Casper imaging can't mount distribution point, but I can mount distribution point with mount command

[jbarnes]

I'm running into a weird issue where my 9.65 netboot image's version of the Casper Imaging client can't see my SMB Distribution point, but I can happily mount it from a terminal with mount -t smbfs.

I don't see any errors in Console

When I mount it from the terminal, I can even use that mount point to pull the image down, as it becomes available from "Choose Local Drive" in the "Distribution Point" select box.

I've verified the password is correct in the JSS, anyone have any ideas?

[stutz]

Ran into the same issue. In order for my client to run any workflow in Casper Imaging I had to mount the DP first by connecting to server. After doing that I was able to image just fine. Later found out that my "Workgroup or Domain" (under File Sharing tab in the Distribution Point settings) section was wrong. When I corrected it Casper Imaging worked without manually mounting the DP first.

I don't know if this is the same issue your having but it sounds pretty similar to mine.

[thanzig]

Had same issue. Reverted back to a previous Netboot with Casper Imaging 9.6.3 and it worked. Either something wrong with my new netboot image or 9.6.5 not communicating with my JSS properly.

[jbarnes]

This is the first Netboot image I've created in the 9.6 series -- our old netboot image is 8.73. Mounting the drive manually before imaging is not an option for us.

Our workgroup/domain seems fine. I can mount via the command line in in finder via cmd-k. We can't use AFP, only SMB. It's very odd. I've been stuck on this for hours. I have no idea what is happening. The jamf log shows no useful information whatsoever:

"There was an error mounting the file server . Giving up"

Hey great.

[mikethompsett]

This seems to be the same for our system too, more bugs...?

[jbarnes]

mike, is your netboot image 10.10.2?

[thanzig]

We fixed our issue with 9.6.5 by deleting and re-adding the Casper Read/Write and Read only users on our OS X server and then deleting and re-adding the Distribution Point in the JSS. We could manually mount our SMB CasperShare but Casper Admin and Imaging would not so it seemed to be an authentication issue with the apps and the JSS. Flushing the users server side and redoing the Distribution point in JSS fixed it for us.

[jbarnes]

That doesn't seem to be working for me. At least, deleting and re-adding the distribution point. Our casper share is actually on a Windows file server using SMB, so the accounts for read and read/write are domain resource accounts. I haven't deleted and recreated them but am not sure why that might fix something.

Still stumped.

[jgrubbs]

We are having a similar issue with 9.6.5. Casper Admin cannot mount the Distribution Point using 9.6.5, but if we downgrade to 9.6.3, it opens and mounts without a problem. OTP with support now, but they are stumped.

Edit - We did delete the distribution point in JSS and resetting the permissions on the folder. Clearly this is an issue with 9.6.5

[dmw3]

Same here, had to recreate the accounts for the JDS then worked fine with 9.65

One note we had to enable WebDav first then connect, then enable SMB.

[Josh_Smith]

It sounds like some of you are indicating this is a 9.65 issue, so the following may not apply to you, but I have seen something similar recently so I thought I'd pass it on:

Configuration: SMB shares, AD domain accounts for read and write service accounts.

Issue: Casper Admin/Remote/Imaging could not mount the SMB shares when the Mac was not joined to the domain (as in the netboot situation mentioned above). I could mount the shares using 'Connect to Server' in the Finder regardless of the domain binding---the windows logs showed that the OS mounted the share using Kerberos while jamf tried to use NTLM...so there is some difference in how the share is being mounted.

Solution: Modify the userWorkstations value on the service accounts. This prevented the accounts from mounting SMB shares on servers that aren't explicitly listed in that attribute. You can add your server names, or remove the attribute so the account can login anywhere. You can view the Attribute using ADSI Edit to confirm this is your issue. More info on this attribute: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms680868(v=vs.85).aspx

[jgrubbs]

@dmw3 Can you go into detail on how you created new accounts for the JDS? I can't seem to find where to do that?

[RobertHammen]

I'm wondering if this behavior for users who have upgraded to 9.65 is a known issue/defect, or is a side effect of a database schema change, and deleting/re-adding JDSes and Distribution Points works around it.

@amanda.wulff? Anyone else from JAMF care to chime in? I've put the brakes on any thoughts of upgrading client JSSes to 9.65 until more details are known on this.

[were_wulff]

@RobertHammen

I’ve seen a small handful of cases in which Casper Admin had trouble mounting the Master distribution point (AFP, SMB, or JDS) after updating to 9.65, however, in each case the underlying cause was always different so it doesn’t seem to be a case of one specific thing that’s causing it to happen.

If it’s something anyone here is running into in your test environment or in your production environment, please get in touch with your Technical Account Manager so they can look at it in a bit more detail.

Thanks!
Amanda Wulff
JAMF Software Support

[jgrubbs]

Update - our issue was resolved. Our rep determined there is an issue with special characters in password. We created new accounts for our Distribution Point and were finally able to mount the share and open Casper Admin.

[bentoms]

I've only tested Imaging 9.65 with a 9.63 JSS, but worked fine mounting an AFP volume.

Only special character present was "@" though

[scottb]

We are having all sorts of issues.
Casper remote crashes.
Can't install anything from Self Service.
What a bloody mess...

[scottb]

Looks like it's issues with mounting SMB shares here as well. No word from anyone yet at JAMF, but we've found the DP's are not mounting and it looks as if the CasperShare are mounting in some cases then phantom instances remaining which keep Self Service from running. Even running policies in verbose mode show the issue. Mounting any of the DP's in the Finder works fine though...

It's the same result as if you have a policy set to run at login.
When the policy is running and you launch Self Service, you get errors on installs as the CasperShare is already mounted. So it seems like 9.65 is not properly unmounting and releasing the CasperShare volumes. In for a world of hurt come Monday...

[erikstam]

SMB share issues here too. When running a policy from the Self Service, Self Service is unable to mount our "CasperShare". ( Right after updating to JSS 9.65 )

[scottb]

@erikstam, et al...
Try changing the DP to IP address instead of DNS.
So far:

IP address on DP:
Install apps via Self Service – OK
Quit Self Service, install more apps – OK
Reboot client Mac (no change to server):
Install apps via Self Service – OK
Quit Self Service, install more apps – OK
Change DP back to DNS:
Install apps via Self Service – fails
Quit Self Service, install more apps – fails
Change back to IP:
Install apps via Self Service – OK
Quit Self Service, install more apps – OK

Give it a shot. So far, so good...testing Imaging now.

Scott

[scottb]

Defect logged with JAMF: D-008630

*EDITED after @amanda.wulff comments below:

I should have stated it was added to this defect, so I apologize. I've been running nuts trying to fix this for our client...

[jrippy]

I assume it's related but my Casper Admin also will not mount the share. I haven't tried changing it to IP based yet.

[were_wulff]

Hey all,

Just to elaborate a bit on @boettchs ‘ comments a little:

D-008630 does require a slightly specific set of circumstances to be the root cause of Admin being unable to mount a share.

With D-008630 the behavior we see is that Casper Admin 9.65 will not mount an SMB share that has a / in the server host name.

If this situation describes how your SMB distribution point is named, one workaround we have at the moment is to replace the server’s name with the IP address instead and it should work, which is what @boettchs mentioned further up the thread.

If you have additional questions, are seeing something different, or are not using an SMB share point, please open up a case with your Technical Account Manager if you have not already done so, so we can troubleshoot the issue further and determine what the underlying cause is.

Additionally, if you have an ongoing case about this issue and find that your situation does fall under the situation described in D-008630, please let your Technical Account Manager know so we can be sure to get your existing case attached to the defect for tracking.

Thanks!
Amanda Wulff
JAMF Software Support

[RobertHammen]

Also note, besides the / in the server host name being an issue, never use $ : or / in a password for an account to mount the share (i.e. casperadmin/casperinstall).

[jreinstedler]

Adding my name to the list - since upgrading to 9.65, Casper Admin believes it cannot mount CasperShare for replication... but as others mentioned, the mount point sets up behind the scenes (seen with "mount") and remains there until "umount"ed.

No special characters in passwords, changed to IP instead of hostname, no help.

I flipped back to Casper Admin 9.63 and no problems :(

[RobertHammen]

Other suggested solution was to document the DP settings, then delete it and re-add it, but yeah, *something* is broken with 9.65, apparently.

[philburk]

We haven't encountered this issue with Imaging but we are having a related issue mounting DPs when replicating after upgrading to 9.65. Casper Admin is able to mount the Master DP but some of our DPs fail at mounting attempt. Upon monitoring the /Volumes directory on multiple clients running Casper Admin I noticed that the mount point appears to be created and the share is mounted but Casper Admin fails with the same error as the OP.

These issues are related. After changing the problem DPs address from hostname to IP in the JSS replication will work.

[jrippy]

As another data point, I was having issues. Luckily we were about to deploy a new JDS anyway. Once the JDS was set up, I verified that it was communicating with the JSS. I already had a cache of the packages on a hard drive so I copied those over and did an inventory. No problems connecting to it. Switched it to the master and it has been 100% stable for the past week. This was a completely clean installed starting with 10.10.2 and JDS 9.65. Our old JDS is currently offline. I do intend to wipe it out and start fresh on it as well to see if there are any replication issues.

[Kirby]

Taking $ out of the password fixed mine.

[JSOTO]

Removing the $ from the password solves the problem.

[jreinstedler]

Removing special characters from passwords is a known workaround for previous versions, however in my (and others') case(s), I have already done this and still have the mount issues. For now, I am using the 9.63 app as it works fine with my 9.65 JSS.

[leegalan]

We have special characters in our passwords other than / $ and :

We are still having issues mounting the distribution point. It seems like it mounts but then it has problems unmounting the volume for the DP. So the next time you try to mount the DP, it would fail.

For those having issues mounting your DP, can you check to see if you have that volume showing up when you run the following command from terminal:

sudo ls -al /Volumes/

[erikstam]

Changing the special characters in the password (in my case the "@") and using the IP address instead of the FQDN "solved" the "can't mount DP" for me.

[snovak]

Well this is kind of frustrating, I just setup a distribution point in DFS to test AutoDMG only to find out the 9.63 doesn't perform block copying, and now 9.65 won't mount the SMB correctly in netboot!

I'll have to take a look at this during this week.

[leegalan]

We were able to get it to work by using the IP instead of the FDQN. Removing special characters didn't stop the unmounting issue.

[leegalan]

Has anyone had any issues mounting DP with 9.7?

[jyergatian]

I'm using 9.7 and having no issues mounting my JDS instances from an AutoCasperNBI. I've tested our OS X and RHEL7 JDS instances. Passwords are beyond me - I've kept the random passwords generated at install.

[nwiseman]

Recently setup a new 9.72 JSS with Windows SMB DP's. Seeing the same phantom mounts that "Fail" to mount then we have to manually unmount and then try again and sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't

Not seeing this issue on a 9.63 that was being used on the same network.

Anyone ever find anything on this?

[Josh_Smith]

See if this applies to your situation....this prevented me from upgrading production from 9.63 to 9.72: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=14233#responseChild89283

[bsuggett]

Hi All

For those using Windows DP's

@Suggett Re: Could not mount distribution point
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=10178