Software Update not expanding packages correctly

Question

I've configured an OSX Server with Software Update. I've got a single client connected to the server via gig-E, the client is able to get the list of updates from the server but when I click "Install", SWUpdate on the client rapidly moves through each update without retrieving it, and reports "The Update [updatename] can't be installed. Software Update could not expand the package correctly."
The console reports this for each package:
"Software Update[195] session:product:061-2644 didFailWithError:NsError "Error SUSessionErrorDomain 2" Domain=SUSessionErrordomain Code=2 User Info={
Destination = "/private/var/tmp/folders.501/Cleanup At Startup/com.apple.softwareupdate.gC1t22/Chewable";
Path = "/Library/Caches/com.apple.softwareUpdate/[myservername]/061-2644/jpS6qV7B7blah blah/IMXCodec.tar" (or whatever .tar I was trying to update).
I tried it both on a local administator account and on a network user account, no luck.
Neither /private/var/tmp/folders.501 nor /Library/Caches/com.apple.softwareUpdate/[myservername]/ exists.
Where should I go from here? The same computer has no problems getting updates from Apple's server directly.

Answer 1

Hi Woody
How have you configured the Server? Is DNS running? Have you promoted the server to Open Directory Master? If you have used SoftwareUpdateEnabler have you configured it to use http://servername.domainname:8088/?
Verify that the updates are where they should be /usr/share/swupd/html. Simply getting info on this should yield about 8GB in size. It might be advisable to run fsck and repair priviliges and permissions. Is Software Update Service running? Dont believe the GUI.
On the server launch Terminal
su root (supply the password when prompted)
serveradmin status swupdate
If it says RUNNING, then stop it by issuing
serveradmin stop swupdate
serveradmin status swupdate
It should now say STOPPED. Now restart the service by issuing
httpd start
swupdctl start
serveradmin status swupdate
The service should now be running again. Go to Server Admin, click on Software Update and click Check Now. You may have to wait a while for the Server to check whats available on Apple’s downloads site. Once the spinning gearwheel has stopped, go to your client and select Software Update from the blue apple menu, what happens now?