Switching the master server on Linux systems

By default, server 0 (zero) is the master server.

After the value has successfully replicated to the new server, it becomes the master server. If a server suffers a failure while it is the master, you cannot use the BigFix Administration Tool, instead you can use the following alternative procedure:

To switch the master to another server, set the deployment option masterDatabaseServerID to the other server ID as follows:

1. From the /opt/BESServer/bin command prompt, start the command line:

   ./iem login --server=servername:serverport --user=username --password=password

2. From the /opt/BESServer/bin command prompt, run the following command:

    ./iem get admin/fields > /tmp/switchmaster.xml

3. In the /tmp/switchmaster.xml file, created previously during step 2, add or edit the following keyword and its value:

   <Name>masterDatabaseServerID<Name>
     <Value>0</Value>

   to switch the master server to another master server, in this example with ID 3:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <BESAPI xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
      xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="BESAPI.xsd">
       <AdminField>
          <Name>masterDatabaseServerID</Name>
          <Value>3</Value>
       </AdminField>
   </BESAPI>

4. Run the following command to modify the value:

   ./iem post /tmp/switchmaster.xml admin/fields