[Casper] Updates

Thu Dec 11 12:36:26 PST 2008

To pull your Apple updates from the Casper distribution point, you'd need to
add them to the JSS, which brings in the manual work of scoping the updates
appropriately.
The Apple Software Update service stores its info in /usr/share/swupd/html/
replicating the contents of this directory from one server to another
*might* get you identical Software Update Servers, but I don't know if it
would work.

What I hypothesize could work and might be worth testing is the following:

1. Update your primary SUS
2. Export the SUS service settings from Server Admin on the primary SUS
3. Import the SUS service settings gathered above to your child SUS
4. See if importing these settings causes your child SUS to update its SUS
data
5. If the answer to step 4 is no, try rsync-ing your /usr/share/swupd/html/
folder from primary SUS to child SUS.

Manually updating an SUS is something I consider a best practice.  You'll
want to see what's available, download the package to a test box and vet the
update, then enable it on the SUS.  What this hopes to achieve is to keep
you from having to repeat that process on every SUS in your enterprise.

----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

 Certified System Administrator 10.4
 Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
 Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 3:17 PM, Thomas Larkin <tlarki at kckps.org> wrote:

>  Yes our SUS is an Xserve that is dedicated to SUS and file sharing, and I
> want it to download and cache out all approved updates to distribution
> points, since our distribution points run off of RAIDs on building level
> Xserves.  That way they could sync the updates over night, and during
> operating hours machines would not go over the WAN for updates, they could
> pull them off the casper distribution point.
>
>  Does that make sense?
>
> >>> "Miles Leacy" <miles.leacy at themacadmin.com> 12/11/08 1:29 PM >>>
>
> Are the distribution points on OS X Servers?  If so, the easiest solution
> is to create multiple instances of SUS on different network segments.
>
>
>   I was thinking through an automated way to move packages from an SUS to
> a Casper distribution point, and it's relatively easy to get the packages
> there.  The hurdle is making them useful to Software Update, or even to
> Casper.
>
>
>   I suppose you could forego the SUS and add Apple update pkgs to your JSS
> and deploy them that way.  This would bring on additional work as you'd need
> to determine the dependencies and compatibility of each update manually and
> scope their installation appropriately.  If you use an SUS and Software
> Update, Apple does that work for you.
>
>
> ----------
> Miles A. Leacy IV
>
>  Certified System Administrator 10.4
>  Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
>  Certified Trainer
> Certified Casper Administrator
> ----------
> voice: 1-347-277-7321
> miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
> www.themacadmin.com
>
>
>
>
>   On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Thomas Larkin
>
> <TLARKI at kckps.org>
>
> wrote:
>
>>  I have a self service policy that runs all approved updates off of our
>> sus. I also download the pkg for quick critical updates and push them
>> out via a policy.
>>
>> I only have one sus and it would be awesome if I could cache those
>> updates to the casper distribution points. Then I wouldn't have 6000
>> clients pulling updates off one server.  Then just use that one server
>> to control it while the casper share points distribute it to their set
>> vlans.
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "Miles Leacy" <miles.leacy at themacadmin.com>
>> Cc: List, Casper <casper at list.jamfsoftware.com>
>> To: Nichols, Jared <jared.nichols at ll.mit.edu>
>>
>> Sent: 12/11/2008 11:29:28 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Casper] Updates
>>
>> Do your users run it via self-service?
>> I have an "updates available" smart group that consists of all machines
>> with
>> >0 updates available.  A self-service policy scoped to this smart group
>> allows non-admins to run Apple updates.  As silly as it may seem, this
>> option can inflate the egos of many users.  You might be surprised how
>> far
>> the illusion of control gets you with people.
>>
>> Of course, I have a second policy scoped to the same group that runs
>> over
>> the weekend for anyone who didn't avail themselves of self-service.
>>
>> ----------
>> Miles A. Leacy IV
>>
>>  Certified System Administrator 10.4
>>  Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
>>  Certified Trainer
>> Certified Casper Administrator
>> ----------
>> voice: 1-347-277-7321
>> miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
>> www.themacadmin.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    2008/12/11 Nichols, Jared <jared.nichols at ll.mit.edu>
>>
>> >  I run our own Software Update Server so I can vette any packages
>> first.
>> >  If it's ok, I release it in SUS and let the software update mechanism
>> > handle it.  I do force a once monthly mandatory update.  Users can run
>> it
>> > optionally on their own or it'll pop up automatically weekly.
>> >
>> > j
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>> > On 12/11/08 12:12 , "Jeff Strauss" <jstrauss at loyolahs.edu> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hey all,
>> >
>> > Do you guys have any procedures for deploying updates to machines? If
>> so,
>> > can you shed some light on how you handle updating clients?
>> >
>> > Thank you much!
>> >
>> > *Jeffrey A. Strauss
>> > *Department of Educational Technology
>> > *Systems Administrator
>> > *Loyola High School of Los Angeles
>> > 1901 Venice Blvd.
>> > Los Angeles, Ca 90006
>> > (213) 381-5121 x265
>> >
>> > Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>> > --
>>
>>   > Jared Nichols
>> > ISD Infrastructure and Operations – Desktop Engineering
>> > MIT Lincoln Laboratory
>> > 244 Wood St.
>> > Lexington, MA 02420-9108
>> > (781) 981-5500
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Casper mailing list
>> > Casper at list.jamfsoftware.com
>> > http://list.jamfsoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/casper
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
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