Relay requirements and recommendations

Generally, a relay uses minimal resources and does not have a noticeable impact on the performance of the computer running it. However, if several clients simultaneously request files from a relay, a significant amount of the computer's resources might be used to serve those files.

The requirements for a relay computer vary widely depending on three main factors:

• The number of connected clients that are downloading files.
• The size of each download.
• The period of time allotted for the downloads.

The relay system requirements are similar to those for a workgroup file server. For details about relay requirements, see IBM BigFix 9.2 - System Requirements.

Here are some further recommendations:

• Computers running the relays must have BigFix agent installed.
• Workgroup file servers and other server-quality computers that are always turned on are good candidates for installing a relay.
• The BigFix relay must have a two-way TCP connection to its parent (which can be a server or another relay).
• Computers running the relays must have at least Internet Explorer 4.0 or later to work correctly.
• The BigFix relay cache size can be configured, but is set to 1GB by default. It is recommended that you have at least 2 GB available for the relay cache to prevent hard drive bottlenecks.
• It is recommended to have at least one Relay per geographic location for bandwidth reasons.
• Consider throttling the bandwidth usage for Relays downloading files on very slow pipes. It is recommended to throttle the bandwidth usage for Clients that are connecting on dial-up or slow VPN connections. For more information about bandwidth throttling, see Bandwidth Throttling.