Manually Import Beacon Policy

[dbeckner]

In a scenario where a beacon is in a disconnected network and has no ability to reachback to download policy is it possibly to export the policy from the application server or parent beacon and import it into the disconnected beacon?

[ChrisG]

I can't think of any way to do this. The process for retrieving the beacon policy and its associated details is pretty intimately tied to the beacon being able to make a HTTP(S) connection to web services running the beacon's parent.

[alexander_frit]

I'm using such "disconnected beacon" in one of my customer environments.

It took me some trail and error to find a way to get it working for my needs there.

I'm still checking for side effects but setting up agent inventory collections and agent self-upgrades on that Beacon is working that way.

I would not recommend using that way of working , that's why I don't want to share my method here.

[dbeckner]

@alexander_frit We are using disconnected beacons at our customers as well. Up till this point we have had the ability to connect the beacon to an FNM app server at least once to download policy initially. After that it does not receive policy again but is still operational. This requires an available FNM system for the beacon to connect to.

For the scenario I am working through now, we have no way to connect the beacon to the app server at all to get its first policy. So I was hoping there was a method of retrieving policy for the beacon directly from the app server and manually moving it to the beacon server.

[alexander_frit · Accepted solution]

@dbeckner 

You are describing the situtation  that I had a year agao.

Here some hints, no guarantee.

1. Configure the Beacon in FNMS to get config file with a unique ID that you are importing on the beacon

2.  Compare ProgramData\FlexeraFolder  folder with another Beacon and copy missing files
- Mainly \Staging\Common and Beacon\InventorySettings 
- Copy BeaconPolicy.xml  into ProgramData\FlexeraFolder\Beacon at the end

3.  Restart Beacon Service; that should update some of the copied files with Beacon specific parts

Afterwards you should check if the Beacon works as expected (agents download policy, inventory upload, etc)
Sometimes that doesn't help and you should increase the Beacon Policy Revision Number and check again.
The rest is trail and error.

You also have to take care of all files in the incoming folder.

[dbeckner]

Thanks @alexander_frit. I'm marking it as the solution because it provides me some starting points for testing if this is possible. Appreciate the assistance!