"Communications Errror" when trying to copy files

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Level 1

10 points

"Communications Errror" when trying to copy files

All my machines are running 10.4.8. All are using ARD 3.1 client and my machine is using ARD 3.1 admin. When I copy to a singe machine is copies fine. When I copy to a group of machines, it fails. On my admin screen is hangs on "Waiting for files." and stays there until it fails. Occasionally one or two succeed, but the rest fail with the "Communications failed..." message. I tried queueing several file copies in a row. If I cancel the first, the next one have seemed to work. I pulled the system.log from one of the clients and got the data I've pasted below. I've tried putting the files in several recommended places from what I've seen throughout the messages boads, but nothing has helped. Please help.

Nov 21 08:44:35 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ***abort p->taskID 25a
Nov 21 08:44:35 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: WaitForDataFromSender error -1
Nov 21 08:44:35 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ReceiveFilesThread error -1
Nov 21 08:44:35 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: done - fatal error 1000
Nov 21 08:45:02 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ***abort p->taskID 25e
Nov 21 08:45:02 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: WaitForDataFromSender error -1
Nov 21 08:45:02 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ReceiveFilesThread error -1
Nov 21 08:45:02 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: done - fatal error 1000
Nov 21 08:45:22 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ***abort p->taskID 25f
Nov 21 08:45:22 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: WaitForDataFromSender error -1
Nov 21 08:45:22 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ReceiveFilesThread error -1
Nov 21 08:45:22 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: done - fatal error 1000
Nov 21 08:46:08 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:46:23 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ***abort p->taskID 260
Nov 21 08:46:23 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: WaitForDataFromSender error -1
Nov 21 08:46:23 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ReceiveFilesThread error -1
Nov 21 08:46:23 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: done - fatal error 1000
Nov 21 08:48:18 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:49:04 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:49:50 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:49:50 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: WaitForDataFromSender error -29296
Nov 21 08:49:50 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ReceiveFilesThread error -29296
Nov 21 08:49:50 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: done - fatal error 5
Nov 21 08:49:56 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: final status SendPacketWithReply error -6404
Nov 21 08:53:17 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:54:03 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:54:49 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:54:49 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: WaitForDataFromSender error -29296
Nov 21 08:54:49 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ReceiveFilesThread error -29296
Nov 21 08:54:49 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: done - fatal error 5
Nov 21 08:54:56 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: final status SendPacketWithReply error -6404
Nov 21 08:55:58 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:56:44 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:57:30 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: MPWaitOnSemaphore error -29296
Nov 21 08:57:30 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: WaitForDataFromSender error -29296
Nov 21 08:57:30 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: ReceiveFilesThread error -29296
Nov 21 08:57:30 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: done - fatal error 5
Nov 21 08:57:36 AISD53547-Lab-B19 ARDAgent [182]: final status SendPacketWithReply error -6404

eMac G4 1.67 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Nov 21, 2006 7:32 AM

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Answer 1

John Crumley Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 28, 2006 8:04 AM in response to John Crumley

Some updated information that will help. I can install packages just fine. So I'm really confused on this one.

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Answer 2

Nov 29, 2006 4:46 PM in response to John Crumley

It's possible that your routers are blocking/not passing multicast packets. ARD attempts to use multicast when sending to multiple machines.

I you can test this theory by doing the adding a key to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement.plist on your admin machine.

Add a Boolean key named "ARD_MulticastAllowed" and set the value to "NO".

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Answer 3

Jerefrog

Level 2

370 points

Jan 11, 2007 6:51 AM in response to Brian Nesse

Hello,

For security reasons my company wants to disable this in ARD, and your suggestion sounds like the fix I'm looking for. I just want to be certain I'm adding the Boolean key correctly. Could you please explain, in detail, how to add this to the com.apple.RemoteManagement.plist file? I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

Jerefrog

G5 DP 2ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 4

Jan 12, 2007 8:54 AM in response to Jerefrog

If you have the developer tools installed, you can double click on the file and it will open in Property List Editor. This will give you a simple UI to make the changes with. Otherwise you can use TextEdit, or a UNIX shell editor such as 'vi', but then you need to be a bit more careful.

Either way, you'll have to give yourself write access to the file first. And you'll need to go into terminal to do that.

Knowing your general level of knowledge regarding using the terminal, etc. will help direct the procedure. If you have never done anything like this before, I'd suggest soliciting some help first.

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Answer 5

Brett_X

Level 2

210 points

Jan 15, 2007 7:42 AM in response to Jerefrog

You can use the "defaults" command line tool. Read the man page for more info, but I think this line will work for you:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement ARD_MulticastAllowed -bool True

Just a note: if you disable Multicast, I think ARD will default to Broadcast... which your company will surely hate you for.

Hope that helps.

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Answer 6

Jan 15, 2007 8:51 AM in response to Brett_X

Good call on defaults. That is much less complex than my method.

Disabling multicast will cause ARD to connect to all machines on a 1:1 basis, not cause it to switch to broadcasting.

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Answer 7

Feb 13, 2007 10:22 AM in response to Brett_X

That should be "False," right, not "True"? I was having this very issue. Our network folks assure me we are not blocking multicast, but using this defaults command with "False" did the trick. Opening the plist file shows "No" for ARD Multicast Allowed after executing the defaults command. Many thanks for the tip.

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Answer 8

Feb 14, 2007 8:56 AM in response to Phil Brown2

Correct. You need to set the value to false to disable the multicast copy.

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