Tiger Server - Software Update Server Issues

[JerryA]

If I've overlooked this issue addressed elsewhere on the forums, I apologize. I have not found this issue when browsing the other forum topics.

I've recently been promoted to a Systems Administrator at the company I work for and being our only Apple support guy, I am kind of the primary support for an XServe that our Marketing department has. I have been trying to get things up to snuff on the server, being that it really hasn't had any attention paid to it since it was purchased about 2 or more years ago. It's an XServe with 5 TB XServe RAID attached. It is currently running OS 10.4.11 with all updates applied.

I am trying to get the Software Update service working correctly. I had a network engineer open 63000 for the server. I also had the admin of our Web Filtering solution monitor as I attempted to get updates and unblock any Internet requests that were going back to Apple's software update web address. I can get some updates, but the server only shows 10.4.x updates, it isn't showing me updates for Mac OS 10.5 client desktops.

Will the Software Update Service in Tiger Server only download Tiger updates? Looks like it shouldn't care because it is just hosting them for the clients to download them.

 

[mgodfre3]

SUS on Mac Server

No, the sus service downloads all updates from Apple, I mean all. And you as an SA need to determine which ones your users need and will receive when they go to software update.

See SUS works like this. Instead of every client machine connecting through the internet to apples SUS servers, the client should go to your xserve which is holding all the update packages from Apple. Now the client only sees the packages you have allowed and will now download them from the server, much like a file server. This is beneficial, because you are not wasting bandwidth to the outside. Now you do have to point each client machine to use the new SUS server, or this doesn't do what it's designed for. I suggest adding a preference through WGM to the managed clients.

Anyway good luck and check with MakeMacWork.com, this site will help you a billion.

Michael Godfrey
Systems Administrator
Metropolitan State College of Denver
303-556-3756

 

[Doctor Doom]

i thought tiger server would only update tiger clients. guess im wrong.

 

[JerryA]

seems to be...

i thought tiger server would only update tiger clients.

This seems to be the case because My Tiger server is able to go out and download updates with no problem, but they are for Tiger Desktop OS's. I don't have updates for Leopard (10.5). Version 10.4.11 is the latest Mac OS update that is available when my Tiger Server downloads it's software update packages...


does anyone know if there is a string that the Software Update Server agent passes to Apple's Software Update Server to determine which OS's it is going to download updates for? If so, can this be modified to have my Tiger Server download and host the updates for my Leopard clients?

 

[mgodfre3]

SUS on Tiger

No, you can't edit what the agent sends to the server and you cant mess with the packages, as the agent looks for a signature from apple, before it accepts the sus package. In theory the tiger server should get the leopard updates regardless. Is there a reason you haven't moved to leopard server yet?

 

[JerryA]

Is there a reason you haven't moved to leopard server yet?

Well the big problem is with getting approval to just purchase the software. Our company, which is mostly Windows Server 2003 & 2008, is undergoing a major Virtualization and Disaster Recovery Solution installation. We've got a lot of money tied up in these two projects, which includes new SANs for our Data Centers and so-on, so they're trying to reduce any unnecessary costs wherever possible. This server serves 5 people on average, 8 at it's peak usually, so as far as new software goes, it's kind of on the back-burner.

At the time SUS is not a necessity because I've got a tool I use (LANDesk) to provide updates and perform reporting on all of my Windows Desktops and Mac Desktops and Server as well. Within the next year, however, LANDesk will be going away and we will be leveraging a Microsoft product that is part of our Enterprise Agreement. The Microsoft solution (Used to be called System Center) is great for our Windows machines, but lacks a lot of support for inventorying, updating and reporting on the Macintosh environment. I'm just trying to get things in line to where I can easily implement something like ARD for my Mac clients in our marketing group.

 

[mgodfre3]

Sus

LAN manager is not my favorite tool, and we are using asset manager for some of the inventory needs, but MOM is way better. I too run an heavy 03& and 08 environment with 1200 macs successfully on our AD/OD setup. But with 8 employees, yeah new software is out of the question. Good luck man.