon instead of just adding the new bootstrap beacon to a list of beacons in the policy file? 

[lajanakiram]

Hi @a_cutler ,

Yes, this is by default the agent picks up all the beacon servers and will prioritize. However please try to set the auto priority to false in upload and download settings for Dev Beacon and assign a value  10 Lesser than the Prod beacon server and re-run mgspolicy and check.

Kindly refer the article for bootstrapping beacon servers. 
https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Manager-Forum/FNMS-Inventory-Agent-Deployment/td-p/96439/page/1

[a_cutler]

Thanks for the reply, but shouldn't the agent only pick up the beacons that are configured in the environment it's getting the policy from? Right now the merged policy has all beacons in it from both production and development. 

[lajanakiram]

Hi @a_cutler ,

Yes, the policy downloads all the beacons details irrespective if its configured in bootstrap or not. This is basically for fail over settings, in case the beacon configured is not reachable then the agent tries to check if any other beacon is reachable or not. You can restrict inventory settings to targeted devices.

Refer: Gathering FlexNet Inventory FlexNet Manager Suite 2021 R1 - Agent third-party deployment: Protecting Your Customizations (flexera.com)

[ChrisG · Accepted solution]

Based on what you're observing here, I suspect using managesoft-configure will add to (augment) beacon download location details that are already configured, but won't necessarily remove currently configured details. So beacons which are already configured may still get used when subsequent agent processes run, according to NetSelector prioritization that the agent performs to select the "best" beacon to use.

To remove unwanted beacon details, you could explicitly look for them and remove them from the /var/opt/managesoft/etc/config.ini file.

[a_cutler]

Thanks Chris. Yes that's what is happening here. I was able to confirm yesterday by using our Stage environmnet and it does look like the beacon information in the policy files does get merged, rather than replaced.