How many times will a download fail before failover to another Package Server?

Products

• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

 

Resolution

Question
How many times will a download fail before failover to another Package Server?

Answer

The default number of errors before trying another codebase is 20, configurable with the Agent registry key:

HKLM\SOFTARE\Altiris\Communications\MaxErrorsPerServer

You could try reducing this number to force Agents to find a new codebase sooner, but will cause more network traffic

The NS gives out 10 codebases at a time to Agents for SpeedTesting when Sites and Subnets are not configured. Configurable in coresettings.config:

<customSetting key="MaximumCodebasesPerPackageServerPackage" type="local" value="10" />

The Agent then randomly chooses 6 of these codebases and speedtests to pick the fastest server, this server then remains the primary codebase for 6 hours until the speed is checked again.

Configured in the Agents registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Communications\MaxServersToCheck     (default 6)
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Communications\Speed Expiry (mins)      (default 360)

If the MaxErrorPerServer threshold has been reached then it will choose the next fastest Package Server from the Speed Test to download its packages.