[Casper] All of Caspers files?

Wed Jul 1 12:06:03 PDT 2009

See below...

Rich Barron

"Dorey, Dustin" <Dustin.Dorey at district196.org> 
Sent by: casper-bounces at list.jamfsoftware.com
06/30/2009 11:12 AM

To
<Rich_Barron at vfc.com>
cc
casper at list.jamfsoftware.com
Subject
Re: [Casper] All of Caspers files?

This is fixed with a few hours of help by JAMF and a webex session (Thanks 
Sam!). But for the sake of the list and future possible searches, I'll 
document what I can here in the hopes of helping someone else out.

I just want to clarify a few points to make sure we?re all on the same 
page.
Issues are as follows;
1.       ?Things are not replicating?  I take that as packages, scripts 
etc? things that are normally located in your CasperShare folder on your 
distribution point are not syncing correctly upon their scheduled 
replication time.  Are all of the Distribution points failing to replicate 
or just the ones you set up?

The only server that I did not set up was the master server. I can copy 
the CS4 dmg up from my machine (3 time zones away) and the disk image 
makes it there ok. After that, it gets 'stuck'. 

a.       Are your servers each set up with your DNS to use FQDN? If so I 
would delete them out of the JSS. JSS>Management>Distribution Points, and 
re-add them with the FQDN if they were using IP prior, also make sure that 
the ?Casper Admin? and ?Casper Imaging? user accounts passwords listed for 
each distribution point match the local user account passwords on each 
server Also make sure that permissions are propagated down the CasperShare 
for each distribution point.

Some did not have FQDN to start with, but when I ran into issues, I reset 
them to Fully Qualified Domain Names and set a script to fix the jamf.conf 
file in case one of the local techs didn't type in the FQDN. All passwords 
and usernames were working ok until I started working with CS3/4 images.

2.       ?Adobe installs don?t get listed in Casper Admin. ?  Does that 
mean they never do or some of them don?t show up.    Are you using JAMF 
method of creating the adobe installs via the Casper Admin application? Or 
are you using Composer and snapshotting?

The images are being created "by the book" the JAMF way, following the 
manual. CS3 was ok, but when I sent to CS4, the master disk image made it 
to the server, but Casper Admin would not 'see' it when I went to click 
the 'Create New Adobe Install' button. It went straight to a CS3 disk 
image, which was the wrong behavior since I was trying to set up a CS4 
install.

3.       ?Self Service is Super Flakey? is it not showing the packages 
that you have set up self service items for, or is it not laying the 
packages down correctly? 

It looks like the replication snafu with CS4 had a hand in this. The 
images were in the master, but not replicated down to the local servers. 
Being that they were in the master, they were showing up for Self Service 
and in the policy - but because they were not on the local server - 
nothing was there to actually install. Since I had it set to 'install once 
per computer', POOF - it went away after failing. 

4.       ?Re-Imaging is skipping the main Disk Image?  What is it showing 
in the imaging log for a computer that has skipped the OS package?   Is it 
failing on all or just the Distribution points that are not replicating?

This was odd. It seems to be hit and miss. I think it is a different issue 
with some netboot laptops I am putting out there and also with our local 
server needing a reboot as it is throwing errors on the NetBoot service. I 
was adding this in as another symptom of a possible overall issue, but it 
appears to be a different issue.

5.       When you are talking about your techs not typing in the FQDN 
during imaging do you mean when the Casper Imaging app asks for the JSS?s 
address?   If so how are you imaging, are you using netboot/netinstall, 
recovery partitions, FW boot drives?    The imaging techs should not need 
to repeatedly type in this information. 

Yes, when they launch Casper Imaging. We are using NetBoot where possible 
and the techs are being prompted at each install. This is a conversion - 
the machines have not been touched by Casper/Recon before this.

6.       If you ?re-do? everything and change the DNS name of the master 
server you should just be able to make a new QuickAdd Package and push 
that out with ARD if you have it at your disposal to get the machines 
reporting in to the correct JSS address otherwise there are other ways to 
update the clients but I?d think that ARD would be the fastest. 

I can't change the DNS name of the master server. That is set by policy at 
the corporate level. Plus, we are also in the midst of deployments at 
various sites across the USA. Changing configs mid-stream will do more 
harm than good at this point.

We found the answer was that in Casper 6, it does not support CS4 images 
directly. You must do a work-around in the image file, which is documented 
in the Jamfsoftware.com site here: 
http://jamfsoftware.com/kb/article.php?id=196

There was an additional problem where after adding the CS4 image through 
Casper Admin, but it selecting the CS3 disk image, it creates a link 
between the two and if you click OK, and create an "untitled Adobe 
Install" and try to trash it, it trashes the CS3 image because it has a 
link to it rather than being an empty install. If you are not expecting 
that, it could be unsettling. You can check in the Info window to see 
exactly what package an untitled Adobe install may be linked to and what 
will go away when the package is deleted. 

Once we got the CS4 issue fixed, things started working again. But things 
were seriously weird there for a while...

Please correct me if I?m wrong on my interpretation and others on the 
listserv please verify my advice.   I tend to do some quirky stuff 
sometimes.

From: casper-bounces at list.jamfsoftware.com [
mailto:casper-bounces at list.jamfsoftware.com] On Behalf Of 
Rich_Barron at vfc.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:14 PM
To: jared.nichols at ll.mit.edu
Cc: casper at list.jamfsoftware.com
Subject: Re: [Casper] All of Caspers files?

This is a new install. When we had our jumpstart, we had just set up 4 
servers in a data center about a month ago by a JAMF rep. The other dozen 
or so distribution point servers were pre-existing and were not set up 
until later by myself. 

Now that we are in production and I have a team of guys doing reimages, 
where are the files I need to check to ensure the servers have FQDN's in 
the settings? I worked with JAMF to write the FQDN of our master server to 
the /private/etc/jamf.conf to ensure any tech who does not enter the fully 
qualified domain name of the master server during reimaging will not cause 
a major problem. 

So - where are some other file locations to check - maybe something on the 
server? Is there any documentation on this? If this is such a critical 
issue, would it not make sense to put a preference file somewhere and have 
an easy to manage setting in the GUI for this to be updated after the fact 
if needed? 

Are there any guides anywhere to what all is involved in 'starting over'? 
Is it a simple remove from the master servers and reinstall? Or do things 
need to be updated on the clients as well to ensure they are all synched 
up properly to the new set up? 

Rich Barron

"Nichols, Jared" <jared.nichols at ll.mit.edu> 
06/30/2009 05:16 AM 

To
"Rich_Barron at vfc.com" <Rich_Barron at vfc.com>, 
"casper at list.jamfsoftware.com" <casper at list.jamfsoftware.com> 
cc

Subject
Re: [Casper] All of Caspers files?

Is this a new installation or are you expanding an existing 
infrastructure?  If it?s new, I?d say back up any packages that you?ve 
made and start over.  Even if you seem to route out all of your problems, 
I?d be weary about feeling confident in the installation ? if it were me 
anyway...

The general gist of your situation tells me dns, dns, dns.  Related, you 
should always use FQDNs. 

j

On 6/29/09 20:32 , "Rich_Barron at vfc.com" <Rich_Barron at vfc.com> wrote:

I'm having a ton of problems with our new deployment of Casper 6 to about 
15 servers. Things are not replicating, Adobe installs don't get listed in 
Casper Admin, Self Service is super flakey, reimaging is skipping the main 
disk image, etc. 

I have a feeling it has something to do with the initial setup/config, and 
possibly not using fully qualified domain names. It could also have 
something to do with permissions or accounts on the server side or client 
side. But there is just too much going wrong for this to be considered 
normal. 

Support has been great. I should know - I have called them every day. :) 
But short of getting a Casper rep out here to go over the whole system and 
find/fix all the bugs, is there a good listing of where all the config 
files are stored and what they should look like? On both the client side 
and server side? Or maybe someone wrote a doc on what happens in the 
background when you, say, schedule a replication from the master server to 
another server so when it fails, I can check all the steps manually, such 
as making a connection via SSH with the casperadmin name/pass from the 
master server to one of the other servers, and where to apply a fix should 
a problem be found? 

Rich Barron 

---
Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Infrastructure and Operations
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
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