Moving the Software Update Server data store off the startup disk

Try creating a symlink to a different location.

Are you attempting this through the cosole or another utility?
It is important to rember whenever you make a change to a path you use SUdo command or if another utility has the run as  option you type root.

Sudo runs as root administrator.
I use apple Remote Desktop to assit in automation of such tasks, there are also a number of scripts also you can find that run in automater (Part of the OSX) that willl assist http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2488

Also keep in mind the default  apple update store is in /Library/Packages

Sorry for not being clear. I am talking about the data store for Software Update Server. This is a server issue, not a client issue.

I have used Server Admin to change it. See attached image (showing the default data store).

If the data store is moved from the startup disk, it fails to download updates from Apple.

I had not tried using a symlink because I read elsewhere about someone trying that without success as well. Maybe because /var/db/swupd/ is also symlink?
Screen-shot-2010-11-12-at-9.00.4.jpg

I have noticed you are using port 8088, try changing to 8080.

ALso you can try this link
 http://serverfault.com/questions/11410/how-do-i-change-the-software-update-server-address-on-a-client-mac-to-use-my-own
It contains information using various scripting methods to cahnge software store.

I also have the same issue under 10.5 server. One thing I haven't tried is checking permissions on the original swupd folder - the owner may be _www if so create your folder with the same permissions perhaps?

The privileges are identical to the original. First thing I checked.

Technocity, port 8088 is correct and, I reiterate, the question is not about clients getting updates.

it seems that the actual location of software updates is /usr/share/swupd. Try symlinking to this folder with the location you desire to store them in.

The location used to be "/usr/share/swupd/". Under 10.6 the default location really is /var/db/swupd/. I am going to try symlinking that.

A bit different using the symlink, but still failing.

The (spurious) "Syntax error on line 287 of /etc/swupd/swupd.conf" error seems to be gone, but software update server is still failing with the same error in the software update service log as before:

<Error>: Unable to retrieve catalog(s) from the Apple server

I have reported this to Apple as a bug. I will post Apple's response, if it is in any way enlightening, and leave this item open in the interim.

Of course, if anyone has managed to make this work, that would be really interesting to know.

Well, I tried exactly what you did (except that the volume I used was not called "Data4RaidSet") and it failed again. I even used the same name as you, "SWUpdates" instead of swupd, as I had previously and put the SWUpdates folder in the root directory of the volume (whereas it had previously been deeper).

Would you mind providing an ls -aleF of the SWUpdates and html directories? My posix permissions are exactly like yours, but maybe you have some acls.

Also, the volume I tried using contains a sharepoint. Does yours?

Lastly, should I be inferring from the backslashes in "\Volumes\Data4RaidSet\SWUpdates\" that the volume is not hfs+?

Other then the above, I cannot think of what might be different between our respective configurations.

Thanks.

gmbaxter: Could you please check one more thing? Does disk utility show your "Data4RaidSet" as "Owners Enabled: Yes"?

I have never noticed "Owners Enabled" before, but the startup volume is the only volume on my server that shows  "Owners Enabled: Yes" in disk utility. On the other hand, the terminal command "diskutil info device" shows every volume as "Owners: Enabled". Perhaps that's another bug.

Except for ownership of the root directory (admin:staff on mine), everything is the same. I am afraid that this is going to be one of those things where it works or fails depending on the order of upgrade installations, or some similarly arbitrary factor, that resulted in some defect in my OS. I know this has happened to others, because there are (unresolved) posts in the apple forums.

Thanks very much for your efforts and quick response.

No problem, hope you manage to get it sorted out.

For reference this server was built with 10.6.3 retail disk and upgraded to 10.6.4.

Although this is not resolved, I would like to keep it open until the cause is clarified (as it seems to work for in some cases and not in others).

have you submitted a bug report to apple?

https://bugreport.apple.com/

Several weeks ago.

Want to award assist.

my comment details the fix.