Excluding folders in CCS using Agentless and Agent-based data collection
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Excluding folders in CCS using Agentless and Agent-based data collection

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Article ID: 161484

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Updated On:

Products

Control Compliance Suite Control Compliance Suite Standards Server Control Compliance Suite Standards Module

Issue/Introduction

Control Compliance Suite (CCS)

Possible scenarios:

  • CCS data collection jobs will time out when UNIX\Linux agents use the 'find' command to collect data on remote mounts.
  • A directory is rather large and/or slow and commands are taking a long time to run.

Possible error in the CCS Console is shown below.  (the command listed after the bolded error below will vary depending on which command is running when it times out)

This query was halted before completion.  Query timed out in command execution: <command_that_was_running_at_timeout>

Example:
This query was halted before completion.  Query timed out in command execution
: find / name !-fstype nfs -a ! -fstype autofs -a ! -fstype cifs -a ! -fstype -a ! -fstype ncp -a ! -fstype afp -a ! -fstype afs -type d \\ ( -perm -0002 -a ! -perm -1000 \\) @ lt/dev/null

Environment

CCS 12.5.X
CCS 12.6.X

Cause

A timeout occurring due to targeting large file systems (e.g. NFS, CIFS, etc.) on local or remote file systems, or folders that contain a lot of files.

Resolution

Steps to exclude remote filesystems or specific paths from the data collection jobs depending if you are using Agentless or Agent-based Data collection.

For Agentless data collection:

To exclude remote Filesystems:

  1. On each CCS Manager server, in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\CCS\Reporting and Analytics\DPS\control\Unix\ConfigFiles\bvAgentlessConfig.ini file, uncomment the IgnoreRemoteFilesystems parameter and change it to true.  Save the bvAgentlessConfig.ini file after you have made the changes.
    # Possible Values: true or false
    # Description: Used for ignoring remote filesystems while query
    IgnoreRemoteFileSystems=true
  2. Stop and restart the 'Symantec CCS Manager' and 'Symantec Data Processing Service' services to have the new configuration to be applied to the manager.

 

NOTE: There are two files that can be modified depending what you want to accomplish.  In this example below we will modify the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file, but you can modify the IgnoreDirectoryPathsForFind.dat in a similar way if you only want to eliminate the path when using the 'FIND' command.

To ignore certain paths or directories:

  1. On each CCS Manager Server: find the file IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file, located in InstallDir:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\CCS\Reporting and Analytics\DPS\control\Unix\ConfigFiles and make a backup.
  2. Open the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat using notepad. (WARNING: Do not use any editor that can insert control characters or formatting into the file).

    Modify the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file listing the directories you would like to be ignored.  After modification, the file should contain a list of any paths that will be ignored during file and find data collection commands to keep timeouts from occurring. (Each directory should be listed, one per line, with an extra blank line at the bottom of the file.)

    Example of the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file:  (NOTE: Lines that are preceded with a semi-colon or hash symbol will be skipped as they will be considered a comment)

    ; bvControl for UNIX v8.50
    ; This file contains list of directories to be ignored for ALL queries

    ; Add each directory on a new line.
    ; Semi-colon(;) or hash(#) is a comment character. To skip a directory prefix it with the comment character
    /path/to/ignore
    /path/to/network/share
    /rabbit/hole
    <blank line>


     3.  Stop and restart the 'Symantec CCS Manager' and 'Symantec Data Processing Service' services to have the new configuration to be applied to the manager.

 

For Agent-based data collection:

  1. To exclude remote Filesystems: On each of the agent machines, locate the bv.conf file, located in /esm/bin/dcmodules/<PLATFORM>/UNIX/bv.conf, and modify it as follows:
    1. Uncomment the IgnoreRemoteFilesystems parameter and change it to True.  
      # Possible Values: true or false
      # Description: Used for ignoring remote filesystems while query
      IgnoreRemoteFileSystems=true

 

NOTE: There are two files that can be modified depending what you want to accomplish.  In this example we will modify the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file, but you can modify the IgnoreDirectoryPathsForFind.dat in a similar way if you only want to eliminate the path when using the 'FIND' command.

  1. To ignore certain paths or directories, create a file named IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat in the /esm/bin/dcmodules/<PLATFORM>/UNIX/ directory on the agent.  Modify that IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file with the list of any paths that will be ignored during file and find data collection commands to keep timeouts from occurring. (Each directory should be listed, one per line, with an extra blank line at the bottom of the file.)

    Example of the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file
    :  (NOTE: Lines that are preceded with a semi-colon or hash symbol will be skipped as they will be considered a comment)

    ; bvControl for UNIX v8.50
    ; This file contains list of directories to be ignored for ALL queries

    ; Add each directory on a new line. 
    ; Semi-colon(;) or hash(#) is a comment character. To skip a directory prefix it with the comment character
    /path/to/ignore
    /path/to/network/share
    /rabbit/hole
    <blank line>

  2. In the /esm/bin/dcmodules/<PLATFORM>/UNIX/bv.conf file, uncomment the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways= parameter and add the path where the IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat file is located that you created in the step above.  (you can also add the path for the IgnoreDirectoryPathForFind.dat if you chose that file to modify).
    # Specifies the path to the file containing list of directories to be ignored for all queries
    IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways=/esm/bin/dcmodules/lnx-x86/UNIX/IgnoreDirectoryPathAlways.dat

  3. Save the bv.conf file
  4. Restart the CCS agent services after saving the bv.conf file. (from the command line on the agent system,  /esm/esmrc restart)