JSS Server Connection Dropping

[jrosenbaum]

We recently set up a JSS Server on an Apple Xserve Running OS X 10.8.4 Server and the JSS version is 8.71. The server is connected to Active Directory. The issue we have it that the web console we use becomes unavailable multiple time a day. The server itself is still running, but the JSS seems to stop responding. the only fix we have currently is to reboot the server. Does any one have any idea where I can start to look to see why the JSS connection is dropping? Thank you for reading this and for your assistance.

[mm2270]

The most likely cause of these things is an issue with Tomcat, since that's what controls most of the web UI and access to it. Its usually not necessary to do a full reboot of the server to kick Tomcat and get it going again.

See this KB article for instructions on restarting Tomcat.
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=117

If you do that and it fixes the issue (until it happens again) then a configuration on the JSS probably needs to be adjusted. possibly not enough memory allocated to Tomcat. You can take a look at this KB article then, but you may also want to throw this one to your JAMF account rep to have them help. I wouldn't just start allocating a bunch more memory to Tomcat without investigating a little further.
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=139

[bentoms]

It sounds like a resorucing issue, especially with Tomcat

Can you try & allocate more RAM via the JSS Util

[jrosenbaum]

Awesome. I will give both of these options a try and report back. Thank you both for your replies.

[jrosenbaum · Accepted solution]

My apologies for the delays in response, but regrettably neither of these items have helped. Now when the connection drops I cannot even remote into the Apple Server. I am going to rebuild the server and see if that fixes the issue since it seems now that the issue is more than just Casper. Thank you.

[jmonahan]

I'm having a similar issue and when I check activity monitor java is using 400-500% of the CPU. This is only after I try to install a MDM profile for 30 iPads.. If it's one it only goes to 100-200% while installing the profile. Then it times out...

[Chris_Hafner]

Interesting. I am also having similar issues running OS X 10.8.5 "Server" with JSS 9.12. Nothing is hitting my processor or RAM heavily (allocated 2GB to Tomcat and it's using 200-300MB's). What's really happening is that port 8443 is getting shutdown on my side. All the other ports required work perfectly. I haven't tried bringing the JSS over to 9006 or 8080 to verify and I probably won't. I wonder if there's something going on with Tomcat/Java. I'm going to be focusing on this today!

[Chris_Hafner]

Lot's of things like [ERROR] [Tomcat-12 ] [lientCommunicationServlet] - Error processing communication content - java.lang.NullPointerException

[sskelton68]

I am having the same issue. I have been talking to Jamf support and they know about the issue. They said it should be fixed in the next release and were looking into other things to try in the mean time.

[Chris_Hafner]

... how does one type in a *face palm*. You know, I feel for the support crew over at JAMF> I can only imagine how much this has to be causing some sleepless nights. So far (crossing fingers) I've been throwing everything I've got at mucking with Java in hopes of holding this off.

Are you loosing access via port 8443 as well or just getting the errors?

[jrosenbaum]

I personally lose access on port 8443, but then I cannot even ARD or VNC into the OS X Server. I have no choice but to reboot the whole server. So I think I need to rebuild the server. The person who set it up just repurposed an old server so I don't know the history of it. Better to start from scratch IMHO.

[Chris_Hafner]

Yep, bummer. Sounds like a rebuild will do you good. On the other hand, I rebuilt the JSS last night (now our 10.8.5 "server" is completely play-skool certified). The big issue is just loosing comm on 8443 at the moment. I've tried to force the system to JRE 1.7 (though the apple update still fights back with 1.6 JRE). Been working down that road of thought. We're still getting NullPointerException errors but the web app is still running. Recon is another ball game all together.

[Chris_Hafner]

OK... did a few things, still getting plenty of errors in the log, but I haven't yet lost 8443 (since this morning). Here's what I did.

1) Increased PermGen max size to 256 (not that I was getting permgen errors, but JAMF support suggested it)
2) Installed Java JRE 7 as stated above but also ran:
ln -sf /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/javaws /usr/bin/javaws

to try and force Java 1.7

I'm not recommending that any of you try this. I'm not even claiming that this has fixed the issue for me (it hasn't solved the issue regardless) but the JSS is performing better in my particular environment).

FYI

[Chris_Hafner]

OK, after those items mentioned in my last post I've not lost connection via 8443 since. I am, however, experiencing a large volume of disconnects between client machines running a policy and the DP they are sharing from. I will continue to troubleshoot that this morning. Yee Haw folks. I think I need a cowboy hat wrangling all these critters. (We still have major profile issues to sort out afterwords!)

[Chris_Hafner]

OK... it seems as though the disappearing file shares have something to do with Apple being a complete tool and somehow forgetting that bonded ethernet pairs are useful. In other words, I upgraded the Mac servers to 10.8.x and the new version of server.app and, apparently, it doens't know what to do with bonded ethernet pairs so, essentially, it doesn't allow server.app itself to use them. The OS is just fine with it otherwise... grrr... why can't I just have one problem at a time. At least my experimental mobile DP drives are working well.

P.S. It's also looking like it was the build up of logging is the likely culprit of my original issue (losing 8443 connectivity).