Can 10.5.8 Server serve 10.6 updates using Software Update Services?

No. See my response elsewhere in the forum.

Well yes it can - with a little hackery. Just do this:

1) Stop SUS

2) Download http://swscan.apple.com/content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist and copy it to /usr/share/swupd/html/content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist

3) Change it to look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PrimaryCatalog</key>
<string> http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/index.sucatalog</string>
<key>CatalogsList</key>
<array>
<string> http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/index.sucatalog</string>
<string> http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog</string>
<string> http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged -1.sucatalog</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>

4) Edit /etc/swupd/swupd.plist and change the metaIndexURL entry to look like this:

<key>metaIndexURL</key>
<string> http://myserver.com:8088/content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist</string>
<key>portToUse</key>

5) Start SUS and wait for it to download the catalog files and to generate the local versions thereof.

6) Once it has generated the local catalog files add some symlinks like this:

cd /usr/share/swupd/html
ln -s /usr/share/swupd/html/content/catalogs/index.sucatalog .
ln -s /usr/share/swupd/html/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog .
ln -s /usr/share/swupd/html/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged- 1.sucatalog .

7) Just in case restart SUS

8) Wait for SUS to download all the updates

9) On your 10.6 client go in the Finder to /Library/Preferences and open com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist. Change the CatalogURL entry to point to http://myserver.com:8088/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog

10) Launch Software Update on your 10.6 client and be happy 😉

It should behave like a 10.6 server now as it is serving the catalog files according to the 10.6 server documentation as described on page 89 here: http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/SystemImaging_and_SW_Update_Adminv10.6.pdf

Enjoy
-Jan

Will this hack break the 10.5 clients that are checking in with the server?

No it will not break 10.5 or 10.4 clients as they continue to get the old files they used to get. Only 10.6 clients get the new one.

Question Jan,

Looking in /usr/share/swupd/html/content/ and there isn't an existing meta directory only downloads and catalogs, so did you create the meta directory? or should I be looking for another one somewhere else. If you created it, what ownership/group rights did you set?

Thanks

I created it and it looks like this permission wise:

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Sep 26 14:08 meta

Jan, you are brilliant.

Excellent! That worked a treat. I am pushing out settings for Software Update to clients using Workgroup Manager. Is there a way I can push out the http://myserver.com:8088/ URL to mixed clients of 10.5 and 10.6 and have them download the appropriate updates?

Kieran,

I initially had my 10.5 clients point at my 10.5 server for software updates, and some new 10.6 clients defaulted to Apple's servers. This approach should also work for both sets of clients to contact a local server:

Create 2 computer groups in WM: 'leopard clients' and 'snow leopard clients'. Add your managed computers as members appropriately.

Then create two more groups: 'leopard sw updates' and 'snow leopard sw updates'. In these, set the Software Update managed preferences to the appropriate URL as described in the PDF mentioned above.

Then add the 'leopard clients' group as a member of 'leopard sw updates', and add 'snow leopard clients' group as a member of 'snow leopard sw updates'.

I do it this way to modularise all my preferences - as long as the client is ultimately in a group with the appropriate preference you should be OK.

Hi Jan,

I think I must be doing something wrong. Our server was just reinitialized a few days ago, so its a fresh install of 10.5.8 I followed your steps explicitly, unfortunately I ran into some sort of a problem. Now whenever I go into Server Admin, the Software Update service takes forever to confirm whether its running, and the menu' are grayed out. I don't think its working. I made the terrible mistake of not making backups before I made changes (since everyone said it was working so well).

this is from the swupd errorlog

[Thu Nov 19 09:00:06 2009] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down
[Thu Nov 19 09:00:52 2009] [notice] Apache/1.3.41 (Darwin) configured -- resuming normal operations
[Thu Nov 19 09:00:52 2009] [notice] Accept mutex: flock (Default: flock)

and this is what I get from the swupd syncdlog

Thu Nov 19 09:01:00 mysweetserver.com swupd_syncd[83] <Info>: Started
Thu Nov 19 09:01:00 mysweetserver.com swupd_syncd[83] <Error>: swupd_syncd failed with NSInvalidArgumentException: * -[NSURL initWithString:relativeToURL:]: nil string parameter

Any idea's?

I'm seeing the exact same problem as FamousAmos. I've checked and I'm able to receive the updated mirror-config-1.plist from my MSUS server via port 8088 in my browser.

Any suggestions?

Eric Feldhusen

I got my server configured and it appears to have downloaded all updates including 10.6 packages but my clients are not seeing those specific updates even though I set the client to download from the new catalog. What else do I need to do or check?

Works like a charm. I thought something was broken until I remembered that it takes forever for the updates to download and I found the refresh button. 🙂

-Jeff

Thanks for the hack Jan, took a little futzing around but updates are being served up without issue now. Good to be able to add this functionality to 10.5 without having to fully upgrade to 10.6 server.