#JNUC: Distributing Distribution Points

[Grant_Klingbeil]

Chad Nielsen and Will Pierce will be our panel for this session on Thursday, Oct 25 at 9:00am.
McGuire Proscenium Stage (Level 4)

For everyone who will be in the audience (and everyone who would like to but can't make it), let's use this thread to collect thoughts/ideas/links/questions in regards to Distribution Points.

[Lhsachs]

The issue we have here is how long it takes to synch the files between the servers – especially copying the large files to the servers on the other side of the world.

Due to the work day time differences, and the fact that you don’t want to be pushing files while replicating – especially the large OS files - that may take hours to synch, the means to keep operating and copying the files to the servers on the other side of the world is to use a secondary local Replica Distribution point. The local secondary will sych rapidly to the Master distribution point. To synch the other servers around the world:
1. Log into the secondary server using ‘Apple Remote Desktop.’
2. Navigate to the /Shared Items/CasperShare/Packages folder
3. Mount the FileShare you want to copy to:
a. For the distribution points on windows VMs smb://servername/CasperShare/Packages and log in with the casperadmin read/write account and password b. For distribution points on a Mac afp://servername/CasperShare/Packages and log in with an admin account on the server
4. Copy the files from the local server to the distant one
5. Other packages can be pushed via policy or with Casper Remote while these other files are copied - just be aware if you need to disable policies.
6. When you replicate after copying the files up - the replication process will be quick!

Presently looking at the choices for automating the work flows of copying to our world wide servers.

Want to hear more from others regarding this - since I'm not making it to jamf nation this year...

[david_yenzer]

We are still working on getting an external distribution point configured.

[clifhirtle]

Is there any built-in replication for moving from first JSS or DPs to additional? Most only mentioning custom scripts they have setup for this. The free DeployStudio solution bakes this right in out of the box.

[Grant_Klingbeil]

@clifhirtle, could you be a little more specific as to what you are looking for? Are you looking to replicate the whole server or just the CasperShare?

If the CasperShare, are you looking to have it create one on the additional DP, or copy the files over to an already existing/setup CasperShare on the additional DP?

[clifhirtle]

@Grant: Just starting with our Casper rollout. Just 1 JSS, 1 DP. We have international sites so looking at next steps for ensuring different sites can leverages installs efficiently. Due to network constraints, leveraged the replication to external HDs, which we would not see scaling if/when we rollout additional site-specific DPs. Attended the scaling session yesterday but was entirely on the other side: load-balanced, multi-tiered, etc. Just trying to determine next logical steps from moving beyond initial 1 site -> 2-3 sites, absent someone manually clicking a "replicate" button to ensure sites have synced content. An option to set automatic 3AM replications between master and slave shares (as integrated with DSS) would be ideal. Does this exist or is that a custom robocopy or script rollout?

[quedayone]

We had a request for the Robocopy script we are using to sync our distribution points.
This is the script JSS_Sync.bat

robocopy j:localShareName \server.domain.come$OtherShareName /MIR /SEC /W:1 /R:1

Place it in C:Scripts
Then we use task scheduler to trigger at 9pm every day.
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Let me know if you have any questions!

Wi11

[Kumarasinghe]

We use Windows Task Scheduler with a PowerShell script which scans the Robocopy log and emails the result indicating the replication is successful or not.

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=4127#responseChild24180