Activity Monitor: "jamfAgent (Not Responding)"...Maverics and JSS 8.73

[donmontalvo]

We are testing Mavericks 10/9 (13A603), JSS 8.73. Occasionally we see the jamfAgent process freeze, is anyone else seeing this?

external image link

I did a search through the forum, came up dry. I set tag for this thread to jamf binary but this is for jamfAgent process.

After a reboot the jamfAgent process was back to normal. Checked again about an hour later, shows not responding again.

TIA
Don

[charlesludwick · Accepted solution]

We are seeing this and reported it. This is what we got back from Kubley.

Thank you for reaching out about this. This issue is actually a defect in Mavericks currently, as we have even seen our Parallels VM’s report this same way. This issue was opened as DTS 600706615 which ended up in Apple confirming that it is their issue. It is now living as bug #15424012 at Apple. The status of the agent should be harmless, but it might be a good idea to wait for 10.9.1 of Mavericks, as I am sure that will be more stable.

Regards,

Dan Kubley

[charlesludwick · Accepted solution]

@donmontalvo are you seeing machines actually not checking in or running policies? It seems as most of our 10.9 machines work normally, but I am in the middle of confirming it. Just curious to see what others are actually experiencing because of this.

[kstrick]

Seen this in Mavericks also, but 9.21 binary…
not sure if it's really a problem or not ? (Seems like recurring checkins are happening via the logs)

[shakim]

Yes, I noticed it too. However, the jamf binary is still functioning. Just like you, I don't like to see a process "Not Responding".

[charlesludwick · Accepted solution]

We are seeing this and reported it. This is what we got back from Kubley.

Thank you for reaching out about this. This issue is actually a defect in Mavericks currently, as we have even seen our Parallels VM’s report this same way. This issue was opened as DTS 600706615 which ended up in Apple confirming that it is their issue. It is now living as bug #15424012 at Apple. The status of the agent should be harmless, but it might be a good idea to wait for 10.9.1 of Mavericks, as I am sure that will be more stable.

Regards,

Dan Kubley

[c0n0r]

We're seeing the same thing on Mavericks and JSS 9.2.0. We've reported it, but haven't heard anything back. I'll pass along the info @charlesludwick to the others on my team, until we heard something contrary.

[scottb]

I am upgrading the JSS tomorrow to 8.7.3 as a stopgap Mavericks move.
I would wager that this is more likely to be a 10.9.2 fix as what I've read about 10.9.1 is focused in other directions and is rather small. But it wouldn't hurt to file with Apple as more reports tend to get more attention.

[jbestine]

Yes, I'm seeing the same thing on my test Mavericks machines and JSS 8.7.3, specifically on machines that upgraded to Mavericks. I'm still testing to see if it appears on newly imaged machines.

[scottb]

FWIW, I thought we were good to go but after a few minutes, the Binary is now in "Not Responding" status after going to 8.7.3 and a certain "other" software update on the client side.
So, at this point it's not fixed in a very current Mavericks Mac and JSS 8.7.3.

[JB_ITS]

Same issue, 10.9 machine with 8.73 JSS

[corbinmharris]

I've seen this with one of our Macs yesterday running Mavericks and 9.21

[ewettach]

+1 same issue on 9.21

[bjohnson]

Looks like it is a know Apple issue with Mavericks. Take a peek at the response from @charlesludwick

[lpnicholas]

same issue here. Seeing it sometimes in our environment. +1 on 9.21 and Mavericks.

[charlesludwick]

I can confirm this is not fixed in 10.9.1, still having the same issues. Maybe 10.9.2.....

[donmontalvo]

Yep, same here...ugh...

[charlesludwick · Accepted solution]

@donmontalvo are you seeing machines actually not checking in or running policies? It seems as most of our 10.9 machines work normally, but I am in the middle of confirming it. Just curious to see what others are actually experiencing because of this.

[scottb]

Those policies that are 10.9.x compliant seem to work, but we've only done limited tests so far.
We have some that are older and need to be fixed, but that's not the JSS' fault.
FWIW, although the process is "not responding" it never seems to peg CPU or cause any grief that we've seen. So far.

[bog]

JSS 9.22
OS 10.9.1
Still see jamfAgent (Not Responding)

Client still checks in fine and all policies run fine. I only have a few clients on 10.9.1 some have this and some don't. I haven't seen any problems related to this.

[bog]

Enrolling using the Recon app cleared the "Not Responding" message on my client.

[donmontalvo]

@bog I wonder if it stays that way after a reboot?

[bog]

@donmontalvo after restart jamfAgent is running fine. No "Not Responding".

[njwinter]

+1 - I'm also seeing this on 10.9.1 with Casper 8.7.3.

[jbestine]

Seeing this on All machines running Mavericks. We also recently upgraded to Casper 9.2.2. Mavericks issue?

[thoughton]

Seeing this too on:
OS 10.9.1
JSS: 9.21

However, we are running into an issue where computers are not running login policies, and I'm wondering if it's because of the agent "not responding." Anyone else having policy trouble in 10.9.1?

[jhbush]

thoughton, I'm seeing this as well on:

OS 10.9.1
JSS: 9.22

No sign that policies aren't executing yet. I chose to use a script/launch agent that grabs the jamfAgent process and kills it periodically until Apple/JAMF fixes things.

[JimAllsop]

+1 10.9 10.9.1 on jss 9.2.1 saw it on jss 9.22 and as well as today on Jss9.23

[John_Wetter]

@thoughton, 10.9.1 here and 9.23, no issues though that piece is still showing as not responding. We've seen no negative impact.

[donmontalvo]

Thanks for all the responses. There doesn't appear to be any issue with this, but who knows. Sometimes an issue exists that isn't really effecting anyone, and then we see it in the release notes of the next version. Good to know it's not just us this is happening to. We tested on 10.9.1 / 9.23 and are also still seeing it. Spurious error I suppose (or hope). :)

[armando]

We are still seeing this issue in 10.9.2 JSS 8.73.

[tomt]

Confirming Armando's post, I'm also seeing this on 10.9.2 with JSS 8.73.

[tomt]

I also noticed that my Self Service policies don't actually run until I have force quit the jamfAgent (if it is in the "Not Responding" state). I click on an SS policy and the progress bar just zips across but nothing actually happens.

This could be a deal breaker on moving my users to Mavericks. Is there any further response from Apple on getting their bug resolved? Any workarounds we can use in the meantime?

[tnielsen]

On Mavericks 9.2 base image, this is still occurring. Casper Suite 9.3 as well.

[were_wulff]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the updates in this thread!

This one is actually something we have our own defect (D-005179) open for, as well as an Apple RADAR (15251157).

It’s an issue between Mavericks and the jamfAgent. We use AppKit within the jamfAgent, and the OS treats it like a GUI app; therefore the jamfAgent becomes subject to Not Responding status in Activity Monitor.

The end result is that Activity Monitor incorrectly shows that the jamfAgent process is not responding.

Our defect is still open, and our devs are tracking the Apple RADAR bug as well, while they work on a fix for it.

If you have any additional questions regarding this, it would be best to reach out to your Technical Account Manager so we can get it documented and tracked from our end.

Thanks!
Amanda Wulff
JAMF Software Support

[sauer]

I just upgraded to the preview for 10.9.3 and I am having this problem. I don't know if I had it prior. Restarting didn't help nor did quitting the process.

jamfAgent (Not Responding) 3.4MB 4 threads 66 ports PID: 444 user: root

jamf itself runs separately in the black with 4.6 MB 4 threads and 67 ports PID 102 user: root

update:

I quit the process after another restart and it stayed black for the first time—for about a minute, starting with two threads. It then went up to 4 and then back down to 2. Then it went back to 4 and turned red (not responding).

[mrowell]

@sauer

This is still mentioned in the 9.25 release notes as a Known Issue with OS X v10.9.

My 10.9.2 machine exhibits the issue with Casper 9.25

[Vann]

Quick update as it doesn't seem like anyone posted any details about the effects of this issue.

I'm at a large org (NDA can't say where ) using Casper and I'm having issues moving files from local directories. Particularly using the command line seems to be an issue. Seemingly simple commands like cp and mv start moving files, hang, and then you can see the jamfagent 'not responding' in the activity monitor.

[were_wulff]

Hi @Vann ,

I did actually post an update to this back on 4/1in this thread, but for reference, I'll paste it again here:

This one is actually something we have our own defect (D-005179) open for, as well as an Apple RADAR (15251157). It’s an issue between Mavericks and the jamfAgent. We use AppKit within the jamfAgent, and the OS treats it like a GUI app; therefore the jamfAgent becomes subject to Not Responding status in Activity Monitor. The end result is that Activity Monitor incorrectly shows that the jamfAgent process is not responding. Our defect is still open, and our devs are tracking the Apple RADAR bug as well, while they work on a fix for it. If you have any additional questions regarding this, it would be best to reach out to your Technical Account Manager so we can get it documented and tracked from our end.

The only effects we've found in testing are that it shows up as not responding when it should not, and that is due to an issue with OS X, for which there is an open RADAR.
Some users have noticed that Self Service policies seem to not run until the process is killed and allowed to respawn, but we have not been able to reproduce that in house.

The jamfAgent not responding is likely a coincidence to the other issues you're experiencing, and I'd recommend getting in contact with your Technical Account Manager to dig in deeper.

You can do that by sending an e-mail to support@jamfsoftware.com, giving our support line a call, or using the My Support section of JAMF Nation.

Thanks!

Amanda Wulff
JAMF Software Support

[Vann]

Thanks Amanda. I'll keep note of the issue and see if it keeps cropping up. Is there any way that I could conclusively test my hypothesis that the jamfagent may be preventing the file movement?

[were_wulff]

Hey @Vann ,

The easiest way I can think of to test would be to take a machine that is not being managed by the JSS and try the same sets of commands to see if the behavior appears.

If we don't have a machine that's currently unmanaged, we can unmanage a test machine by running a sudo jamf removeFramework in terminal and rebooting.

If the behavior doesn't reappear, it's not a guarantee that it's the jamfAgent process as there may be other things going on after a computer is enrolled into the JSS (policies, scripts, MCX settings, config profile settings, etc...) that could cause strange behavior, but it can at least help with narrowing it down.

I do know in 10.9.x there are some issues with AFP that can cause incredibly slow-to-the-point-of-unusable file transfers between shares, and that is a known issue with Mavericks that tends to be (unfortunately) intermittent, so that may be another thing to look into if the computers that are showing symptoms are also running Mavericks and we're attempting to copy across network shares.

If it's local copying, the best next place to look would be in the system.log on an affected computer; there may be helpful info or errors in there. I know it sounds a bit silly, but usually one of the first things I do when one of my Macs starts acting up oddly like that, especially when trying to move things between local folders, access settings, or just plain seeming 'off', is to run a quick disk permissions repair and see if it clears it up.

If we're still seeing the behavior after all of that, we'd want to start looking at the system.log and jamf.log from an affected machine as well as the JAMFSoftwareServer.log from the server; those are things we'd want to send in to your Technical Account Manager on a case if it moves on to that point. These would be three files we'd want to send over with a case, though our ticket e-mail system will reject files over 10MB in size; if your log files are larger in size (combined or singly), just ask, in the ticket, for your Technical Account Manager to send instructions to you on how to send us larger files and they'll be able to get that going for you.

If you do open up a case, please feel free to reference this JAMF Nation thread in the e-mail; the more information your Technical Account Manager has to start with, the better.

Thanks!

Amanda Wulff
JAMF Software Support

[scottb]

@amanda.wulff: Has there been any progress on this? Every time a desktop analyst has an issue with a Mac, they send us a screenshot of the jamfAgent in Activity Monitor and want to blame this. I send out the info you posted on the Apple Radar report and let them know it's not related, but it would be nice to have this one go away.

Thanks,
Scott