Distribution point hierarchies - which one is best?

[nzmacgeek]

Reaching out to my brethren across the world regarding the use of JDS here...

I'm looking at weighing up which service I should use for the master distribution point in our setup. The two options are the classic file share distribution point (for which we would leverage Samba for the master), or a JDS (as in, all DPs are JDS, including the master). We are using RHEL 6 for all servers in our Casper rig, and I am aiming to have the simplest setup as possible. We've got three servers earmarked as distribution nodes, so again, one of those nodes will be either running Samba or JDS. Which should I choose?!

I'd really like to get some feedback from the community regarding this, and ask the question: is anyone operating a solely-JDS-based distribution setup?

[chriscollins]

If you are planning to use NetBoot based imaging than you really don't have a choice at the moment. There is a known issue with using a JDS distribution point with NetBoot.

[Josh_S]

The only bug I am aware of with regard to NetBoot based imaging is that Casper Imaging doesn't choose the "closest" JDS (according to subnets), but instead defaults to the "root" JDS. Is there another bug? while annoying and, depending on the infrastructure, might be a serious impact, I wouldn't say you "don't have a choice".

That said, if your infrastructure is very distributed, and it's difficult to implement chances with regard to changing default settings, you might want to stick with a few "old style" distribution points.

[chriscollins]

Hey, @Josh_S there is another much more serious bug acknowledged by JAMF with NetBoot imaging on 9.22 that makes restoring a block level base OS image and/or large amounts of packages for thin imaging almost impossible to do without failing.

Here's my post on it for details: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=9538

Long story short is I was told explicitly by JAMF to not use a JDS with a netboot based imaging and to use an AFP based distribution point instead. So I currently have if set up as both so once the bug is fixed we can move back to using the JDS as we need the bandwidth throttling capabilities of the JDS for site to site package replication.