NetSUS - some updates not available

[pbenham]

Hi,

I've been testing out the NetSUS appliance this week and I'm finding that some software updates that Apple offer to a newly imaged 10.7.3 machine are not being offered by the NetSUS (which has been fully and recently synced).

On a newly imaged 10.7.3 machine pointed at Apples SUS I see 5 updates available (Airport Utility 6.1; Remote Desktop Client 3.6.1; iTunes 10.7; Mac OS X Update Combined 10.7.5; Flashback malware removal tool 1.0). When I point the same client at my NetSUS branch (with all updates selected) it is only offered 3 updates (Airport Utility 6.1; Remote Desktop Client 3.6.1; iTunes 10.7). I created a new branch on the NetSUS and only enabled the 2 updates that weren't showing up (Mac OS X Update Combined 10.7.5; Flashback malware removal tool 1.0). When I run software update on the client pointing at this new branch it reports that there are no new updates to install. Looking at the catalog xml file for this new branch I see this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict> <key>ApplePostURL</key> <string>http://swpost.apple.com/stats</string> <key>CatalogVersion</key> <integer>2</integer> <key>IndexDate</key> <date>2012-11-05T20:21:01Z</date> <key>Products</key> <dict> </dict> <key>_CatalogName</key> <string>index_Test.sucatalog</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Any idea as to why these particular updates are not being offered to my client by the NetSUS appliance?

Thanks

Paul

[colonelpanic]

I amm seeing the same behavior with some Mountain Lion updates.

[mm2270]

It sounds like you're pointing the clients to the wrong URL. The NetSUS appliance, or more accurately, Reposado, requires pointing clients to their OS specific URL, not the general index.sucatalog one. If its pointed to that, Software Update won't complain that it can't find the server or the catalog, but some of the updates may not show up as being available, especially any OS specific updates like the 10.7.5 stuff you mentioned. So for example. for Mountain Lion clients, the correct address will be something like:
http://ip.add.re.ss/content/catalogs/others/index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1_BranchName.sucatalog

For Lion it would be:
http://ip.add.re.ss/content/catalogs/others/index-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1_BranchName.sucatalog

Take a look at some of the Reposado documentation. It explains quite clearly what's required to make this work properly. I do wish it was better explained in the NetSUS documentation, although I haven't looked at it lately, so I don't know if perhaps JAMF included some better instructions for how the branches work now.