NetBoot/SUS Appliance Updated to 1.02

[eric_krause]

We have posted an update to the NetSUS Appliance OVA that is now available for download at: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/viewProduct.html?id=180

The following updates and fixes are included in the update:

• Increased the NetSUS Appliance default disk size to 200G
• Fixed an issue with scheduled syncing not completing
• Added Australian time zones (thanks to rickgmac)
• Added Root Branch support for the Mountain Lion Software Update catalog
• Updated reposado
• Fixed NetBooting across subnets when holding the N key (the NetBoot image may still not show in the System Preferences Startup pane across subnets depending on network configuration)

For those who already have the NetSUS Appliance deployed and would like the NetBoot fix we have posted the binary for download at:
https://github.com/downloads/jamf/NetSUS/dhcpd

After downloading the file you can stop the NetBoot service, put the new dhcpd file in place, and start dhcpd again.

1. sudo killall dhcpd
2. copy the new binary to /usr/local/sbin/
3. sudo /usr/local/sbin/dhcpd

Any other update you would like to implement in an existing environment can be done by visiting https://github.com/jamf/NetSUS/commits/master to see the code changes.

We would like your feedback on the usefulness of the appliance and what components you are able to take advantage of. We look forward to the continued participation and community support that has taken place around the NetSUS Appliance.

[ernstcs]

Thanks for your work on this, Krause!

[mm2270]

Sweet! thanks Eric. Glad to see the appliance get some love.

One question - regarding the point - Fixed an issue with scheduled syncing not completing, is this related to something I was seeing where when scheduled sync was enabled I was getting some updates erroneously labeled as "deprecated" in the appliance interface? I was getting this daily and finally tracked it down to the automatic sync process. As soon as I turned that off, updates weren't being labeled as "deprecated" unless they actually were by Apple.

Thanks for posting the update on this.

[jhbush]

owe you many beers at JNUC

[Kumarasinghe]

Thanks Eric.

Yes as you mentioned the NetBoot image not shows up in the System Preferences Startup pane across subnets but netboots fine by holding "N" key.

Would you please tell us what's causing it to not to show up in Startup Disk pane?

[justinrummel]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to update NetSUS from the git repo. Should I be doing a git clone then cp -R to production or individually curl -O each file?

[eric_krause]

Would you please tell us what's causing it to not to show up in Startup Disk pane?

The reason we were not able to get that functioning at this time is because of how the request appears to the dhcpd binary after being passed along by certain networking equipment. System Preferences picks a random port as the source port which we can easily determine if the request is not modified. The request does still contain the information we need but it is a bit more buried and not as easily accessible to the dhcpd binary.

[matthew-c]

If we would like to host the cached updates somewhere other than on the VM for example an NFS share (we don't have a huge amount of storage on our VM server). Is there a way to reduce the size of the VM's disk?

Should we just roll our own from the git source?

[aaron_howell]

If we would like to host the cached updates somewhere other than on the VM for example an NFS share (we don't have a huge amount of storage on our VM server). Is there a way to reduce the size of the VM's disk?

Second this - we are using this for NetBoot multiple images at multiple locations (so need to deploy 6) and the unneeded 1200GB is a bit to absorb.

It's extremely difficult to shrink a disk after deployment - so I think a better managed disk partitioning scheme is in order: at most 20GB for the / and a separate larger disk mounted into /src/NetSUS

That way by default users can continue to use the appliance as is without any further modification - or those who need to can make easy changes to the disk requirements to suit their purpose.

[fiquett]

Posted 9/25/12 at 7:08 PM by eric.krause {quote} Would you please tell us what's causing it to not to show up in Startup Disk pane?

The reason we were not able to get that functioning at this time is because of how the request appears to the dhcpd binary after being passed along by certain networking equipment. System Preferences picks a random port as the source port which we can easily determine if the request is not modified. The request does still contain the information we need but it is a bit more buried and not as easily accessible to the dhcpd binary.
{/quote}

Any plans on looking into this more, or recommendations on how to get this working across subnets?

We have multiple NetRestore images and a rescue NetBoot image that we would like to be able to choose from the 'option+n' prompt at startup or the startup disk pane in System Preferences.

It is much slower, but in the mean time we have set the rescue NetBoot image as default and can manually bless to a specific NetRestore image from within it.

[JPDyson]

Sweet! thanks Eric. Glad to see the appliance get some love. One question - regarding the point - Fixed an issue with scheduled syncing not completing, is this related to something I was seeing where when scheduled sync was enabled I was getting some updates erroneously labeled as "deprecated" in the appliance interface? I was getting this daily and finally tracked it down to the automatic sync process. As soon as I turned that off, updates weren't being labeled as "deprecated" unless they actually were by Apple. Thanks for posting the update on this.

Just want to echo that I get this, too. Auto-sync on, random updates marked Deprecated. Off, no problem.

[mm2270]

@JPDyson,

Yeah, I had worked with my account rep on this recently and they confirmed this is an issue with the current NetSUS appliance. The good news is that the forthcoming JDS apparently fixes this issue. Also to note, the "deprecated" label is cosmetic in nature. The actual updates still get advertised from the appliance to clients properly, so its more of an annoyance than anything.

[JPDyson]

Absolutely; a manual sync clears out the tags as well (at least the errant ones).