Virtualized JSS?

[jarednichols]

I'm curious to see if anyone runs their JSS virtualized, as well as on Linux. Anyone?

j
--
Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

[ernstcs]

I don't think I'd ever run my production JSS virtualized in what's available legally to virtualize it in. I virtualize my testing environment in Parallels Server and it's fine for that purpose. I could see MAYBE doing it in a VMWare cluster someday…especially since I won't be able to get XServes. =/ Migrating to Ubuntu may be the alternative for me when the time comes.

Craig E

[jarednichols]

I set up Casper 8 yesterday in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server. Runs pretty sweet. My train of thought is getting out of the server business. Our server team doesn't do Macs. If I can get it over to Linux (RHEL) I won't have to worry about that portion of the Casper infrastructure anymore. (I'll still have to do something about SUS though…)

Someone named "casperadmin" replied privately to me indicating that running in a VM you lose database log culling and automated backups, which are rather important. That's the kind of nugget of info I'm after.
Given this, we may be out of a VM and just onto a physical Linux server (which is fine too).

j

[CasperSally]

Actually what I meant was running on linux or windows (VM or not) you lose the GUI support for automated backup and automated log deletion that JAMF provides in its JSS Setup Utility in OSX.

Automated backup shouldn't be too hard to recreate, but the log deletion is what will likely hold us back for awhile.

I think/hope JAMF will work towards a solution in the future, but no ETA or anything yet when I talked to support. If you are interested in these features, might be worth letting them know.

[tlarkin]

You can still flush logs from the Web front end, no?

[CasperSally]

We need to keep various logs for 90 days, I don’t think there’s a way in web interface to do this. Am I misunderstanding or missing something?

[ernstcs]

In version 8 and previous versions there is a section under Settings for Flush Database Logs. =)

Craig E

[CasperSally]

Got it, thanks. I meant something automated that happens every night without user interaction (like JSS Setup Utility does).

[dkucmierz]

We're running the JSS with 3 Redhat 6 boxes running tomcat and 1 Xserve hosting mysql.

--

David Kucmierz
Mesquite ISD Technical Services
972.882.5506

[HaraldMonihart]

We are running our JSS on a virtualized OS X Server box,
but we are currently thinking of moving to a virtualized CentOS Linux
for our JSS in the future.

- Harald

[jszaszvari]

Virtualised OS X Server?

How?

-John

[#12]

I'm currently virtualizing both OD-M and OD-R on our newest (and last) Xserve. VMWare Fusion handles the install just fine.

I've also taken that image to other places... you know, just to test.

Uhm. Cough. Yeah.

[ernstcs]

Yeah, but legally only on Apple hardware in Parallels Server...legally...

[#14]

On Apple branded hardware in either Parallels or Fusion.

An obvious bias, but I just can't bring myself to install Parallels on a server...

[ernstcs]

Parallels Server 3 was kinda sorta slow, but the upgrade to version 4 made
a noticeable improvement.

Craig E

[jarednichols]

I can't be bothered to install Parallels....

:)

I like being able to move VMs from platform to platform with no ills

j

[HaraldMonihart]

Parallels Bare Metal Server -
http://www.parallels.com/de/download/server/mac/baremetal/

- Harald

[CasperSally]

We had an awful time trying to set up the JSS using Parallels bare metal this summer and eventually gave up.

Their support was pretty awful in our experience.

[bentoms]

By running it this way does the automated distribution replication still work?

We're looking at moving the JSS to a vmware environment (ideally win 2008 as this is what our infrastructure guys know).. But tag on an x-serve for OD, SUS, wiki & casper share.

We'll then replicate this x-serve… It'll give us more redundancy than we currently have & will full inline with the vm project here.

Regards,
Ben Toms
IT Support Analyst GREY Group
The Johnson Building, 77 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8JS
T: +44 (0) 20-3037-3819 |
Main: +44 (0) 20 3037 3000 | IT Helpdesk: +44 (0) 20 3037 3883

[HaraldMonihart]

The automated distribution replication relies on the JSSUtility binary
(which only runs on Mac OS X) to be executed on the replicated share
and access through ssh on the main distribution point.

But afaik it is just using ssh and rsync so you could easily script
something on your own.

Regards,
Harald Monihart

[bentoms]

Thanks.

I may have to get another x-serve quick & look at the bare metal solution.

I'm document devouring now, just need to see what replication is offered.

Regards,
Ben Toms
IT Support Analyst GREY Group
The Johnson Building, 77 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8JS
T: +44 (0) 20-3037-3819 |
Main: +44 (0) 20 3037 3000 | IT Helpdesk: +44 (0) 20 3037 3883