Help with Apple Remote Desktop

[ady]

Hi,

 

Just to give a bit of background, I've recently completed the Apple desktop and server training courses to get the ACTC certification. This is because we've recently had an influx of Macs on our network here and nobody else wants to touch them!

 

Anyway, I am still relatively new to the world of Macs myself and realise I still have a lot to learn when it comes to putting theory into practice, that being the case, I've bee having trouble getting ARD to work properly, primarily with regard to deploying software updates.

 

Some background: we have 3 Xserves with Mac OSX Server 10.6.8. One is the main server and the other two are replicas. We use Active Directory to manage user accounts, with OD on the main Mac server administering preferences and services for the Mac clients.

 

We now have around 60 Mac client machines on our network, all of which currently run Snow Leopard as well. These Macs are all bound to OD and AD. However, for day-to-day administration, we have a Mac that sits in the main IT office and is on the same VLAN as the Macs (which are on a segregated portion of the network at this institution), and with the admin Mac, I can remotely VNC to the Mac servers as required.

 

Over the summer, we had a server rebuild and prior to that, ARD was used from the main Mac server to manage the client Macs, but since the original server build was set up by an external consultant who did not document properly, we couldn't find the original license information and ARD was left off the server post-rebild. As an alternative, a later version was deployed to the admin Mac (which is running Lion).

 

Now here's my problem. I can run ARD fine on the admin Mac, it detects all the Macs on the network (which I have grouped etc) and I can control their screens, but I cannot do any remote management with it whatsoever. For instance, when I try to deploy (much needed) software updates through ARD, it returns the following:

 

"Error: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -1102.)"

 

The only way I can get updates to work is by logging directly to a client Mac and running it manually. When I try to do this through ARD, I get that error.

 

We have the software update service on the Mac server and a repository for storing them, and the clients and servers can update fine, but just not through ARD on this admin Mac. I suspect that since the admin might be having trouble accessing the software update repository on the server, but I'm really not sure. I've googled this issue quite a bit, but there seems to be very little information on this one error (typical) and the information I did find wasn't really relevant to my situation. I thought that maybe the Mac had to be directly bound to OD to be able to "see" the software update repository, but this hasn't worked either.

 

This is driving me up the wall; I just cannot understand what the problem is here and it's especially frustrating that I can find no information on this error message, even on Apple's own website. I would be grateful if anyone here could assist. As someone new to all things Mac, this one has me well and truly stumped.

[Rozzer]

Do you have a proxy? It sounds like its either trying to get to a software update server and failing because of no proxy exception or it cannot get to the Apple update server.

 

Ross

[SYNACK]

Three servers for 60 clients, overkill much?

 

Agreed with above though, it is probably non globally applied proxy settings getting in the way of the update service connecting to the Apple servers.

[ady]

It could well be. I'll look into the proxy issue next week and report back.

 

As for the 3 servers for 60 clients... yes, it is overkill, I agree, but when the kit was originally installed in 2009, that was what the consultancy firm at the time recommended. The other two servers don't really do much as it is!

 

That being said, we are getting more and more Macs, so they aren't totally wasted...

[Rozzer]

Sounds like that consulting firm were after the hardware money! Apple "recommend" you have 1 server per 100 workstations connected but thats more in a mac only environment.

 

Ross

[ady]

Do you have a proxy? It sounds like its either trying to get to a software update server and failing because of no proxy exception or it cannot get to the Apple update server.

 

Ross

 

Right, I've finally been able to look into this again (it's been a busy week, what with term time fast approaching..).

 

I can definitely confirm this isn't a proxy issue since the software update server is hosted internally. One of the Mac servers pulls the updates from Apple via the Software Update service and stores them on an internal volume. In fact, the admin Mac I'm using for this is the only machine that pulls IT'S updates directly from Apple and it does so without any problems, which again confirms that it can't be a proxy issue.

 

The problem only occurs when I try to remotely push out updates with ARD. Again, if I logon to the clients directly and pull down updates from our internal software update server, it works. This is what leads me to conclude that the issue has to be related to how ARD and/or the Mac I am using is attempting to communicate with the software update server we are using.

 

In my first post I mentioned that the admin Mac was not directly bound to the domain (it can see the other Mac clients and servers because it sits in the same VLAN) and I thought that might've been the problem. However, I have since bound it to the domain and it still doesn't work.

 

As it is, ARD is effectively useless as I cannot do any remote management of the Macs with it whatsoever. All I can do is remotely view and control clients but nothing more.

[Rozzer]

Even though its internally you may have a system wide proxy and software updates will attempt to go externally first and if it does not find it then it will error. You need to put in a proxy exception for your mac server.

 

Ross

[ady]

Even though its internally you may have a system wide proxy and software updates will attempt to go externally first and if it does not find it then it will error. You need to put in a proxy exception for your mac server.

 

Ross

 

It can't be that because the Mac clients CAN reach the software update server, and the server itself can pull the updates down from the update website. It's only the admin Mac I use the office to administer the clients with ARD that can't apply the updates to clients through ARD. I also use the admin Mac to remotely connect to the servers in the server room, which I can do without any issues. So again, it appears that the problem lies with the admin Mac and ARD somehow.

 

What I was able to find via Google about -Error 1102 was that it is a permissions related error message. Obviously, I'm attempting the updates through ARD with the root user account, but that doesn't seem to be enough for some reason. Again, it works directly from the client, but not the admin Mac.

[Rozzer]

I can't think of it being anything else without looking into more detail. If you are running it as root it should be ok.

 

Sorry

 

Ross

[ady]

I figured out what the problem was.

 

The root password on the admin and client Macs needed to match otherwise the root account from the admin machine would not authenticate to the client and run the software update command.

 

Now I just need to find a way to set the root passwords on all the clients to the same thing so I don't run into this issue again.

[Serving]

fill in the blanks send as the admin user or you can try root in the send Unix command.

 

dsenableroot -u adminusersname -p adminpassword -r rootpassword

 

or send as the admin user

 

dsenable root

adminpassword

rootpassword

rootpassword