Where does Self Service stage installers?

[mbezzo]

Hi All,
I've been searching for a bit - I'm sure the answer already exists but I can't find it! Where does Self Service for Mac stage the installers?

I've got a user who used Self Service to upgrade to El Cap, but "something came up" and he manually killed Self Service. Now when he runs it, it just says the El Cap img is corrupt. It doesn't try to redownload it, so my thought process is to find/delete the existing corrupt download, but I can't find it!

Thanks,
mbezzo

[mm2270]

Most likely in the /Library/Application Support/JAMF/Downloads/ folder, though I might also look in some of the other directories there. "Waiting Room" for example, is used for packages that are cached with one policy and then can be installed using "Install Cached" in another policy.

Note that the "Downloads" dir is protected, so to look inside it you'll need to use sudo or open a root shell before listing its contents. Same might be true for Waiting Room, but I think that is readable.

$ sudo -s
$ Password:
$ ls -al /Library/Application Support/JAMF/Downloads/

[mbezzo]

Thanks, will take a look. I did check the downloads folder but it was empty.

Will keep poking around!

thanks,
mbezzo

[mm2270]

Try in /tmp/ also in that same JAMF directory, although I thought that was only for scripts.
Actually, if a pkg is zipped, I think it first goes into /tmp/ and then unzips into another location, but I'm not too sure.

[mbezzo]

It definitely does download the .dmg to Downloads, but then I'm not sure what happens.

Eh, spending too much time on this. :) Think I'll just do a manual upgrade for this user and be done with it.

Thanks again for the help!

[bpavlov]

Self Service will download its contents and then clear it out once its done. What are you looking to do?

[mbezzo]

When the user re-runs the Install El Cap policy, it just immediately fails - logs point to the installer.dmg as being corrupt. If I check /L/AS/JAMF/Downloads it's empty - so i'm not sure where it's moving/storing the DMG. The policy thinks it's already downloaded so won't redownload.

Thanks!

[bpavlov]

We use this:
https://github.com/munki/createOSXinstallPkg

And similar process to this:
https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/providing-os-x-upgrades-via-caspers-self-service/

[mm2270]

Silly question, but has the Mac been fully restarted since he forced quit Self Service? I'm just wondering if a last state is being cached somewhere (due to force quitting it in the middle) that isn't getting cleared out.

[bpavlov]

Also just in case, what version of Casper are you on? And are you using HTTP downloads? Or is it AFP or SMB?

[AVmcclint]

One thing you can do to let it re-download is to flush it from the log on JSS if it shows as a success or failure. That should make it available in Self Service again and let you try to download it again. Or is that not part of the problem?

[mm2270]

@AVmcclint I don't think that's the issue, at least not as described by @mbezzo. Seems the policy is showing up in SS, but when trying to run it again it fails because its still seeing something left over from the previous bailed attempt. If its not a physical file somewhere on the Mac, it may be a receipt or some saved state for Self Service that its remembering. Or, something else entirely.
I would think if there was a file left behind it would be showing up in one of the locations within /Library/Application Support/JAMF/ There's no place else it would go, unless it was an installer that placed some files in another location, like /tmp/ and then tried to run them from there. But that doesn't sound like the case?

[mbezzo]

Great advice all - will check it out when I can get my hands back on the machine.

And yeah, the policy runs just fine in Self Service. Here's the pertinent failure: Resuming download of https://jamf.f5.com/CasperShare/Packages/Install%20OS%20X%20El%20Capitan.InstallESD.dmg...
Verifying DMG...
Error: Could not verify the downloaded package. 1
Error: Install OS X El Capitan.InstallESD.dmg is corrupt.

Will update here when I get it.

Thanks!

[bpavlov]

OK that's an HTTP bug that was fixed in 9.9. Not sure why you're not seeing the download in Library/Application Support/JAMF/Downloads/ (unless you have a policy that clears this folder out)

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=1699#responseChild14176
To view defects peruse through here:
https://goo.gl/zTdvwT

To submit bugs:
http://goo.gl/forms/tEvpXJrZaj

[AVmcclint]

That's what I thought but I wasn't clear on how he was trying to run it again. I also hope to find the answer to this because the scenario described could easily happen to anyone. Other than using a sledgehamer approach to run

jamf removeMdmFramework

and re-enrolling, I'm at a loss for how to clear the stuck policy files.

[mbezzo · Accepted solution]

AND...... A reboot fixed it! It downloaded a new copy from the server and all is well. Eh, never trust a user when they say they've rebooted. ;)

thanks everyone!

[mm2270]

Ha! I knew it. I vote for "Reboot" for the "Most reliable fix for stupid issues in computer history" award. Its unparalleled in its ability to fix things. :-D

[mbezzo]

So true, I know better! :)