manually trigger the beacon to immediately download agent policy

[Junaid_V]

Dears

Based on my understanding, changes made via the web UI are transmitted to agents through the agent policy fetched from the beacon server. However, even after manually applying the agent policy, the latest settings take some time to replicate on the agents.

I'd appreciate guidance on:

1. How can we manually trigger the beacon to immediately download settings from the app server, ensuring the policy is promptly available for agent consumption?
2. Where can we modify the time interval for the beacon to retrieve the policy from the app server?
3. Is there an intermediate process between the beacon downloading the policy from the app and making it available for the agent's consumption?

[ChrisG · Accepted solution]

I think the only way to force the beacon to immediately download latest settings would be to restart the Beacon Engine service.

The time interval for checking updates can be configured using the Interval for beacon updates setting in the Beacon Settings section of the Inventory Settings page in the web UI:

The default value for this setting is 15 minutes.

See here for documentation about the setting: Beacon Settings.

[Junaid_V]

Hi Chris,

I've been trying to promptly update the beaconpoilcy.xml file. Despite my beacon settings being configured for a default 15-minute update, the changes I made didn't reflect in the file, even after restarting the beacon engine service. Strangely, I noticed immediate changes when I:

1. Added an empty target at fnms webui.
2. Manually updated the beacon policy from the beacon UI.

Do you have any insights on automating or reconfiguring this process without the need for manual changes at the web UI? I'm uncertain if my approach aligns with your understanding. 

[ChrisG]

So if I follow right, I understand;

1. When you made some change in the web UI, this change was not propagated to the beacon policy.
2. When you added an empty target in the web UI, the change made in step #1 was propagated to the beacon policy.

What was the nature of the change you did in step #1? What was the specific setting in the web UI that you changed?

[Junaid_V]

Hi Chris,

the change i made from webui was to exclude a linux file directory from file evidence scan.

Update : i have performed IIS reset at app server, post that the policy is seems updating as expected immediately after restating the beacon engine.

thanks for your quick response 🙂