Cannot Mount Distribution Point

[Michael_mowery]

I am running a Windows 2008r2 Server to host my JSS, I have setup a CasperShare based around this article... https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=325

When I open up Casper Admin it tries to connect to the share but says it cannot mount distribution point..

So I went to mount it manually on my Macbook Air and I can mount the share just fine with both my read and my write account. I have triple checked the username and password settings in the JSS. Everything should be working as far as I can tell.

[scottb]

Are you sure the Mount point is not already mounted when you launch Admin? Casper is funny (not haha) sometimes. Unmount it first if so.
If you have a policy running and open Self Service let's say, then try to install something, it will give you that error too instead of realizing it's already mounted and usable.
Probably good reasons for this stuff, but it does frustrate...
Also check your Kerby tickets - there are some flukey behaviors if you're on AD that you have to jump through at times...

[Michael_mowery]

@boettchs Yep I've checked that one as well to be sure. Even leave the finder window open to make sure that something goofy doesn't happen. We aren't currently using AD, but I will check the event logs to be sure there isn't anything there.

[scottb]

Double check your SMB/AFP settings on the JSS - ports and all under the Server/File Sharing tabs... Are your shares listed with FQDN in there as well?

[pat_best]

Just to clarify, does your casper admin login account have access to the file share?

[Michael_mowery]

@boettchs I changed port 139 to 445 to see if that helped, but it didn't, the share is just listed as caspershare. It also shows the correct path in the loading window for casper admin.

@pat.best Yep, I was able to mount with the credentials with no issue

[pat_best]

Sorry to ask a question you might think is too basic: It sounds like your file share is working normally so the next step would be to check the distribution point entry in the JSS, it looks like you have done this as well. The last piece is making sure your JSS has user accounts created (or in LDAP) that have access to be able to use Casper Admin. I would assume you at least have a local admin account created in the JSS in order to make changes. Have you tried using that account to access Casper Admin? If you are using an LDAP account, you would also need to set permissions for the added user accounts. Are you trying to use casper admin by logging in with your read/write file share account or an account created in the JSS?

[Sean_Ginn]

Would you do me a favor and try something. We are running into the same issue, and I think it has to do with Kerberos tickets.

In Terminal try, running sudo kdestroy -a

[nessts]

root should never have a kerberos ticket, kdestroy only makes sense in the user context so sudo is not needed.

[Michael_mowery]

@pat.best I sign in to casper admin with my jss credentials. We are using local accounts, we do not use any sort of LDAP at the moment. external image link
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@Sean_Ginn We aren't using LDAP or AD currently.

[scottb · Accepted solution]

I wonder what would happen if you got rid of the spaces in the account names? You'd have to configure them all over, but it might be worth a try - all of our accounts are AD, so I might be full of it.
A shot in the dark, but spaces tend to make more problems than they solve...

[Michael_mowery]

@boettchs Spaces did it for me. Gah all the little things. I really appreciate your help boettchs!

[scottb]

@Michael.mowery: Glad to hear it! This stuff can be maddening, and having another eye (I'm not good enough at Casper yet to be a pair yet) look at things can sometimes do the trick. Glad you got it sorted out.

[dvasquez]

I am having a very similar issue. I have no spaces in my account names and I am using AD groups to handle access. My SMB Casper share is a few folders deep. But it had been working up until a hard Casper Admin crash while replicating to the SMB share two days ago. Now nothing I can do seems to allow mount from Casper Admin. The one thing that confuses me is it will mount just fine on any Mac system using the username and credentials set in the JSS.

Example: smb://10.63.19.122/data/AUS/Casper/ (works perfect on the my systems)

Example: smb://10.63.19.122/data/AUS/Casper/ (works perfect on the my systems)

[scottb]

@dvasquez][/url - did you put in IP addresses into the JSS/Distribution points?
Before we did that, we could mount everything fine too - except in Self Service.

*Edit - the above issue was seen after we upgraded to 9.65.

[msample]

I had this problem a few months ago, so to insure that the distribution point is reachable make sure the caspershare is at the root of the drive. So within the c:/ drive, create your "caspershare" folder and sometimes I've heard others say that creating a second folder called "shared items" works also. Second point, make sure you have one "read" account, and a "read-write" account...both should be permissioned/enabled for sharing. Launch the Casper Image app, and map back to your casper server https://10.xx.xx.xx:8443. When prompted through the Casper Image app, authenticate with your credentials that have been configured as the primary administrator account on the server and the distribution point should mount. Hope that makes sense.

Of course I setup my casper server on a Mac Pro, instead of a windows box -but it will work on a windows box also.

[RobertHammen]

Besides avoiding any spaces in the account names, JAMF Support also suggests not using $ : or / (that's dollar-sign, colon, or slash) in the account passwords (as they are stored in a MySQL database and those are typically special characters there).

Back to @dvasquez's issue - not sure if the server has been bounced since the Casper Admin crash. If so, and you're still having issues, try deleting (after documenting) and re-adding the Distribution Point. If that still fails, substitute the IP address for the DNS name of the server. If that continues to fail, time to contact JAMF Support...

[dvasquez]

Thanks everyone. Well I have substituted the IP for the FQDN in the JSS. I have verified accounts and credentials from the server end and tested and tested mount on Mac and Windows and all mounts perfect and current credentials work great. I have not bounced my JSS. I might do that Sunday. I have contacted Support but wanted to reach out in the Nation as well. I am going to try some of what msample mentioned from the Windows server end. I have only an underscore in the account name and the password is straight-up simple, nothing fancy. I will work on a combination of things starting Sunday. I also had not tried to access the share from Casper Imaging as mentioned above. I will try that after moving the share to the root.

I will follow-up.

[RobertHammen]

I had a client that had a service account "svc_jsscasper" and we couldn't mount the DP intermittently. Removed the underscore and it's worked perfectly since then. So you might want to try that, too.

[dvasquez]

Hello everyone.

This was a little work but moving the share folder to the root fixed the issues I was having. Removing the underscore in the service account username made no difference. I am also using the IP and not the FQDN. I am replicating now to my AUS folder. This was definitely weird and took some time to troubleshoot. I am grateful for all your suggestions and help.

Syntax: SMB://serverIP/CasperShare/
JSS: 9.63
Server: 2008R2

[msample]

@ dvasquez --glad to hear you had success with the IP and moving the primary distribution folder to the root, Dominic. That was the best resolution for me. -Cheers, msample.