Stability of Distribution Points, and Stability of Casper Overall

[gskibum]

Hello all. I'm new to Casper and so far my experiences have been extremely unsatisfactory. The product seems to be remarkably fragile and my confidence in it is really starting to fade. I really want for this to work, but the time I am spending on troubleshooting problems is tremendous and the time actually using it is scant.

Ever since my Jump Start at the end of April most attempts at using Casper has led to strings of hours of troubleshooting. I've put in dozens of hours of troubleshooting this and troubleshooting that - and maybe 30 minutes of actual use of the JSS. So I keep having to do things without Casper. Basically all I’ve been able to do is enroll a few devices. Otherwise this JSS is unused - because I can't use it.

During a long phone call with support I was told that JDSs are unreliable and to instead use File Share distribution points. However I want to deploy in-house ebooks and apps. And what is JAMF doing offering JDSs if they are so unstable as to even have tech support discourage their use? That also doesn’t bode well for my confidence in Casper as a viable business tool.

My JSS was installed on a brand-new Mac mini that I purchased for the sole purpose of hosting Casper.

During the Jump Start I was left with three JDS instances. I decided I wanted to take that down to one. So I assigned the JDS that lives on the JSS box as the master, and then deleted the other two. After this configuration change Casper Admin was unable to mount the JDS. I added back the other two JDS instances and set the original master back as master and Admin again began to work. However, I really only want a single JDS, the one on the JSS box itself. I want to eliminate the other two permanantly. But doing so leaves me with an unusable Casper.

Among my countless attempts at correcting this I have followed the JDS removal procedure in this document:
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=340

I then run the JDS installer (along the way both 9.3.1 and 9.3.2) and configure the JDS. Casper web GUI sees the JDS but Admin can’t open them. The current error I am presented with is “There was a problem connecting to the server <JDS URL>. The server may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connectinon, and then try again.”

However Casper’s web GUI shows the JDS just fine in JDS Instances.

I am actually able to get a JDS to work if I first create a file share distribution point. But as soon as I make the JDS the master Casper Admin won’t open. The error messages vary. The only distribution point I want at ths time is a single JDS installed on the JSS box but I am unable to make that happen.

Another unnerving problem my JSS happens after every reboot of the JSS box. When I try to open the web GUI I get a “Database Connection Error.” “ The following error was encountered: Communications link failure. The last packet sent successfully to the server was 0 milliseconds ago. The driver has not received any packets from the server. Please verify the following items: •MySQL is running on localhost. • MySQL is accepting network connections. • The user jamsoftware@localhost has been granted priveleges to the jamfsoftware database.

If I check MySQL in System Preferences it indicates it is running. This is whether I check before or after trying to open the web GUI. This happens no matter how long I wait after a reboot, so trying to open the GUI too soon after the reboots is not the issue.

I have the options of “Try Again” and “Edit Connection.” When I click Try Again it successfully connects. If I hit Edit Connection and go with the settings that are already populated in the fields it successfully connects. It is quite unsettling to not be able to reboot the server and only to wind up with the JSS in a non-functioning state.

I hope these issues can be corrected, and once and for all I can finally start to actually use Casper in a productive way. It would be very discouraging to get these problems corrected only to have additional show stoppers awaiting me.

Thank you.

[gskibum]

Here is the screen shot of the database error after reboots.

external image link

[Chris_Hafner]

... Interesting, and sorry to hear that you're fighting it. As a Casper use for the past, well, almost four years I have to say that the product is spectacular when running! Unfortunately it looks like you're caught in the middle of a few things. I'll be the first to point out that Casper 9 is certainly a bit buggier than previously releases I've used. Yet, some of the things you're seeing are not the most common. With that said, I Do NOT use a JDS. Actually, I'm not sure why you'd use a JDS either (single server). Yet, I also do not deploy ebooks as you're trying to do yet (We do have MDM running well enough though) and have no idea why they would be needed. JDS's were created to allow better control of "non local" DPs for folks with multiple physical locations (i.e. offices in NY and Boston).

Now, I've run every single version of Casper 9 that's existed and set them up on 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 flavors of Mac OS X "Server" using both local and secondary DPs (AFP and SMB) without significant issue. Here's my big question... Which version of MySQL server are you using?

[ctangora]

What I would do is grab SequelPro and install it on your local machine. Then try connecting to the database with the information you provided in the setup of the JSS/SQL. If you can not connect, then I would try using the SSH connection to the box (via SequelPro) and see if you can talk to it then.

From the sounds of it the box isn't setup right. Either permissions or firewall or something. I don't know about your Jump Start, but the one that I went through at a previous job was utterly worthless and the guy who did it was a disappointment. Never understood why JAMF outsources such an important thing like setup for first time customers.

[bentoms]

I "had" the database connection error on restart.

It was due to the JSS loading before MySQL. Can't remember how we resolved, but with our server being on 10.9.3, MySQL 5.6 & JSS 9.3 all works as expected when restarting.

As for the JDS, I've not used them yet. So can't really comment.

What versions are you running?

[PeterClarke]

Hi, I am not yet running Casper Vn 9.3.2.
Although I am planning to upgrade to that version this summer, for present hardware reasons I am still on Vn 8.73

I wonder a few (dumb) points, but it would be useful to know to help debug this problem:

1) You say that it's running on a Mac Mini. - What version of OS X are you using ?

2) What is the hardware spec of your Mac Mini ? How Much RAM ? What Disk - is is using SSD ? or HD ? Is it a MacMini Server ? or a non server MacMini ? (either should work - provided running 'OS X Server')

3) Are you using the 'Normal' version of OS X, or are you using OS X Server - Significant difference there with File Sharing..

4) If on Reboot, JSS is running up BEFORE MySQL, then some tweak may be needed to raise the priority of MySQL - I have NOT seen this problem, but then I've not tried running on a system with an SSD Drive.
(JAMF should be able to advise on this, but a unix 'nice' command is one way of altering process priority..)

I would also ideally run a distribution server, on a separate server from the Management server.
But for a small install - which this is at this stage, it should work OK all on the same box..

[gskibum]

Hi all. Thank you for your feedback.

This is a mini with 10.9.3, , Server.app, 16-GB RAM - and a 1-TB Samsung SSD as the single storage device.

I have been working extensively with JAMF's excellent tech support the last couple of days.

We are all satisfied that we have ruled out any mis-configuration in the JSS. I was left with a solid build after the Jump Start. We all suspect that Peter Clarke's point regarding the SSD & timing could very well be the issue. JAMF is going to try and reproduce the errors with a like-configured box.

I've grown to be all gung-ho over SSDs, especially as boot drives in most boxes. Probably as time progresses many other people will be too. So it makes sense to find out if this is the root cause of these two issues.

[Chris_Hafner]

I should mention that my JSS (Mac Pro) is running on a small OWC SSD as the primary boot drive (hosting OS X, AND the MySQL Database). I have an internal hardware RAID with some pretty fast SAS drives running the primary DP . While I've seen this occasionally upon a restart, I have to personally attempt to the web service (JSS) before MySQL starts. So long as I don't launch the JSS web page for about 30 seconds all has always been cool. The again, I do check the system personally after each and every restart, as I wouldn't have restarted the system unless something bad happened or if I upgraded something.

[gskibum]

Today I got to test on another *almost* identically configured Mac mini I have. Same result. This really does seem to be a timing thing with SSD boot drives.

This database connection error by itself isn't that big of a deal. The JSS build is solid. But I am unable to use the same box as a master JDS (the only JDS). My JAMF tech team and I are both hoping that solving the SSD timing issue at boot will take care of the JDS issue as well.

[gskibum]

Well the mystery is now solved. It turned out to be a haywire Java install.

We discovered Java components located in /System/Library that belonged in /Library. An erase and rebuild of the OS & JSS, plus a restore of the JSS from backup did the trick.

[donmontalvo]

@gskibum Just curious, was the issue with the location of Java itself.
Or was it that the JCE files not get put into the right directory?

[gskibum]

@donmontalvo. Not entirely sure. I rushed my last post.

We (JAMF tech support and me) were noticing not only the issue with the strange locations of some of the contents of the Java directories, but also discrepancies with the contents of directories.

I did have the directory /Library/Java. But some of the contents that belonged here were in /System/Library/Java. Other things that were in Library/Java were obviously haywire. It was clearly a big mess. I'm surprised the JSS worked at all.

Once we saw this we decided it was time to do the erase and rebuild.

[donmontalvo]

@gskibum Great, glad JAMF Support were able to get you guys back up and running. Stuff happens, good to have a solid support structure behind your infrastructure. :)

[donmontalvo]

@gskibum I'm curious about this:

uring a long phone call with support I was told that JDSs are unreliable and to instead use File Share distribution points.

One approach would be to use a File Share as your Master Distribution Point, then spawn off JDSs. Designate one as your Master JDS, this way the other JDSs will replicate off of it. Then sync File Share > Master JDS and let the magic happen on the JDS side.

[gskibum]

Something interesting has happened since. The problem with the database not staring after reboots mysteriously returned. It didn't matter because the distribution points worked fine, unlike before.

However yesterday I installed TRIM Enabler and the problem went away again!

http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/