JDS – Change Default Storage Location

05 Jan JDS – Change Default Storage Location

Overview

The JAMF Distribution Server (JDS) is a distribution point that is managed by the JAMF Software Server (JSS), similar to a computer or mobile device. A JDS is a completely separate server that you install on OS X Server (10.6 or greater) or Linux. It can be used to host packages, in-house apps, and in-house eBooks that are distributed to clients.

In our environment, we are running our JAMF Distribution Server’s on OS X El Capitan (version 10.11.2) Server on Mac mini computers and Promise Pegasus 2 R4 RAID’s for data storage. The data storage is configured with RAID level 6 which stores dual parity data across the physical drives along with the block data. A RAID 6 logical drive can continue to accept I/O requests when any two physical drives fail. We didn’t want to store the JDS hosted content on the startup disk, but on the RAID volume for multiple reasons, including increasing the performance and/or reliability of data storage.

Our server is setup with a production & backup RAIDs, backup non-RAID and an off-site remote server that stores backup of JDS startup disk and content in case of disaster at the JDS server location.

Default Storage Location

By default the JAMF Distribution Server (JDS) stores content in the following location:

/Library/JDS

With the following directories and permissions:

ls -Ral /Library/JDS

certs:

-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   963 Oct 13 14:30 client.cer
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  1359 Oct 13 14:30 client.pem
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  1004 Oct 13 14:30 jss_ca.cer
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  1415 Oct 13 14:30 jss_ca.pem
-rw-------   1 root  wheel  1675 Oct 13 14:30 private.key
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   451 Oct 13 14:30 public.pem
-rw-------   1 root  wheel  1675 Oct 13 14:30 webprivate.key
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   451 Oct 13 14:30 webpublic.pem
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  1038 Oct 13 14:30 webserver.cer
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  1460 Oct 13 14:30 webserver.pem

conf:

-rw-r--r--@ 1 root  wheel  1517 Oct 13 13:39 .0000_any_443_.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel    38 Oct 13 14:30 .afp.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  1043 Oct 13 14:30 apache_aliases.conf
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   199 Oct 22 13:46 jamfds.conf

logs:

-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  391254 Oct 22 13:46 jamf.log

shares:

-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  115 Oct 13 14:30 .DAVlogin
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 _www  wheel  102 Oct 13 14:30 CasperShare
drwxr-xr-x  2 _www  wheel   68 Oct 12 16:12 eBooks
drwxr-xr-x  2 _www  wheel   68 Oct 12 16:12 mobileDeviceApps

shares/CasperShare:

shares/eBooks:

shares/mobileDeviceApps:

Move Storage Location

Unload JAMF Check-In Task
If you have the JAMF Distribution Server previously setup and actively using it, you might want to temporarily unload the JAMF Check-in task while you are migrating the JDS storage location.

To unload it use the following command:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.jamfsoftware.jamfdspolicy.plist

Then follow the steps outlined below to move the default storage location.

Then load it with the following command:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.jamfsoftware.jamfdspolicy.plist

Move Location
To move the storage location, you can use the following “mv” (aka move files) command:

sudo mv /Library/JDS /path/to/location

For example, in our environment our RAID’s volume name is “Data”:

sudo mv /Library/JDS /Volumes/Data

Create Symlink to New Location
Then you will need to create a symlink from the default location to the new custom location using the following command:

sudo ln -s /path/to/source /path/to/target

For example, in our environment:

sudo ln -s /Volumes/Data/JDS /Library/JDS

Then to check the link is setup correctly, you can use the “ls” and “cd” to the link and check that it is working properly.

# ls -al /Library/JDS
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  17 Oct 22 10:51 /Library/JDS -> /Volumes/Data/JDS

Test

Capser Admin
Next, test that moving the JDS storage location did cause any issues by using the Casper Admin application and create a test item and make sure it is properly listed and synchronized.

JAMF Software Server
You can use the JAMF Software Server (JSS) to check the status of the JAMF Distribution Server(s) (JDS).

• Login to your JSS via web browser

• In the upper right corner, click on “Settings” icon:

• On the left navigation, click on “Computer Management”:

• Then click on the “JSS Instances” icon, in the “Computer Management – Server Infrastructure” section:

Then the JDS Instances will display:

• Then click on the JSS Instances dashboard icon:

This will display basic status information on number of files and synchronization status.

JDS Logs
The default location for the JDS logs is located here:

/Library/JDS/logs

But, after moving the JDS components, you will have a new path:

/path/to/new/location/JDS/logs

Currently, the logs are NOT very verbose, but they might provide useful information on status or for debugging issues.