Mavericks Dropping Network connection on test Mac Mini server

Hi, I ran across this list doing some googling for reports of Filemaker Server 13 on Mavericks (2 brand new MacMini's running 10.9.2 and 10.9.3) having connections issues - dropping clients, seemingly falling of the network. Also occurring on a MacPro running 10.9.3. I will note right away is that I an a db programmer, specifically Filemaker, and rarely rarely use Terminal. Sometimes Console to look for things I can't find. A recent thread of the Filemaker Experts list has suggested that IPv6 might be part of the issue.

In Console which logs should I investigate and what strings might I look for that indicate network drop-offs?

Thanks in advance.

Stephen.

We also are trying to roll out a couple of mac mini servers with Mavericks but we also experience serious connection drops. We tried the following:

- Connect the server to a Cisco 3750 with IOS 15.0 (SE6)
- Change serviceorder, Ethernet on top.
- Thunderbolt --> ethernet adapter
- USB --> ethernet adapter
- Disable ARP validation

None succeeded in a stable network connection except the USB --> ethernet adapter solution. This resulted in a stable connection.

Also found out that the problem doesn't occur when capturing network traffic on the server side cause whireshark puts the NIC in promiscuous mode.

We now updated one server to Yosemite and the connection is stable now for 20 minutes.

Is there any news on the problem from contact with Apple?? Is there a NIC driver patch coming for Mavericks?? Cause the initial plan was to also update all Mac clients to 10.9...

@Jayant371, I feel your pain here, we are experiencing the same issues. Here are the two solutions that we have found to work for ours.

1) create a script that does a ping request then stops and waits, then does it again(our networking didn't want us to do a continuous ping to other internal servers.
2) Switch to USB to Ethernet adapter. (we choose not to do this option as it would take our bandwidth down from 1 gig to 100m.

Hope this helps.

hi

i confirm we are having the same problems of drop ping with Yosemite...

@GaToRAiD, have you tried any 10/100/1000 USB 3 ethernet adapters?

@gskibum, no I haven't, but that will be bought on monday.

Hmmmm hate to hear the problem still exists in Yosemite because we were just so happy with the poing, which I kinda forgot, but resulted in:

Ping statistics for x.x.x.173: Packets: Sent = 21514, Received = 21480, Lost = 34 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 50ms, Average = 0ms

We continue to test Yosemite on monday cause today is not as busy as normal on the network. The USB --> ethernet solves to problem but is not really an option for 100 or somewhat clients...next to the 100 mbit connection..

@GaToRAiD: how does the script solve the connection drops in production??

@macstadium and @sullivanj, is there any news from your contact with Apple about the fact that USB --> ethernet works and the normal NIC doesn't??

Also, it looks like it's a hardware problem of not all/some Mac mini's....because not everyone is experiencing this issue plus in the test where we put the Mac Mini server to the 3750 Cisco we also connected two other Mac mini servers of the same model (late 2012) to the 3750 and they didn't have the network drops like our test machine. When there were dropped pings with the other two machines, there were every time just 4-6 pings lost....they recovered fast and our Mac mini with the network issue experienced serious network interruptions.

We might consult 'The Geniuses' next week on this issue our self. Hope we'll get some info on the subject and move it to a higher priority with Apple

@Jayant371 My ticket with Apple was closed on Oct. 11 2014 with the following comments:

STATUS: Thank you for the reply, much appreciated. I wasn't sure if that step had been done, since I hadn't mention it before and just recently was presented that it needed to be hardcoded. As far as any updates to the report I submitted on your behalf, it is has been related to a similar report and will be in a future release. I understand this is not what you were hoping for, but this is what engineering has presented. When we first submitted, I mention there were no guarantees that it would be implemented in the current release, but I wanted to go the extra miles on your behalf and see if it would possibly be. Have a great day. End of Comments / Instructions

I wasn't able to get an actual answer to why the USB dongles fix the issue, but I would guess that it has to do with bypassing the affected network stack. We ended up purchasing 300 Belkin 100mbps USB to Ethernet adapters because in our environment we utilize applications that require constant connections for licensing and normal functionality (Citrix). It's not the best solution, but it is a working solution and with Apple telling us we were SOL we had no other choice.

I recently purchased a 2014 27-inch iMac, running Mavericks. I'm having issues with the network connection timing out, whether I use wifi or plug directly into the modem with an ethernet cable. I had no such issues with my 2011 21.5-inch running Mountain Lion. This issue is the closest to my own I have found; might the USB to Ethernet adapter fix my problem?

@Jayant371 the script basically is a keep alive, which doesn't allow for the packets to drop. We are currently using this in production and haven't noticed any problems since we have implemented this.

My post from back in March :I had to put my Mac mini server back on 10.8.5 for now. I setup a NetBoot/SUS appliance to handle managing updates for 10.9 clients. I am waiting for the 10.9.3 GM seed and then crossing my fingers.

As you all are well aware from your own experiences, updating didn't fix my issue either. My servers are still stuck on 10.8.5 and I'm running NetSUS appliances for ASUS and netbooting. Has anyone had luck with updating to 10.10?

I updated my test server to 10.10 on Monday and I've seen a random drop here and there but nothing consistent like before. After a full test JSS setup, I'm hoping I can move forward.

@GaToRAiD I'll be using a keep alive script if the issue persists or be getting the USB 3.0 gigabit dongles. While my network admin wasn't very helpful with trying to update our Cisco switches, he is more than happy to help with me with a keep alive script.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my original post earlier in the year. Helped me keep my sanity knowing I wasn't alone. JAMF Nation Rules!!!

This issue appears to be unchanged in 10.10. Hugely disappointing.

edit: It's been a couple months now on 10.10 and I have not seen the issue in quite a while.

Seeing same issue with:

Mac OS X 10.9.5
JSS 9.32
Mac Pro 2014 (x2)

Initial resolution was Apple USB to Ethernet, as it stopped lost/dropped packets. Awaiting delivery of USB 3.0 to GigaBit Ethernet, let you know how it goes. Yes, we get throttled down, but better to be slow than constant drop-out.

Tried all other solutions mentioned here to no avail. So far, the USB option worked, but time will tell.

@jbutler135 How did those USB 3 to gig adapters work for you? Which ones did you end up going with?

Wondering if anyone has tried Ethernet to Thunderbolt for this issue?

Knock on wood, but I haven't seen this issue since moving my Mac Minis to 10.10.

Much success here.

Had used a HiRO H50224 USB 3.0 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter with my Mac Pros, worked like a charm, all issues went away. You will need to download their driver, works for 10.9.x.

JSS never freezes, communication to/from separate MySQL server resolved instantly with the USB adapters.

BTW, Thunder-2-Ethernet did not work at all, all ports, no joy. YMMV.

James

That sounds promising. Just amazoned two of them. I'll report back.

Stephen

We ended up getting some Linksys USB 3.0 gig adapters and so far so good. We've had them installed for a good 2 weeks now. We have one Mac Mini on Mavericks and another on Yosemite.

read this blog with interest. Have had TCP/IP timeout issues with running VMs (Fusion & Vbox) between late 2014 iMacs & 2014 mini - all running 10.9.5 ws or server. No matter which way, it appears the ethernet I/F goes to sleep after 10-20 secs no activity. WHen it finally dawned on me I got a ping-forever going on the server mini/Vbox PC command console pinging any of the other VM. This fixed it! The load on the network traffic is not measurable. So for now this will do. I bet - as mentioned before - ping between 2 Macs will do the the same.

it sounds like this. http://www.macstadium.com/blog/osx-10-9-mavericks-bugs/

Man I'm glad that I've finally found this thread! I've been searching High and Low for a resolution. I have a 2011 Mac Mini Server 10.7.5, 2014 Mac Mini 10.10 and 3 (late 2014) Macbook Pros 10.10 that are having the exact problem on our LAN. I'm going to try the USB 3.0 to ethernet fix first and if that doesn't work I will give the bash script a try.

I'll keep you guys posted on my results.

I had the same issue with a M2011 Mini Server running 10.9.5 and a Filemaker database we use for inventory. Sometimes it was 3 minutes, sometimes it was 3 hours, but our clients always dropped their connection. USB to ethernet was the only thing that worked. Solid for a month now.

This thread saved me! Thanks guys

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