Monitoring deployments

Track the progress and results of a workflow deployment on the Deployments tab, and interpret the exit code that shows exactly why the workflow stopped on a device.

The Deployments tab

After you deploy a workflow, switch to the Deployments tab to track its progress and results per device.

Figure 1. Deployments tab with the deployment list

Deployments tab showing a list of workflow deployments with Name, Tags, State, Issued, ID, Start Date, and End Date columns

By default, the Deployments grid displays the following columns:

Table 1. Deployments tab columns
Column Description
Name The name of the deployment. Select it to open the deployment details.
Tags The tags of the underlying Action. Workflow deployments are tagged bf-workflow.
State The current state of the deployment, for example Open. Deployment states are the standard BigFix Action states (open, stopped, expired); for details, see Deployment Details page.
Issued How long ago the deployment was issued.
ID The numeric identifier of the deployment.
Start Date / End Date The start and end date and time of the deployment (client time).

List controls on the Deployments tab:

  • Filter: builds filter conditions on properties such as Name, State, Issued, ID, Start Date, End Date, BigFix operator, and Tags. Date properties support the operators Equals, After, Before, On or after, and On or before.
    Figure 2. Filter panel on the Deployments tab with date operators

    Filter panel on the Deployments tab showing the Start Date property with date operators such as Equals, After, and Before
  • Column: shows or hides columns. Up to 53 columns are available, including State, Issued, Start Date, End Date, BigFix operator, Tags, Issuer full name, % Complete, Failure Rate, Reported Count, Source Fixlet's Site, Source Type, and detailed per-state result counters (ResultCount_*) such as Running, Fixed, Failed, Pending Downloads, Pending Restart, Waiting, Expired, Not Relevant, and Timeout Reached.
    Figure 3. Column selection panel on the Deployments tab

    Column selection panel on the Deployments tab listing State, Issued, Start Date, End Date, BigFix operator, Tags, and Issuer full name check boxes
  • Density: switches the row height between Compact, Standard, and Comfortable.
  • Stop: stops the selected deployment. Stopping deployments of other operators requires the Stop Other Operator's Actions permission.
  • Delete: deletes the selected deployment records. Deletion follows the standard BigFix UI deployment rules, with no additional Workflow Builder requirement: you cannot delete an open deployment, so stop it first. For details, see Deployments in the BigFix UI documentation. In the Workflow Builder database, the deletion is a soft delete kept for auditing.
  • Search: filters the list as you type.

Viewing deployment details

Select the name of a deployment to open its details page in Deployment Manager. The page title shows the deployment ID and name (for example, 346 - google-drive-deployment) with the Updated timestamp, the Stop button to stop the deployment, and the Delete button. The page contains three tabs: Overview, Fixlets, and Devices. For the general description of this page, see Deployment Details page in the BigFix UI documentation.

Figure 4. Deployment details page, Overview tab with status, configuration, tags, and composition chart

Deployment details page Overview tab showing the Status card, Configuration card, Tags card, and Composition chart
Table 2. Deployment details tabs
Tab Content
Overview The Status card shows the completion percentage, the completed count (for example, 2 of 2), and the state (for example, Open). The Configuration card summarizes the deployment settings: when it was issued, the start behavior, the pre-deployment behavior (download, retries, one-time or recurring), the configured user messages, the Fixlet sequence, and the post-deployment behavior. The Tags card lists assigned tags, and the Composition chart visualizes the device results by status (for example, Failed).
Fixlets Lists the content that the deployment executes, with filter, column, density, and search controls.
Devices Lists the per-device results with the columns Device Name, Last Seen, Computer ID, Result (for example, Failure), Status, Completed, OS, Type, and IP address. Select a device name to investigate the result on the device details page.

Use the Devices tab to identify which devices failed and why before you redeploy.

Figure 5. Deployment details page, Devices tab with per-device results

Deployment details page Devices tab listing per-device results including Device Name, Last Seen, Computer ID, Result, and Status

Interpreting execution results

The Devices tab of the deployment details shows the per-device Result and Status. To understand why a workflow ended on a device, use the exit code: the workflow executes as a generated BigFix ActionScript in which every step occupies a block of lines, and the exit code identifies the step and reason where the execution ended — either a code built into the step (with an explanatory comment in the generated script) or the code and message you configured on a Stop step.

In version 1.0, inspect the line-level detail in the BigFix Console: open the deployment's Action (tagged bf-workflow), select the Reported Computers tab to see the per-computer Status and Exit Code, and open View Action Info for a computer to see the per-line Completed/Failed status of the generated ActionScript. The first Failed line marks exactly where the workflow stopped, and the adjacent comment states the reason. For example, a Package Uninstall step that finds more matching packages than expected_instances allows ends with exit code 14 at the line commented Package match count outside allowed range.

Note:
The BigFix UI deployment details do not show the line-level status of the generated ActionScript. To find the exact line where a workflow stopped, use the BigFix Console as described above.