Has SoftwareUpdate changed between 10.8 and 10.8.2 ?

I'm having a similar problem, but my clients are all Lion, while the brand new update server is Mountain Lion. The update server has received all of its update cache, but the clients can't get to the update server.

Hello,

I have exactly the same issue here !

The clients are retrieving the list of updates from my OS X Server, but they are downloading the actual .pkg from Apple !

This is exactly my problem as well. I'm using WGM and I have also tried to set the CatalogURL using terminal on clients — all to no awail.

But I have tried to physically disconnect the internet connection to our local network and basically what happened was, that the download (using App Store.app) did start from our server after about 60 seconds. It seems, that the client knows about our local server, but prefers the remote one.

Besides: downloads not using App Store.app are working normally (e. g. if you initiate download of Multi-lingual voices via System preferences > Dictation & Speech).

Can you check, whether it's working like this where you are?

One of my macs happened to want to download Java, and indeed (like multilingual voices) it downloaded from my local server.

Seems it works just like your setup.

There's something else: updates (downloads) like MLV, or Java (which do work as expected) also do appear in theService log. E.g.:

Nov 10 07:09:16 hostname.ofthe.server swupd_syncd[10096] <Info>: Downloading: Multi-Lingual Voices 2.0.0 (ID: 041-5258, posted: 2012-05-13 11:58:10 +0000)

But not those from the MAS. Instead, this appears in the Error log:

[Sat Nov 10 10:32:19 2012] [error] [client 10.0.1.14] Nov 10 10:32:19 hostname.ofthe.server SoftwareUpdateServerGetCatalog[10525] <Debug>: REQUEST FOR CATALOG: /index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

[Sat Nov 10 10:32:19 2012] [error] [client 10.0.1.14] Nov 10 10:32:19 hostname.ofthe.server SoftwareUpdateServerGetCatalog[10525] <Debug>: HTTP HOST: benedictus.sampor.private:8088

[Sat Nov 10 10:32:19 2012] [error] [client 10.0.1.14] Nov 10 10:32:19 hostname.ofthe.server SoftwareUpdateServerGetCatalog[10525] <Debug>: DOCUMENT ROOT: /Library/Server/Software Update/Data/html

[Sat Nov 10 10:32:19 2012] [error] [client 10.0.1.14] Nov 10 10:32:19 hostname.ofthe.server SoftwareUpdateServerGetCatalog[10525] <Debug>: LINES WRITTEN: 7248

AND: it doesn't matter, whether they do actually download (with the drop-the-internet-connection workaround)! This is the only mention in the server logs. I was trying to find something in the App Store.app logs (using the Debug menu > Log level), but there seems to be nothing of use, unfortunately.

So far, I was not able to find anything in the configuration files. But it has to be noted that some of the files for the SUS were copied from a different ML server, although those updates are not the problem. Of course I'm now out of available updates too. Will have to wait until Apple updates something to test it further. Or find some MacBook without those. 🙂

Message was edited by: michalmaria. Just a small clarification to the original.

My internet connection is not very stable these days, so when I launched the Aperture update :

- the client first began to download it from Apple servers

- after several pauses (connection had dropped), it fell back on my local server

This is very strange...

I am seeing this same behavior, too:

- Client shows my SUS domain name and finds the list of updates available from my SUS machine (actually 10.6 Server in my case, but still hosting the Mountain Lion and Lion updates)

- Upon clicking Update (only for Safari 6.0.2 in my case), it downloads slowly from the Internet

Is anyone seeing this on other updates besides Safari 6.0.2? I also just noticed that my SUS is not finding the Thunderbolt Firmware v1.1 that a new 13" MBP finds when not using SUS. Doubt that's related, but who knows...

Fred

Some updates:

— I have tried to find something of note in the configuration. Unfortunately, everything seems to be alright when it comes to SUS. You can check that the update catalog is distributed correctly by enabling/disabling updates, which in turn do or do not appear in the App Store.app on client system. This update check does appear correctly in the SUS logs and does not produce any kind of error. Unfortunately, the download itself doesn't work correctly.

— I have tried to completely erase the SUS data files and start from scratch. All configuration files were recreated correctly, the sync process downloaded the catalog, and started to download updates. Unfortunately, nothing changed on the client side. This is certainly not the way to go.

— I have tried to look at the permissions within the SUS data folder as this may be an issue. Again everything seems to be fine. There are no ACLs (but I may try to add them just to test it), and the POSIX permissions seem to be fine — everything belongs to _softwareupdate.

— We may actually have a different problem here. SUS may be completely alright, but something else may not. It may be that the App Store.app actually does try to connect to the server, but this initial connection fails and so it goes to the alternate location (specified in catalogs.sucatalog.alternate), which is the Apple's server. Only after this second attempt fails does it try the sequence again after a timeout. THIS IS ONLY A GUESS — there's no real documentation about SUS from Apple so far. This may provide us with a possible workaround, but hints at a problem somewhere else. The question:

Does anyone see anything like this in the system.log?

27.11.2012 21:47:04,310 AppleFileServer[222]: Logged out 0x7fea51885600

I get tons of these messages sometimes and it may be related.

Exactly the same issue. 10.8.2.

• Client: Software Updates panel in the App Store lists my local server as the "Source:"
• BUT when I select a specific update on the client (eg iPhoto-Update 9.4.2) it seems to ignore the version on the server and starts to download it via the internet again.
• Update is on the server!

Tried:

• Managed clients by Workgroup Manager
• Managed clienst by Profile Manager
• unmanaged client pointing to my server

Result:

always the same issue

Please Aplle solve the problem!

No such logs with me!

Thanks, that may be a wrong path then. I have run out of updates for now, but hopefully Apple will release something soon (iTunes?) and then I'll try the workaround I mentioned before…

And BTW: Apple may solve the problem (there's a feedback page and a bug reporter for that, they do not pay much attention to this forum), but there are also bigger problems associated with the Server which were filed in the summer and were not solved yet (like iCloud integration with Network users). The Server was always a work in progress (from version 1.0 onwards) and although I hate to say that, it's generally faster to find one's own solution/workaround than to wait for Apple.

I have the possibility to test many clients.

I made a feedback ( http://www.apple.com/feedback/ ) to apple:

Software Update is downloaded by client (10.8.2) trough Internet (apple Server) - although there is a local update server (10.8.2)

Remarks:

1. list of available software updates each client is reporting is congruent with what has been downloaded and enabled on the Server.

2. Client: Software Updates panel in the App Store lists my local server as the "Source:"

3. BUT when I select a specific update on the client (eg iPhoto-Update 9.4.2) it seems to ignore the version on the server and starts to download it via the internet again.

Note: Update is on the server!

I Tried:

a) Managed clients by Workgroup Manager

b) Managed clienst by Profile Manager

c) unmanaged client pointing to my server

Result:

always the same issue

Have you said you are using 10.6 server? In that case this may not be a bug with server, but rather with the App Store.app within OS X client. … But wait. There's desono, who has Lion clients with 10.8 server (but his post is rather unclear). Michael, you have said that you have many clients, do you have any running Lion? If the SUS works correctly with a Lion client, we could assume that this is a bug within the 10.8.2 client and not with server.

Yes, it is definitely 10.8.2-client-specific. I have tested on both 10.6 and 10.8 Mac OS X Server SUS. There is no problem w/ 10.8 clients (and perhaps 10.8.1), but 10.8.2 clients exhibit the problem.

Fred