Mavericks Caching Server Doesn't Work

Thanx for the pointer!

I'm the first to admit I'm a relative noob at this. I've looked at [what I think are] a lot of logs and log files on servers and client machines, some relevant, most not. That's why I'm here, if I dont understand something I'll look for answers, there's nothing I do that hasnt been done before, and people have had the same questions answered.

Some issues won't show up in the logs.

Caching Server won't cache iOS apps or Mac Apps that are outside of the store region apple thinks your IP is in. Details here: Caching Server 2 Has Broken Geolocation

It's not documented and it doesn't show up in access logs or error logs.

So after a couple emails with Apple support re this issue, I got a simple reply:

We are aware of the issue.

So.... hopefully a fix is coming soon?

Yes, I have the same answer.

Now, I know China on the list. When I change My Apple ID region to Hongkong, and switch Caching server to Hongkong line, everything works. it can cache system updates, Mac App, iOS App, Books,etc.😮

--- from China😟

I have made some head way on why the caching server did not work for me and is now working. Here is a short background on my set up. I have a 16 bit subnet NAT address scheme and more than 100 public ip addresses. All the computers, laptops, ipad and etc. leave the school with the same external ip address x.x.x.130 (remember this). The production mac server we use houses two web sites. One site is mapped to ip x.x.x.133 this is also the external ip address the production server use to access the internet. Caching was not working on the production server. So I tried on a test server I have running on a mac mini. The mac mini uses the ip x.x.x.130 to access the internet. Caching works on the mac mini. So the solution is simple the caching server and devices must use the same external ip address to access the internet for caching to work.

@Brian MeeksThe same External IP address for clients and server is one of the basic (and advertised) requirements of Caching Server.

Found a link that digs into Caching Server a bit. Might be worth a read. http://fraserhess.blogspot.ca/2013/11/caching-server-2.html

That would be a major pain! We have a guy from USA in our office in Australia. So, according to this Apple policy his iOS updates should not cache?! As we have four load-balanced ISP ADSL modems and therefore alternative and randomly selected public IP address, I'm holding off my updates until I get home, as I have a caching server at home, which brings up another question.

If the server (at home) has not been awake for 55 minutes when someone updates their Mac, iPhone or iPad, is the server's earlier registered IP still valid, say from yesterday?

I'm now finding a problem with the Caching Service. It's tricky sometimes reading this discussion, trying to work out whether a reference to iOS apps being cached or not refers to updating being done from the iOS device itself, or in iTunes on a Mac, but here's my problem:-

I am in the UK and AppleID is registered to same address, so should be no geolocation discrepency.

Everything is on same network, same subnet.

Mac Server that provides Caching Service also provides DNS and DHCP etc.

Single ADSL router to ISP with just the one external IP address which is dynamic but never changes.

I thought it was all working, but in my router I have a handy disagnostic tool that monitors traffic flow across the ADSL link to the Internet (well, ISP in fact of course) which shows the rate of data transfer and the local client it is coming from or to. In this way I can see exactly who has requested the data.

When updating an iOS app for the first time within iTunes on my (client) Mac, I can see there is a big data download to the SERVER, while iTunes states it is downloading the specified app. So this appears to be working perfectly. A conversation between the 3 parties (Mac client, local server and Apple's servers) has ascertained it needs to be downloaded, which is done to my Server, which is simultaneously also passing it on to iTunes on my client Mac. Perfect.

But if I then update that exact same app on an iOS device (no matter which one), the data is again downloaded from the Internet - direct to the iOS device. IOW, iOS 7 appears to be making NO attempt to use the Caching Server.

No matter which way I try it, either as above, or updating first on the iOS device, it is quite clear that iOS is NOT using the Caching Server, but Mavericks does appear to use it correctly.

Use of a Caching Server is supposd to be a 'no configuration required' service, but even so there might be some foibles. However, there just doesn't seem to be anything that can be done to fix this. There is NO configuration available in iOS 7. It should 'just work' and quite patently it does not. Am I missing something or is this simply another case of Apple's ambition exceeding their talent.

You might assume the geolocation is right but in our case it's thousands of kilometers off.

I found a fast way to check. Go to Apple's iTunes download page on a mac or PC and check the default location in the download form.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

It defaults to UK, so looks like it is indeed correct.

Surely if it was wrong, it would affect ALL use of my Caching Server, but in my case it is specifically only iOS devices that are ignoring it. Updates etc performed on the Mac are using the Caching Server as they should. It's something to do with iOS 7 not working correctly - or it's something I'm not doing, but since this whole process is supposed to 'just work' without having to do anything, it's looking like another Apple **** up.

Some earlier posts indicated Apple are aware of a problem, but it wasn't made clear exactly what the problem is that they are aware of. Is it to do with iOS issues (i.e. not working) with the Caching Service?

So I've discovered mine is partially working. Mac apps are caching fine, iOS app updates are cahched if its iTunes on my Mac doing the updating. iOS devices are not using the caching server.

Yes, that's exactly it.

I suspect it's not working like that for a lot of people (maybe all), but they just doen't realise it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6018?viewlocale=en_US