OS X Netboot Not working over HTTP

[zskidmor]

Hey all:
We currently have an aging Xserver running 10.6.8 running the netboot service. I am trying to move us over to the JamF Net/SUS Appliance. I have been unable to get the netboot image to download over HTTP.

When I boot a netbooting client verbosely I get this line repeating over and over: KDIHTTPBackingStore: :readBytes _readBytes() attempt 1 returned 0xe00002c2 (-536870206)

I get this on two different NetSUS Appliances, and an OS X Server if I set the image to download over HTTP, if I switch to nfs on the OS X server, then it works completely fine.

My suspicion is our network is not allowing the HTTP traffic needed. Has anyone encountered this kind of issue? Anyone know the fix?

[calumhunter]

how are you creating the NBI?

[zskidmor]

I have created the NBI a few ways to try to rule out the NBI itself being an issue:

*build an OS X computer from scratch, capture with Composer on another mac over firewire, then use Apple System Image Utility to create the NBI

*build an OS X computer from scratch, skip composer, and target mode it and use SIU to make it

*Download the OS X installer from the app store and just make an nbi from that using SIU to rule out build/hardware issues

[calumhunter]

do you have this key in your NBImageInfo.plist?

<key>Type</key>
<string>HTTP</string>

Is your client machine on the same subnet as the Netboot server?

[davidacland]

Not sure if anyone else is about to say it but can't you just use NFS? I've been using NetBoot services since pre-Mac OS X and have had very little success with HTTP. I always just go straight for NFS.

[bentoms]

/url">@zskidmor][/url, I'm guessing you've secured the HTTP site with a password: [https://macmule.com/2014/01/07/kdihttpbackingstore-readbytes-_readbytes-attempt-1-returned-0xe00002c2-536870206/

[zskidmor]

@calumhunter -Yes the NBIimageinfo.plist file has the HTTP key type, the computer is not on the same subnet as the netboot server, if it was subnetting issue, I wouldn't expect it to work on nfs

@davidacland - My understanding that the JamF Net/SUS Appliance only hosts over HTTP (this has been true since version 2), I am not married to http, but it appears that JamF is, if you know how to reconfigure it to host over NFS I would love instructions

@bentoms -I did not secure HTTP with a password

[calumhunter]

@zskidmor Can you try netbooting a client on the same subnet as the netboot server? does that work?
Do you have your switches configured with the ip helper to allow for cross subnet netbooting?

[bentoms]

@zskidmor, did you limit the severs default website to certain groups? Or forward to HTTPS & use a cert signed by an Imaternal CA?

[bpriscott]

From 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 Servers I had no success using HTTP, as NFS was the solution so I would check the file sharing and also just use NFS for sure. Recently this changed with my 10.10 server and it works really good now thats for sure.

[zskidmor]

@calumhunter -I can't connect the client to the same subnet as the server, and as I stated in my previous post, I don't think subnetting is the issue. If it was, I wouldn't be able to get NFS to work at all, which I have proven I can get to work on the OS X Server

@bentoms - I didn't limit the servers default website to certain groups, I use the same server as the Apple Software Update Server and the clients have no issues communicating with it. I don't even have a cert installed on the server (or having it terminated through an IP traffic manager)

@bpriscott If you read my original post, the goal of this thread is to get netbooting to work on the Jamf Netsus Appliance which only does http and doesn't offer NFS

Thanks for all the responses! I appreciate people trying to help!

[calumhunter]

got linux?

yum install docker
mkdir -p /nbi
scp your nbi into /nbi
docker run -d -p 0.0.0.0:69:69/udp -p 0.0.0.0:67:67/udp -p 0.0.0.0:80:80 -e DOCKER_BSDPY_IP=$YourServerIP -v /nbi:/nbi --name netboot-server hunty1/bsdpydocker

[calumhunter]

I'm not a fan of NetSUS. Too many weird issues with it. I've gone to using Pepijn Bruienne's bsdpy for netboot and reposado for software updates. using them with docker makes life very easy

[bentoms]

@zskidmor, check the SACL's for the netboot accounts.

Have you done any port redirection on the default website?

[zskidmor]

@calumhunter- I am thinking of waiting until the appliance gets better and has more features, there are a few feature requests out there that hopefully JamF implements so I am going to just use another OS X server with NFS for now. I like your idea of using BSDPY but I am hoping to transition this work to someone who isn't familar with linux so I probably won't do that, though I hope Jamf replaces the Netboot service in the appliance with BSDPY, seems to be more robust and feature rich

@bentoms -SACL's look ok, don't see anything that would cause HTTP to not work but NFS does, and I haven't done any port redirection on the default website.

For now, I am going to upgrade another OS X system and use that for netboot. Thanks for the feedback everyone, the issue wasn't resolved, but I am going to table it for now