Virtual Machine keeps on disappearing from JSS

[RobertAlviar]

Hello Jamf Nation,

this is my first time posting here and i am a complete newbie to Casper.

i have a linked clone virtual machine (using Parallels Desktop 11) and i enrolled it to JSS.
i use this vm for software testing.
after few days when i try to search for the computer name of the vm it will no longer show in JSS. i am sure i did not un-enroll the vm.

and all i do is re-enroll it to JSS and it will show up again.

it happens to all 3 vm that is running OS X 10.9, 10.10 & 10.11.

please advise, thanks! :)

• Robert

[bpavlov]

Even if you remove the framework from the computer (which I don't think you're doing), it should not remove it from the JSS. So the question then becomes how are you searching for it within the JSS?

[thoule]

Are you using sites? It wouldn't appear if searching a different site. But otherwise, the only way to remove a computer from the JSS is to manually delete it (or API delete it).

[RobertAlviar]

@bpavlov i am searching it the usual sir. i click Computers then made sure the search drop down list is set to Computers. please see attached screenshot.

[RobertAlviar]

@thoule not using sites sir. and i have no rights on removing a computer from JSS yet.
for now i tried to re-enroll my 3 VMs to JSS using the ff: commands below respectively:

which jamf = it gave a result path which tells me that the binary is installed on the linked clone vm.
sudo jamf enroll -prompt
sudo jamf recon
sudo jamf policy
sudo jamf manage
sudo jamf recon

am i doing it right?

--Robert :)

[Chris_Hafner]

If you follow the prompts after

sudo jamf enroll -prompt

then you should be good. Policies will run when scheduled or otherwise triggered, and the unit is recon'ed and managed during the enrollment... we'll normally it would anyways.

Since you've mentioned that you don't yet have rights to remove things from the JSS, have you checked with those that do? There may be a really good technical reason why this is happening, but there could be a policy/social something happening to remove your VMs.

[themacallan]

FWIW I had this issue with a virtual machine in VMware Fusion. Originally had a 10.10 one that I upgraded to 10.11 before VMware had official 10.11 support.

Turns out that since I cloned the virtual machine the UDIDs were the same. Enrolling the 10.11 virtual machine would overwrite the 10.10 one I had in the JSS, and vice-versa. Decided to create a fresh virtual machine for 10.11 and haven't had the issue since.

[Chris_Hafner]

@themacallan That's a far better idea than mine!

[devlinford]

FWIW I had this issue with a virtual machine in VMware Fusion. Originally had a 10.10 one that I upgraded to 10.11 before VMware had official 10.11 support. Turns out that since I cloned the virtual machine the UDIDs were the same. Enrolling the 10.11 virtual machine would overwrite the 10.10 one I had in the JSS, and vice-versa. Decided to create a fresh virtual machine for 10.11 and haven't had the issue since.

Is there REALLY no other way around this? IE: manually changing a UDID on a cloned VM before enrolment?

Having to manually install a VM completely undermines the ease of use of going with a VM in the first place.

Thanks,

Dev

[brock_walters]

Hi everyone -

@devlinford This isn't really a limitation of the JSS - the UUID is used as the unique identifier in the database specifically because every device enrolled has a different UUID. It is a feature of product that when a device has been enrolled in the past and there already is a record for it in the database the existing record will be used instead of creating a new one.

The good news is that most virtualization software has ways of modifying the "hardware" information that the virtual machine presents. On VMWare Fusion, for example, the .vmx file can be modified to change attributes like serial number & UUID.

Good luck!

[devlinford]

Hi everyone - @devlinford This isn't really a limitation of the JSS - the UUID is used as the unique identifier in the database specifically because every device enrolled has a different UUID. It is a feature of product that when a device has been enrolled in the past and there already is a record for it in the database the existing record will be used instead of creating a new one. The good news is that most virtualization software has ways of modifying the "hardware" information that the virtual machine presents. On VMWare Fusion, for example, the .vmx file can be modified to change attributes like serial number & UUID. Good luck!

Thanks @brock.walters ...

I know this is more just how VM's behave and more specifically VM cloning...I'm surprised that JAMF doesn't offer a document about why it happens (VM computer records eating each other), and possible work around for some of the larger hypervisors out there. I just need to do some more digging on how to tweak .vmx files. Your post has given me hope - SO thanks for that ;)

Dev