Software Update Server Updates automatically disabling

I don't believe the magic script is available publicly but after putting our attack dog on apple, he was able to get the script within a day. So far we are on day 1 of success which we haven't been able to obtain yet.

Hi , all!

I have a question for claven and dgreening.
Why you can't share this script with us? Is it a top secret information or something else?

Apple NDA is not something to mess with. I'm sure if they (Apple) finds the script working they will integrate or release it into the wild soon enough.

Yeah, I'm not going to break our NDA...

It's kind of crazy that Apple has been providing this script for almost 6 months and has gone through 2ish releases of Server.app and has not yet been able to fix this issue in the product.

How you received this script? Do you have a special support from Apple (e.g. AppleCare OS Support)?
I've also called to them, but haven't received any information about workaround of the issue, only an advice to do it manually.

I believe we have AppleCare Alliance. You can't just call Apple Support and get the script. They will probably have no idea what you are talking about...

We have an applecare preferred support agreement. We also have apple reps almost monthly at our district that we do poke and prod to make cases progress quicker.

I think we all agree that we can't break the NDA regarding the script, but it is absolutely ridiculous that they haven't been able to bake this script fix into the final product.

If you are only using the Software Updates, I have found a fix by trashing the Server folder and setting up the Server app as a new setup. Trashing just the Software Updates doesn't fix it.
If you are using the Server app for other services, then I wouldn't do this.
Instructions below:
OS X 10.10.5 with Server 5.0.15 and also OS X 10.11.5 with Server 5.1.5
1) Turn off the Software Updates Service
2) Quit Server app
3) Find the Server folder in /Library and trash it. (Trashing just the Software Updates folder doesn't work)
4) Reboot and empty the trash.
5) Launch Server app (it will be a new Server setup)
6) Within Software Updates, Settings tab, Mode Manual (We manage our updates so no Automatic)
7) In Updates tab, do not check the Automatically Download Updates box, this is where I find the problem is.
8) Allow updates to download and show Available but do nothing until it has downloaded everything and do not run any terminal commands to sync or anything. This also caused a problem for me.
9) Once all the updates have downloaded and enable one and wait for it to finish, and move to the next one (Command R will Refresh). Enabling a bunch at once might cause an issue we but have not tested fully it.
As a test, enable one and check back after a few hours (I find 4 hours a good test point) and see if it stays Enabled. I have had success on three Mac Servers.
God luck!
James

Hello everyone, I have the opposite behavior... can't disable/delete any update. Once downloaded, they ALL remain enabled.
Hope it will be fixed soon...
OS X 10.11.5 with Server 5.1.5
Cheers
Carlo

Reading the Server 5.2 beta Release Notes points to this issue never being fixed.

Wonder if they will release a new tool to do this or are they going to force us to a third party solution? If its the latter, how long will that work before they stop working as well.

Interesting. VERY INTERESTING. I wonder if they are planning of rolling ASUS into the Caching Server functionality...

I just emailed the tech assigned to my case about the issue flat out asking about the depreciation and how we're supposed to handle managing updates in the future. I doubt i'll get a real response but would be nice to know what they plan on doing.

Funny thing is at my new company, they have ASUS setup and up to date no issues. So strange how random the issue is. But yea sounds like it will be gone shortly.

Did someone already take the time to test if the issue is solved with Server 5.1.7 ? I'm actually doing some testing.

Same as my previous post, can't disable enabled updates. :-(
OSX 10.11.6 + Server 5.1.7
Cheers
Carlo

Hi,

it seems the problem is back again, after three months.

I downloaded the updates that I wanted on Friday, so by Monday they all had the status ‘Disabled’. I then put the Status on ‘Enabled’. It seemed that it was going allright, til a couple of hours later. The status for these updates were back to ‘disabled’ again.

The way I check it now:
If there are tickets in the /Library/Server/Software Update/Status/.pending folder I know that after a couple of hours the same thing happens.

We’ve tried it with 3 macs, even a freshly installed one.

Just a follow up:

i've installed Reposada and Margarita: https://clburlison.com/reposado-guide/ and i love it! It's an easy install en configuration (some basic linux knowledge is needed).

I encourage everybody to do the same.

Hi All,
As mentioned above seems there is a discrepancy between the status reported within the Server GUI and the value contained "/Library/Server/Software Update/Status/com.apple.server.swupdate.plist" which is the plist loaded by the GUI to display the available patches. The com.apple.server.swupdate.plist has of course a direct dependency with the catalogs where all the informations are stored, so both of them have to be always synchronized. I'm testing a workaround which seems to work (at least till now) so I would like to share it, maybe some of you can test as well in order to have a valid response.

This is what I have done: 1. Quit Server.app
2. Open the Terminal
3. Stop the SWupdate Service -> sudo serveradmin stop swupdate
4. Change the status of a specific patch where 022-3271 is the patch ID (you can get the id by double-click on the patch in the GUI) and NO or YES is value to set (disabled or enabled) with the command ->
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'set workingSetProducts:022-3271:enable NO' /Library/Server/Software Update/Status/com.apple.server.swupdate.plist
5. Go to folder: /Library/Server/Software Update/html/ and remove all the catalogs and links EXCEPT the "content" folder
6. Go to folder: /Library/Server/Software Update/html/content/ and remove everything EXCEPT the "downloads" folder
7. Again in the Terminal run the synchronisation with the swapple server -> sudo swupd_syncd -sync
Note that the ASU service is still off and must be off.
8. At the end of the synchronisation, it will take some time to finish, start again the service -> sudo serveradmin start swupdate
9. Open Server.app and the patch should be correctly set.

Patches that have not yet been downloaded must be enabled directly by selecting "download and enable".
If you have to re-enable or re-disable patches this has to done following the same process above.
For those who are lazy like and in case of positive feedback, i'll putting together a script to enable/disable patches in a single shot.

please let me know if it works

I've been able to workaround this issue. Solution has been posted but not published yet.

You are using the same method as the script which Apple has been providing to address this issue! Kudos!

oh really? :) Oh WOW.

So it looks like in the future this will be fixed by apple depreciating ASUS. so bleh..

https://support.apple.com/en-my/HT206871

Yeah, I was not happy when I saw that. I've re-opened my AppleCare Enterprise Support Case and am pressing them for both a resolution to the existing issue and guidance on their plans to offer this functionality once SUS has been deprecated. While Caching Service seems promising, it doesn't allow any granularity about which updates are made available and when.

Yea i understand i would suggest looking up https://github.com/wdas/reposado if you want even more control.

@Matt.Ellis This may be my interim fallback, but Reposado's future is contingent on Apple continuing to publish and maintain the Software Update Catalogs. I don't suspect they're going to keep doing so once SUS has officially been removed from the Server application.