Casper causing delayed logins, logouts on laptops off "home" network.

[taugust04]

Hello list friends,

I'm starting to see some issues with users where laptops are having extended login times and logout times when the laptop is located off campus. Sometimes the delay can be up to 10 or 15 minutes according to my users. I checked the logs and it looks like the laptop can't find the jamf server, so it keeps "banging away" until it gives up.

I haven't found any settings I should adjust on the server in the documentation. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

-- Ted August
Salve Regina University

[taugust04]

Hi Steve,

We're not using any type of authentication on our laptops. They have only local accounts. I'm also not managing any preferences with Open Directory or Casper (yet). Would I see these issues even if I'm not using these authentication methods on our laptops?

I'm actually seeing Casper making entries in the logs in regards to not finding the server, so I'm pretty sure it's the culprit. Is there a way to get it to time out more quickly if it can't reach the server.

Thanks,

-Ted

[ernstcs]

I wonder if it's related to DNS. Can you resolve the DNS pointer to your JSS
from the external network, but can't access the JSS web server from the
external network? I'd say if you don't intend to allow access to the JSS
from an external network, don't publish the DNS for it out to the public and
keep it on an internal DNS system. Perhaps if it can't resolve the JSS IP
through DNS it will fail quickly instead of trying continually until a time
out...

Official answer: I have no idea why...

[tlarkin]

I would check the following:

1) Your framework settings, and how often the client is set to check in and at what frequency.

2) Any cached policies that may be set to run 'off line'

3) any and all start up and log in policies that are set to run as ongoing.

4) The frequency at which you update inventory from the client (recon)

Something is trying to peg the JSS and it isn't there and it keeps doing it. Got any every 15 or every 30 policy running as ongoing?

---

Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
blackberry: 913-449-7589
office: 913-627-0351
chown -R us /.base

[stevewood]

When I have seen this here, it has been because of LDAP authentication and
not because of JAMF. We use OD to authenticate and what I've basically had
to do was to use DHCP to push OD settings to the laptop users and not bind
them to the directory. So, rather than hard code the OD server into the
Directory Utility, I just place a check in the DHCP check box to get LDAP
settings.

Doing that decreased our login times considerably.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475
Sent from Dallas, TX, United States

[#6]

Hi
I had the same issue
At the end I enable external DNS for my server and opened the 8443 port
And since then no issues

I already contacted Jamf with this problem and they had no easy way to decrease the time the jamf daemon takes trying to reach the JSS server
Cheers

Carmelo Lopez Portilla

Embl Heidelberg
IT Support

Please consider the enviroment before printing this e-mail.

[RobertHammen]

Check your Management Framework Settings - is "Perform Login actions in Background" checked? I had this problem once at a site where this wasn't checked, and machines would just sit chugging at login/logout...
On Jan 28, 2010, at 1:13 PM, Ted August wrote:

Are you running v7.1?

[taugust04]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions on troubleshooting. I am running version 7.1. I am going to check all my settings on the JSS that have been recommended tomorrow and report back.

-- Ted August
Salve Regina University

[#9]

I put in a feature request long ago with Jamf asking for either a timeout on the "trying to find the jamf software server" or have it just give up after 3 attempts or so.

I have no idea how long it's going to take to get this to happen, but we can hope.

Ryan Harter
UW - Stevens Point
Workstation Developer
715.346.2716