BESComputerRemover
Version: 3.0.1.60

Summary:
This commandline utility is designed to automate the process of removing computers from the BES Console and deleting the data from the database. The tool breaks up the deletion operations into several catagories to allow lots of flexibility and options in how data is removed. Some operations will simply mark a computer as being deleted in the database which will cause the computer not to show up in the BES Console or Web Reports.  Marking a computer as being deleted does not actually remove any data from the database however and if the computer reports back in it will be restored.  The tool also supports removing data about computers from the database to free up disk space and allow the database to run faster.  Computers which have data physically removed from the database will be told to send a full refresh report if they report in again.  The full refresh report contains all of the data from the client and will replace the data that was removed by this tool.

This tool will perform database operations for the following sets of data:

* Duplicate Computers - Marks older computers as deleted if a computer exists with the same computer name.

* NotReported Computers - Marks computers as deleted if there are no property results being reported and schedules a full refresh for the computer.

* Expired Computers - Marks computers as deleted if they have not reported in recently.

* Deleted Computers - Physically removes computer data from the database for computers that are already marked as deleted and have not reported in for a long period of time.

Additional Information:

Batched deletion - Deleting large sets of data will lead to the SQL transaction log growing quickly, the log will temporarly be larger than the data being removed until the database is shrunk.  Batched deletion will remove results in sets and pause between each set, giving you time to shrink and reclaim disk space as you go.



Command Line Arguments
Optional Arguments:
-h : Displays this help message


-? : Displays this help message


-help : Displays help message for installing this tool as a service.


-f : Runs in silent mode.  No standard output and script runs automatically to completion.


-l : Sends standard out to logfile created in the directory of this application with name BESComputerRemover.log


-L <Folder> : Specify a folder to create logs in. Do not include a file name.

-d <BES DSN> : Used to specify a DSN to connect to the BES Database with.  Defaults to bes_bfenterprise if not specified

-u <username> : Used to specify a username for SQL authentication to the database.

-p <password> : Used to specify a password for SQL authentication to the database.
-A : Run all database cleaning operations.
-D : Mark Duplicate Computers as deleted.
-P <PropertyName> : Use the specified retrieved property to find duplicate computers, like "Mac Address".  (Default "Computer Name")
-n : Mark NotReported Computer as deleted.
-e : Mark Expired Computers as deleted.
-t <days>: Specify the number of days after which an Expired Computer will be marked as deleted. (Default 30)
-E : Remove data from the database for Deleted Computers.
-T <days>: Specify the number of days after which computers marked as deleted will have their data removed. (Default 90)
-c : Do NOT count data before deleting.
-b <batch size> : Performs database deletion operations in batches of this size. The tool will pause between batches until the user presses a key (unless run in silent mode with -f).


Sample calls:
BESComputerRemover.exe -h
BESComputerRemover.exe -l
BESComputerRemover.exe -l -L "C:\Temp"
BESComputerRemover.exe -d database_dsn -u database_user -p database_password
BESComputerRemover.exe -A -f -l
BESComputerRemover.exe -A -b 2500000 -l