Tom9878

Q: 10.9 local Software Update Server not found

After upgrading to Server 3.0, the SUS does not work any more for the clients.

It is possible to ping the server, the CatalogURL has remained the same as in Server 2.2.

 

Still, when trying to update the clients with the software from the Update Service, I get the error:

" Can't load dat from the Software Update Server"

 

The install.log shows:

SoftwareUpdate: could not retrieve catalog: Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1100 "Can't load data from the Software Update server (myserverxx.local)." UserInfo=0x7faa82f062a0 {SUCatalogFetchOverrideURLString=http://myserverxx.local:8088/index.sucatalog

 

did the url change (the documentation is not different) or can I check somewhere if the softwhere update server is down or really running?

OS X Server

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 12:13 PM

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Q: 10.9 local Software Update Server not found

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  • by Buster Blocker,

    Buster Blocker Buster Blocker Oct 23, 2013 12:45 PM in response to Tom9878
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 12:45 PM in response to Tom9878

    We are seeing this and we have NOT upgraded to Server 3.0. We upgraded two of our computers (Mac Pro, MBP) to Mavericks and they will no longer update from the SUS. If we reset the preferences to see Apple's servers, all is well.

     

    I think the evidence will show something did change in Mavericks, but the question right now is : what?

  • by Krull543,

    Krull543 Krull543 Oct 25, 2013 7:28 AM in response to Tom9878
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 7:28 AM in response to Tom9878

    We are seeing this in our environment as well. We had an apple Software update server running and providing updates to about 35 macs with varying OS X versions.

     

    We upgraded 3 of our IT mac book pros to test Mavericks.

    • First problem that surfaced, we had to update our Apple Remote Desktop.
      • Then we could at least remote to the server
    • Then all of the Mavericks machines would fail to get updates with the error "Can't load data from the Software Update server. (servername)"
    • We upgraded our Server to Mavericks. Clients still wont update from the SUS.
    • We purchased the new "Server" for $20 on the Server and updated the configuration and turned back on the SUS role on the server. Still broken.

     

    Come on Apple. We know you don't care about the enterprise, but this is totally a pain for those of us who manage groups of macs in the workplace. Please fix this.

  • by webguy,

    webguy webguy Oct 25, 2013 11:30 AM in response to Tom9878
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 11:30 AM in response to Tom9878

    Another option, at least for the time being until Apple fixes the root cause of the issue, is to use

     

    sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL http://SW.DOMAIN.ORG:8088/content/catalogs/others/index-mountainlion-lion-snowle opard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

     

    I have verified that this does indeed work on an OS X 10.9 Mavericks machine.

  • by Buster Blocker,

    Buster Blocker Buster Blocker Oct 25, 2013 12:12 PM in response to webguy
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 12:12 PM in response to webguy

    I can verify Webguy's solution. It would appear the URL for the sucatalog file is modified slightly in Mavericks. Anyway, it does work. Break out your Terminal and go nuts.

     

    UPDATE : I forgot to mention Webguy's URL has a space in it. You should remove the space in snowleopard to get it to work if you are using copy & paste.

     

    Message was edited by: Buster Blocker

  • by jcraft596,

    jcraft596 jcraft596 Oct 25, 2013 1:07 PM in response to Tom9878
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2013 1:07 PM in response to Tom9878

    I went to the index.sucatalog URL using safari and got a 404 error, so I did some digging around in the server directories and noted that index.sucatalog does not exist.  

     

    but catalogs.sucatalog does..

     

    going to that URL does provide a page.

     

     

    so try http://yourhost.domain:8088/catalogs.sucatalog

     

     

    That gets rid of the software update client erroring out, but locally none of my machines will update from my server yet.   I still have to go direct to apple.    But this is why the URL itself was failing. 

     

    I'm not seeing any mavericks reference in the XML of the page output.    Something is half baked in this version of server for sure.

     

    I even manually ran the software update server update app and let that run hoping maybe it would create a mavericks update list..   To no avail..

  • by Tom9878,

    Tom9878 Tom9878 Oct 27, 2013 12:15 AM in response to jcraft596
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 12:15 AM in response to jcraft596

    I did look up in my backups and the index.sucatalog did not exist in server 2.2 as well. When the local SUS did work. I have tried to change the URL to look at the sucatalog files that are available but that did not work. I can try to use the index-mountainlion-lion-snowle opard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog, which might work. But looking at the name, you can wonder how much time apple has spend on making the server work. And why I had to buy this...

     

    In the meantime I have switched to the Caching server. Not sure yet if this works, but as I believe this only downloads the stuff that I really need.

  • by raimattern,

    raimattern raimattern Oct 27, 2013 6:33 AM in response to Tom9878
    Level 1 (104 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 6:33 AM in response to Tom9878
  • by transco,

    transco transco Oct 28, 2013 7:23 AM in response to jcraft596
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 28, 2013 7:23 AM in response to jcraft596

    How did you tell your client computers to start getting their updates directly from Apple rather than depending on your local Update Server?  

  • by raimattern,

    raimattern raimattern Oct 28, 2013 7:51 AM in response to transco
    Level 1 (104 points)
    Oct 28, 2013 7:51 AM in response to transco

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4069

     

    To point the unmanaged client computer back to the Apple Software Update server, use the following command:

    sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL
  • by transco,

    transco transco Oct 30, 2013 5:06 AM in response to raimattern
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 5:06 AM in response to raimattern

    Thank you!  I didn't have much luck with the other solutions presented here, so this seemed like the best way to go.  If I might impose one more time....  How do I reverse the process and get it pointing back to the local update server.  I assume sooner or later Apple will fix this.

  • by raimattern,

    raimattern raimattern Oct 30, 2013 7:25 AM in response to transco
    Level 1 (104 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 7:25 AM in response to transco

    sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL http://su.example.com:8088/index.sucatalog

     

    Replace su.example.com with the FQDN of your macserver.

  • by jamrog,

    jamrog jamrog Nov 13, 2013 10:05 PM in response to Tom9878
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 13, 2013 10:05 PM in response to Tom9878

    Hi. SoftwareUpdateEnabler does a nice job of setting the update server. I too am having this problem. It was working fine about 2 days ago but yesterday it stopped it working. Any ideas? Has the URL changed perhaps?

  • by simplynick22,

    simplynick22 simplynick22 Dec 11, 2014 3:58 PM in response to webguy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 11, 2014 3:58 PM in response to webguy

    webguy

     

    THIS FIXES THE ISSUE!!

     

    THANK YOU!!